During Thursday night’s episode of The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart let loose the entirety of his righteous indignation regarding the recent Supreme Court decision loosening the restrictions on campaign finance. The entire first segment of the show was essentially a forum for Stewart to chastise the conservative justices on the Supreme Court bench, as well as Republicans who showed support for the decision. The anger and disappointment was palpable from Stewart, as he seemed legitimately disheartened by the ruling and what it meant for the political process.
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After he started the show going over the details of the case and the decision, Stewart then went on the attack. One easy target for Stewart was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who stated that this ruling would allow more ordinary citizens to get involved in the political process. In response to this statement, Stewart exclaimed, “Bull***t!” The Daily Show host then provided a report that revealed that only 646 people in the last election cycle actually donated enough to reach the aggregate limit. Stewart then contrasted this to voter ID laws, which the Supreme Court seems to have no problem with, even though in-person voter fraud is nearly nonexistent.
Another point of contention Stewart had with the decision was Justice Samuel Alito’s judgement regarding the corrupting influence of money and quid pro quo. Essentially, Alito made the argument that corruption only exists if you can prove that money given from one party to the next is used to influence the receiver to do a specific action in return. In Alito’s mind, large amounts of money can’t have a general corrupting influence in politics. Stewart ripped this argument to shreds by bringing up Sheldon Adelson’s recent ring-kissing ceremony in Las Vegas and how Chris Christie quickly apologized for remarks he made there because they offended Adelson.
Stewart ended the segment by tearing into Justice Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice John Roberts. He highlighted older interviews of them defending the Supreme Court’s policy banning television cameras in the courtroom. Both justices reasoned that the Supreme Court should not be used for entertainment purposes. Stewart pointed out that the Supreme Court has no problem stating that racism is no longer a problem in this country and are fine with rolling back voting rights. At the same time, they also feel that money is equivalent to free speech, therefore the more money you have, the more free speech you have. However, the one thing they won’t allow in the Supreme Court, and will fight against, is transparency.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
