During Thursday night’s episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, host Jon Stewart lit into Republicans for claiming that they’ll do anything possible to save American lives when it comes to ISIS and the Ebola virus while showing no concern whatsoever for other issues that cost thousands of American lives annually. The sharp-tongued comedian took aim at conservative lawmakers who have claimed over the past few days and weeks that America needs to do “whatever it takes” to combat ISIS and/or contain the Ebola virus due to the risk they present to American lives. Meanwhile, conservatives have done nothing about heart disease, have prevented millions of Americans from obtaining health coverage, have blocked gun control laws and pretend climate change doesn’t exist.
Below is video of the segment, courtesy of Comedy Central:
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Stewart perfectly summed up the GOP in less than seven minutes. When there is a potential danger lurking halfway around the world, conservatives are all about combating it and pretending that they want to keep America safe. However, when confronted with present issues that are currently affecting American people, well not so much. So what if 600,000 Americans are dying from heart disease a year. It is fascist to even suggest that we try to change our diets and incorporate less red meat. However, tell conservatives that an American in Texas is now infected with Ebola. Close the borders! Place a restriction on flights to and from West Africa! Panic! Panic!
Sure, 32,000 people a year die annually from gun-related deaths. However, we cannot even think about restricting access to guns in this country. Besides, even if we do set new gun laws in this country, criminals will just break them. Heck, why should we even have any laws in this country? I mean, criminals are just going to break them anyway. On the other hand, two Americans were viciously beheaded by a terrorist organization thousands of miles away. Well, that obviously means that we need to do “whatever it takes” and engage in a lengthy, multi-front war that has no end in sight.
How about expanding Medicaid so that poor Americans can finally get decent health care? Estimates are that as many as 17,000 lives a year would be saved just by doing that. Nope! Conservatives claim that it costs too much. Of course, let’s not talk about the billions we will spend combating ISIS in the Middle East or sealing our ‘porous’ borders. American people our already feeling the effects of climate change and over the coming years it will likely lead to deaths that could have been prevented. What are you talking about? There is no climate change! We aren’t spending money on something that doesn’t exist.
Stewart ended the segment on the perfect note:
“For some reason, in this country, we’re only afraid of bad things entering this country, crossing our sacred borders, when our shelves are already stocked with bad sh*t. It’s like people are saying, “When I die, I want to know that my preventable death has a label on it that says Made in America.” “
Well said, Jon.
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).
