 Jon Stewart sat down for an interview with Jake Tapper of CNN and the interview was pretty lengthy It was more than 20 minutes long I'll link to it down below if you just want to watch the full thing But what I wanted to do was talk about one particular portion of this interview that was really really insightful Jon Stewart. He is bringing nuance into American discourse that was severely lacking especially as it relates to the decline in democracy So I don't think it's a secret or a surprise to anyone that democracy and sentiment towards democracy has changed Over the last couple of years people more and more are losing faith in democracy and now you see this palpable shift towards Authoritarianism, I mean you have a portion of the country Trump's base Essentially outright advocating for a military coup because the election didn't go the way that they wanted it to go So a lot of this kind of goes to Donald Trump But what John Stewart does is he explains there were root causes that existed before Donald Trump that led to this moment It's not as if Donald Trump is the bringer of doom to American democracy he Kind of took issues with our country and exploited them for personal gain and it worked out in his favor But it couldn't have worked out in his favor how to America not have these problems to begin with I mean a healthy functioning democracy Is never going to allow someone like Donald Trump who's openly racist and misogynistic and stupid as well To get elected the fact that Donald Trump was able to get elected in the first place That is a sign that our democracy was already in decline before Donald Trump but take a look at what John Stewart says and why democracy itself has to be robust and constantly expanded people generally want prosperity and security and and If a democratic system is having difficulty providing that or if it's being subverted by those who want to create chaos so that they can You know make a more out there authoritarian government that that's part of it too listen it's It's nothing's guaranteed like that and the encouraging thing is watching on a grassroots level people that are really Viewing it as something that they want to protect and and that they want to strengthen And working on those things on the ground as somebody who who worries about democracy every day I do appreciate your your your conveying of optimism right now But we have a majority of the republican voters out there who think that falsely that the election was stolen And who think it is an integral part of defining themselves as a republican To say that donald trump had the election stolen from him. I mean this is not only not going away this information big lie You know flirtation with autocracy. It's getting worse. I think That's the worst bedtime story. I've ever heard it It's you can fret about it or you can go about strengthening those areas and and I think that's The call to action here is You know action is the antithesis of anxiety So if we if we've identified the pressure points where The guardrails look most vulnerable. That's where we should be focusing So much of our efforts in terms of strengthening We're adjusting to a new information and political ecosystem And it's it's gonna it's gonna be rocky. So what he's saying here is really interesting to me He is speaking to the root causes that lead to Democratic decline if millions of people believe a big lie Hell if millions of people get duped by donald trump in the first place There's something really seriously wrong with democracy. So what he's calling for is nuance here in evaluating the root causes of this I mean, is it a lack of education? Is it a lack of media literacy? Is it a penchant for conspiracy theories? These are things that we can all change and sure you can say That donald trump absolutely exacerbated this issue. He took all of the conspiratorial minds and he took people scepticism of government and american institutions And he used it in a really nefarious way that ended up hurting our democracy and still is hurting democracy but There's a reason why he was able to do that. He is to blame. Yes But it's deeper than just saying well, it's because of donald trump because if you can have one demagogue rise up and undermine Hundreds of years worth of american democracy in the first place that system really wasn't the best system now was it if it can be Easily undermined in that way now institutions for the most part They held up and they kept donald trump from being Too authoritarian even if he really pushed the limits of what was constitutionally permissible passing it sometimes But ultimately in this next uh clip here john steward is going to make a really Important point because jake tapper is going to be seemingly skeptical to that point that john steward is making that it goes deeper than donald trump And he's going to say look, i mean donald trump he's identifying these pressure points the weak spots in democracy And he's exploiting it for his own gain. He's endorsing You know, uh secretaries of state and other elected officials or people running for public office who believe in the big lie So in this instance Can we really not scapegoat donald trump? It seems like it's a pretty easy explanation here Occam's razor right or murphy's law if you're dav rubin um, but uh john steward is going to explain no it goes deeper than that I think we make a mistake focusing this all on on donald trump as though he's I don't know magneto and some incredible supervillain that has changed the very nature and temperature of the united states like he's just been an effective vessel but again like He's not singing new songs. This is something he's maybe singing him a little better than you know goldwater but But I I think it's a mistake to to focus it all on this one individual and not to focus it more on You know the idea that power is its own reward whether it be in the financial industry or in government like power doesn't seed itself and unless we can figure out a better way to balance that power for You know for workers and voters and and different groups will be vulnerable You know, I don't I don't know that autocracy is purely the domain of of donald trump I think that we all have a bit of a tendency to be like To grant amnesty to people that are doing things that we would prefer Even if that means that they're slightly undemocratic I there's many times where I think to myself like just do an executive order for god's sake just get it You know, so I I think our focus unhealthily on this one individual comes at the price Of systems and dynamics that have been in place long before this cat ever learned how to surf those waves We've elevated money and and corporate power to this one level. We've diminished sort of Pure democratic power to another level and we're wildly out of balance That sounds that's an awfully opera-esque way of putting the threat to the to the republic, but I just Jake we're irregular. I think we're irregular right now. We need we need democratic fiber So but that's not to say that you are not worried about what's going to happen in 2024 Everything right. I'm constant of course That's I'm I'm a human being I I try to maintain A certain level of of optimism, which I do I think but Yeah, I'm When you can see a train coming at you this far away. Yeah, you keep thinking is anybody gonna Are we gonna put so is anybody but we putting a thing up or we're just gonna let it Just gonna hit that's gonna be the end of it But boy power doesn't ever seat itself and and It's a difficult It's a difficult thing to balance. So I get the sense that jake tapper Didn't really believe john steward or he was skeptical to the point that john steward was making there And I feel like this is the case with a lot of people if you're a privileged wealthy elite It's easy to believe That 2016 and the rise of donald trump that was the start of all of our issues But that's not actually the case. There's a reason why people elected donald trump and yes, many of them Were really excited that he basically popularized overt racism again But even going before donald trump, I mean, why was it that brach obama Was able to rise out of nowhere because he was promising change People have been yearning for change because income and wealth inequality. It's worse than it's ever been People are working longer hours for lower wages unionization has declined We have who knows how many years left before climate change gets Measurably worse. So people want to see a change that desperation sometimes make it makes people more susceptible to believing in Crazy things desperation can lead to radicalization. So It's not just donald trump. That's the point and I think that john steward makes a really good case As to why it goes deeper than donald trump There are root causes that are are not being addressed and I don't know if jake tapper believes it Or agrees with him, but I want to restate john steward's points here because I think that what he said is really important So he says that trump's been an effective vessel, but he's not singing new songs He's maybe singing them a little bit better than gold water But I think it's a mistake to focus it all on this one individual And not to focus it more on the idea that power Is its own reward now he elaborates on that point a little bit more later on He says power doesn't seat itself and unless we can figure out a better way to balance that power for workers and voters and different groups Will be vulnerable So if you remove donald trump from the equation Sure, maybe we're not in as bad of a state as we're in currently But the root causes that predated donald trump will still be there And over time gradually things will get worse And worse and worse people will lose say and power And it's to the point where People don't feel as if their voices Are being heard they feel like they're not being represented in congress and that's because They're not a 2014 princeton university study found that when it comes to what policies get codified into law Normal americans they have no say they have a statistically insignificant impact on policy outcomes But when you compare that with the preferences of elites and what they want Well, would you look at that it always ends up becoming law There's a reason for that. It's because our system has been corrupted Late-stage capitalism it starts going after every aspect of society and then once everything has become a commodity Democracy itself becomes commodified elections become commodified. So when people feel as if they can't affect political change through democracy They lose faith in democracy and they begin to opt for non democratic ways to affect political change And that's kind of what we're seeing and yes, you can attribute culpability to donald trump and you should But that doesn't mean that we wouldn't have issues without donald trump and that we wouldn't get to this point Without donald trump it just maybe would take a little bit longer But we were still headed in the same direction and that's the point Ultimately that I think john steward is trying to make here He adds I think our focus unhealthily on this one individual comes at the price of systems and dynamics That have been in place long before this cat ever learned how to surf those waves Such a good point and finally he says we've elevated money and corporate power to this one level We've diminished pure democratic power to another level and we're wild out of balance So it's natural when you acknowledge this that people are going to start losing hope in democracy And if somebody comes along that is wildly different that's saying i'm gonna break up this establishment that you hate Well, you can't just blame the one person who saw an opportunity and exploited it That was bound to happen at some point by another demagogue But again a healthy society would never allow This complete clown to get elected in the first place now I don't want to oversimplify the situation because yes There are a lot of privileged people like the people on january 6th who stormed the capital Uh, a lot of those people were actually wealthy They were petite bourgeoisie people people who were business owners So it's it's a little bit reductionist to just say that you know if we if we had a socialist utopia All of our problems would go away Racism would suddenly vanish No, that's that's not what i'm saying here But what i'm saying is the system the situation it was already bad before donald trump And it's going to continue to get worse regardless if trump is or isn't in that picture so long as we don't address These rude causes and that's ultimately the point that john steward is making and it's a really really valuable point Because you don't ever hear mainstream media Have this nuance to the take when it comes to democracy and donald trump and so to have cnn's viewers Learn about the issues. Maybe this encourages them to evaluate why democracy in america Isn't declined. Maybe it's deeper than donald trump. Is he part of the problem? Sure, but maybe it goes deeper than him. Maybe there's more things that i'm not being told about Maybe there's more things that i need to educate myself on and you know, it just it starts with that So i really like john steward's message here. I think what he's saying is absolutely correct You know over focusing on donald trump. I mean look odds are he's he's going to run in 2024 So i want to give myself a bit of a mental break already But i mean to say that all of our problems all of them Is the result of donald trump. I do think that that is really um, it's incorrect Again, he gets a lot of the blame the lion share of the blame But you can't just be that productionist you have to be more nuanced And that's exactly the point that john steward was trying to make and i really appreciate it