John Stewart’s ability to have rational arguments with people he disagrees with continues to push his show out of the realm of comedy and into the world of real legitimate journalism. Last night on The Daily Show, Stewart interviewed former-presidential hopeful and chubby bassist Mike Huckabee, who was pitching his new book Do the Right Thing, (I wonder if Spike Lee knows about this–he does like to sue people).
Unlike Bill O’Oreilly or even Keith Olbermann (who often isn’t able to entice guests whose views oppose his own), Stewart’s poise is crucial to his sucess as an interviewer. After the first break, Stewart was able to quickly shift the interview to the issue of gay marriage. Huckabee claims that marriage has meant the same thing for five-thousand years, and keeps using the word “definition” (hes not talking about his abs) like its importance is as equivalent to him as the (conveniently intangible) word faith; it seems that his biggest problem with the issue of gay marriage is that “homosexuals are asking to redefine the word [marriage].” He says, “words do matter…definitions matter,” (someone should tell him that linguistics is a fluid science and “definitions” of words evolve to mean very different things than what they were first intended to). Huckabee’s language-Nazi position actually ended up coming off as ironic because at one point he referred to the term “homophobic” as an epithet. Seriously. Stewart listens and rebuts, and he does so thoughtfully and wisely. He finally is able to direct their conversation to the “crux of [the issue] when Stewart hits Huckabee with this zinger: “I think it’s the difference between what you believe gay people are and what I do&I’ll tell you this: religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality.” And then he brought up Britney and K-Fed’s marriage as an example of the flagrancy with which marriage is treated by straight people in this country.
Huckabee’s only acceptable (meaning non-bigoted, non-moral) in support of laws against gay marriage is that it would be a travesty to change the definition of the word. And that argument is a weak one; as Stewart points out, marriage has evolved from a polygamist institution to a property arrangement to the modern idea of a romantic union of two people who love each other. The interview is embedded below.
Today is Call Out Gay to Work Day. When I was driving my boyfriend to work today, I mentioned it. He thought that it meant a day when people outed closeted gays in the workplace. It doesn’t. Gays around the country are encouraged to stay home in order to prove how much impact they have on the economy in protest of Prop. 8. It’s a flawed plan for many reasons, but a statement nonetheless. Anyone participate?
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