Jon Stewart welcomed Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler to Monday’s The Daily Show on Comedy Central to promote his campaign for national party chairman. On one hand, Stewart was optimistic as he gushed over Wilker’s ability to stop Republicans from “diabolically making changes” in Wisconsin, but on the other, he was worried Democrats “have a harder row to hoe" because they are “not nihilistic” like Republicans.
Stewart wondered, “There was a supermajority in Wisconsin, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin was diabolically making changes to withstand power, Scott Walker was the governor. How did you turn that situation around?”
Wikler recalled, “So, Republicans took over Wisconsin in 2010 and immediately smashed unions, suppressed voting rights, gerrymandered the living daylights out of legislative maps to make sure they’d never lose power even if voters try to throw them out. And for years, it looked as though Wisconsin was going to fall off the cliff, be a state where Republicans controlled everything, whether voters liked it or not.”
Obviously, Republicans did not suppress the vote. If they did, Wikler would not be on The Daily Show to hype the fact that he worked to elect liberals to the state supreme court to overturn GOP-drawn maps. Those state supreme court elections also allowed Democrats to undemocratically undo Walker’s reforms.
Later, Stewart addressed what he thinks is one of the Democrats’ main obstacles, “One of the fundamental problems that the Democrats have had is they cosign to this, sort of, what they call the neoliberalism, economics, supply-side, deregulation, NAFTA, and after, all these other things, and they never clawed it back. And what we keep hearing is we just need to keep raising taxes on billionaires, but if you haven't convinced your voters that the money that is raised will be spent wisely and with value, none of it’s going to matter. Isn't it—look, the Democrats have a harder row to hoe.”
As Wikler agreed, Stewart continued, “Because they are the party that believes government needs to be there and play a vital role in balancing out corporate interests and helping people's lives. It is not nihilistic, like the other, which is, blow the whole thing up and reduce it to the size you can drown in a bathtub. So is that a message of competence that people can wrap their heads around in the Democratic Party?”
That’s a bit rich coming from the guy who said, “[bleep] the norms,” when it came to President Joe Biden pardoning Hunter. As it was, Wikler declared that “You have to prove it out to be able to earn that trust,” to which Stewart replied, “Have they done that in Wisconsin?”
In more evidence that Republicans didn’t suppress the vote, Wikler added, “They’ve done that in Wisconsin, and Governor Evers ran on ‘Fix the damn roads,’ and then he fixed the damn roads.”
Here is a transcript for the December 9 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show
12/9/2024
11:18 PM ET
JON STEWART: There was a supermajority in Wisconsin, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin was diabolically making changes to withstand power, Scott Walker was the governor. How did you turn that situation around?
BEN WIKLER: So, Republicans took over Wisconsin in 2010—
STEWART: Yes.
WIKLER — and immediately smashed unions, suppressed voting rights, gerrymandered the living daylights out of legislative maps to make sure they’d never lose power even if voters try to throw them out. And for years, it looked as though Wisconsin was going to fall off the cliff, be a state where Republicans controlled everything, whether voters liked it or not.
…
STEWART: One of the fundamental problems that the Democrats have had is they cosign to this, sort of, what they call the neoliberalism, economics, supply-side, deregulation, NAFTA, and after, all these other things, and they never clawed it back. And what we keep hearing is we just need to keep raising taxes on billionaires, but if you haven't convinced your voters that the money that is raised will be spent wisely and with value, none of it’s going to matter. Isn't it — look, the Democrats have a harder row to hoe.
WIKLER: Yeah.
STEWART: Because they are the party that believes government needs to be there and play a vital role in balancing out corporate interests and helping people's lives. It is not nihilistic, like the other, which is, blow the whole thing up—
WILKER: Yeah.
STEWART: — and reduce it to the size you can drown in a bathtub. So is that a message of competence that people can wrap their heads around in the Democratic Party?
WIKLER: You have to prove it out.
STEWART: Right. Right.
WIKLER: To be able to earn that trust.
STEWART: Have they done that in Wisconsin?
WIKLER: They’ve done that in Wisconsin and Governor Evers ran on "Fix the damn roads" and then he fixed the damn roads.
