By C. Douglas Golden October 23, 2024 at 7:32am
In case you missed Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” on Monday, I have good news for you: He’s giving you permission to vote for him and Kamala, Republicans!
“These are folks that want to find a reason to not vote for Donald Trump. We need to give them that,” he said.
“The folks I’m talking to, they’re probably — they are Republicans, and they say it,” he added.
“A Republican introduces me in Omaha. He said, ‘I can’t stand with this guy anymore. That’s not the party of Reagan. This isn’t freedom.’ Whatever it may be. It’s a lot of those folks that are trying to find permission to get off the MAGA stuff and move over. So, they’re still listening. They’re finding a way.”
Great! Wow! That’s so nice of you, Tim. I’m glad I have your permission slip to “get off the MAGA stuff,” listen to you and vote Democrat.
In case you aren’t in awe of the fact such a prominent Democrat is letting you in on the opportunity to cast your ballot for them, consider this: He’s even willing to entertain the Cheneys! What do you think of him now, Republicans?
I don’t know what the average Trump voter thinks of Dick and Liz Cheney in space year 2024, considering that one has been out of office for 15-and-a-half years and the other a mere 21 months. (Although, to be fair, her flameout managed to be equally as spectacular, and without any foreign wars or problematic reasons for starting them.)
However, “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart — who, to be fair, spent most of the aughts cashing huge checks by first playing clips of Cheney, then having the camera cut to himself at a desk, tapping a pencil, pausing, then saying “Really?” in a grating, condescending matter, then washing, rinsing and repeating — wasn’t having this.
“The Cheney thing — do we really have to do that?” Stewart said roughly 10 minutes into the 19 (!!) minute interview.
Do you think Tim Walz is fit to be VP?
“Look, it goes broader than that,” Walz said. “Look, Bernie Sanders, Dick Cheney, Taylor Swift, the whole group.”
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” Stewart said, interrupting.
“Oh, the shooting?” Walz said, referencing the time then-Vice President Cheney shot a lawyer in the face. (In fairness, he seems to know how to handle a gun better than Walz does — and with a lawyer, you can always argue it was preemptive, accidental, subconscious self-defense.)
No, it wasn’t the shooting, Stewart confirmed.
“You can’t — Dick Cheney or Taylor Swift? No! What?” Stewart said.
“We’re a big tent!” a laughing Walz responded.
“What country did Taylor Swift get us to invade?” Stewart exclaimed, before adding (in case you didn’t get the point): “No!”
Walz’s stumbling explanation for this: “Don’t, don’t you think, though, that — and I do this, I believe this, there is still a core group of folks out there, your point being, and not — the don’t tread on me, the Reagan piece of this, the libertarian piece, but the constitutional piece … there are a lot of people out there. I think Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney give permission to those folks who want to find a reason to do the right thing.”
What he said, whatever that was!
Firstly, whoever is charge of editing Kamala’s “60 Minutes” piece to make her sound brighter, your presence is desperately needed on “The Daily Show.” Parkinson’s Law is the idea that work will invariably fill the time allotted for it to be completed. I propose a new adage: the Kamala-Tim Law, in which a dim political candidate will inevitably fill the time given to them on the stump, no matter how little they have to say.
But there again is that problematic word: “permission.” Only this time, Republicans, it’s not Harris and Walz giving you that permission. It’s the Cheneys! You like the Cheneys, right, Republicans? And also, Taylor Swift is giving you permission, assumedly. Consider their accomplishments. One was behind the invasion of Iraq, one lent their imprimatur to the Democrats’ kangaroo Jan. 6 committee, and one is behind hits like “You Belong With Me” and “Anti-Hero.” That’ll get the GOP vote.
Huh? Even Jon Stewart wasn’t going to let that slide.
If there’s a three-word summation for the Harris-Walz team’s closing pitch to America, I can’t find a better one than “flailing and failing.” They seem to be trying everything to stop the joy-and-vibes poll numbers they saw all summer from fading back to status quo ante, and not succeeding at any of it.
From having James Carville on CNN to call Trump a literal Nazi to bringing in Barack Obama to lecture “the brothers,” inter alia, all of this is painful to watch.
If you’re a Republican voter and want 19 minutes of schadenfreude, you could do worse than sitting down to watch Tim Walz explain how a pop star and two RINOs both parties mutually despised until they became politically expedient for one of them are telling you it’s OK to vote Democrat just this once. In terms of a final argument, however, I don’t see how this gets much worse.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture
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