Jon Stewart and Cultural Differences Within The United States

This will be hard for many Americans to understand, but the much-loved Jon Stewart comes off as a smug elitist with no common sense at all quite a lot of the time. Take, for example, the following video:

I can see how a Jon Stewart fan (or Jon Stewart himself, should he even notice the speck on the political landscape that is Dean’s World) would say, “Smug elitist? Really?” Um, yes. And if you would like to know why, here’s my best shot at explaining it. Most especially, this is an attempt to explain to liberals who are interested in winning future elections, or winning on political issues that matter to them. If all you want is to laugh at the stupid hicks, by all means disregard the following. But if you’re interested in learning something potentially useful, try to understand how Stewart is displaying a cultural blindness here that you may share, and how that might be a problem.

Please bear in mind that when I say any of this I am not advocating for Gingrich; my current plan is to vote for Obama in November. That is not the point. In the case of many so-called “cultural conservatives,” especially in certain parts of the country (like the South, which was solid-blue Democrat only a generation ago) it is understood that people are going to be sinners and that almost no one is a paragon of virtue; therefore the important thing is not that you sinned, the important thing is that you own up to it and ask forgiveness. Then, unless you’ve done certain very extreme things (like rape a child) it’s considered poor form NOT to forgive you.

It is further considered poor form to bring it up again, unless you’ve done it again recently.

This attitude goes beyond simple etiquette or “being nice”; it is an attitude so deep in the cultural bones of some people they don’t even think about it. To them it’s just common sense, practically a reflex. It’s just what is intuitively “right.”

The cultural attitude among these voters is going to be this: “Bill Clinton got impeached cuz he lied about it to a judge and lied about it on national TV. Newt admitted he had affairs, said he was sorry, moved on, and now y’all are dragging his angry ex- in to throw a bunch of sh** at him from ten, fifteen years ago. That ain’t right.” That would not be the “conservative” or “republican” line, that would be the ingrained cultural understanding of maybe a quarter to a third of America. It wouldn’t matter whether Gingrich was a Democrat or a Republican, a liberal or a conservative or a libertarian or even a Communist. No matter.

They don’t see this in an ideological way either; in fact those who make an ideology out of it probably seem a touch odd, like making an ideology out of wearing socks on both of your feet.

These folks would also have noticed immediately that Gingrich didn’t say bringing up his past marriage and throwing his ex-wife into the mix was despicable. Gingrich said it was close to despicable. That subtlety may have flown by Jon Stewart and his fans, as well as the hapless debate moderator. Heck, that may even seem weaselly to you. But believe it or not rednecks are not stupid people and it didn’t fly past them; if Gingrich had said it was despicable, a good chunk of that audience would have turned on him and not the moderator or the press. Gingrich’s remark–likely carefully prepared and rehearsed–was crafted in the exact way required to get the response it did from this group of voters. If someone from New York or Los Angeles doesn’t understand that, well, maybe they need to try.

Indeed, while the reasonable and sane Rich Lowry may think that debate moment was a long-term liability for Newt Gingrich, he may want to rethink. Lowry’s a conservative but that does not mean he shares this cultural trait. If Gingrich’s remark was really an intemperate outburst then maybe Lowry’s right, but if it was a carefully crafted and rehearsed line that Newt had ready (and I think it was), then Newt’s smarter than Lowry thinks he is and makes sure he knows his audience before he speaks.

If the goal of progressives–or even northeastern Republicans–is to win elections, they have to learn to understand and persuade–not mock, persuade–people who don’t share their cultural outlook. Jon Stewart likely has no idea that he comes off like a snotty East Coast jerk here, but he does. Even if he is funny, he looks to a lot of people like he’s being a funny and slightly clueless jerk. Since I share some (but not all) of the cultural roots I describe here, I can tell you: I laughed but I thought, “what a shallow jerk.”

I often laugh when Jon Stewart wants me to laugh, but I also often think he’s a jerk, utterly clueless about his own cultural assumptions and sensitivities. I think the reason he and his most ardent fans are often bewildered by voter behavior is because they think people like this are stupid when in reality these people think differently. Their own blindness to this way of thinking, their own assumption that it is some sort of gullible stupidity, makes them look condescending, arrogant, and/or cruel.

Put yourself in their shoes: how likely are you to vote for someone if you view them, or their supporters, as looking down their nose at you and being condescending and cruel? Maybe you would, especially if you’re from some of the rougher parts of cities like New York or Chicago, but otherwise, probably not. Especially if you’re an undecided voter (and in an election, undecided voters often matter most).

The cultural attitudes I describe are not found only in the south, they’re also common in all sorts of other parts of America, especially in the Midwest. But they are probably most prevalent in the South, which was once completely dominated by the Democratic Party. Southerners in general probably comprise about a quarter of the US electorate–no small thing when you only need half of it to win. Many of these people have come to see “liberal” as a bad word because they see liberals as smug condescending elitists who have no common sense–and everything I just described is common sense to them. It may not be common sense to you, but it’s common sense to them.

Jon Stewart is a funny man, but I think he has no idea just how often he comes off as smug elitist with no common sense to these generally not-stupid people. So no matter what your political stance, understanding this is crucial to understanding how to avoid losing votes you might otherwise win.

As a man who is often seen as lacking common sense and being snotty, I sympathize. I spend a lot of my life trying to figure out how to avoid being misunderstood. I have gotten better at it as I’ve gotten older, but it’s slow and hard progress, and I backslide easily. It is often awkward but if you’re trying to persuade someone, it’s usually a good idea to try to avoid coming off the wrong way. I sometimes envy people who can do it instinctively.

Communication is key to understanding, and understanding is key to successful relationships–and to successful politics. To put it in shorthand: did you want to be right, or did you want to win an election?

For the record, I’m pretty sure both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama know all this. It would probably help their supporters to understand it as well.