Comedy Central’s The Daily Show doesn’t know what the definition of an echo chamber is. On Thursday’s show, weekly temp host Ronny Chieng hailed former GOP congressman turned CNN talking head Adam Kinzinger for helping the show break out of its bubble as Kinzinger told him what he wanted to hear, mainly that “there is nothing more conservative” than voting for VP Kamala Harris in order to save democracy.
Chieng wondered, “As someone coming from a conservative background, like, why is it that whenever we talk about, like, voting access, election access, why does it always feel like a left issue rather than a right?”
Kinzinger replied by repeating the left’s narrative that Republicans prefer people not to vote:
It’s crazy. Because for whatever reason, they feel threatened in the GOP, that the more people vote, the more in danger they are, and I think we know why, because what they are talking about today, what you see them out discussing, is not what the vast majority of Americans want. So, the thing we can hope is to turn their base out. Look, I think it should be a nonpartisan or bipartisan or whatever issue to say if you have a right to vote in this country, we should make it as accessible and easy for you to vote and then, by the way, if you can't win, go out and get better ideas to get people to vote for you. That’s the way you win elections.
Voting is easy. Not infantilizing people by not having excessive amounts of early voting or requiring voter ID is not seeking to limit voter participation. Regardless, Chieng followed up, “And what I love about having you on the show is we get to talk to people outside our own echo chamber, I think, a little bit. I mean, what is your conservative argument for voting for a Democratic president?”
Kinzinger declared, “Oh, it is really easy. I believe in democracy. I mean, democracy—I was there on January 6th. I had to live through that. Standing for the constitution, standing for democracy, there is nothing more conservative than that, and Donald Trump is the exact opposite of that. So, for me, Kamala Harris is going to defend that democracy and I think every Republican that takes their views, viewpoints seriously, old-school Republican, not whatever this new thing is, should be voting the same way.”
Having two people agree that Trump is a threat to democracy is retreating deeper into your echo chamber, not breaking out of it. If The Daily Show really wants to break out of its echo chamber, it would talk to Republicans who sound like Republicans.
Here is a transcript for the August 1 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show
8/1/2024
11:16 PM ET
RONNY CHIENG: So, as someone coming from a conservative background, like, why is it that whenever we talk about, like, voting access, election access, why does it always feel like a left issue rather than a right?
ADAM KINZIGER: It’s crazy. Because for whatever reason, they feel threatened in the GOP, that the more people vote, the more in danger they are, and I think we know why, because what they are talking about today, what you see them out they are discussing, is not what the vast majority of Americans want. So, the thing we can hope is to turn their base out. Look, I think it should be a nonpartisan or bipartisan or whatever issue to say if you have a right to vote in this country, we should make it as accessible and easy for you to vote and then, by the way, if you can't win, go out and get better ideas to get people to vote for you. That’s the way you win elections.
CHIENG: And what I love about having you on the show is we get to talk to people outside our own echo chamber, I think, a little bit. I mean, what is your conservative argument for voting for a Democratic president?
KINZINGER: Oh, it is really easy. I believe in democracy. I mean, democracy — I was there on January 6th. I had to live through that. Standing for the constitution, standing for democracy, there is nothing more conservative than that, and Donald Trump is the exact opposite of that. So, for me, Kamala Harris is going to defend that democracy and I think every Republican that takes their views, viewpoints seriously, old-school Republican, not whatever this new thing is, should be voting the same way.
