Former President Barack Obama swung by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Comedy Central on Wednesday to promote his foundation’s “Democracy Forum.” With the state of democracy being the prime focus of the conversation, Noah asked why the state of political discourse is so bad. Proving that some things never change, Obama blamed Fox News.
Noah’s approach to interview was to lob softballs Obama’s way and let him ramble, “When you look at the discourse in the country as well, and around the world but again, I think you're correct in that America is the leader in what’s happening right now, the discourse has become so toxic and I wonder what you make of that where do you think it’s coming from? Do you think it is social media? Do you think it’s a tenor of politicians in the Capitol?”
Obama responded by recalling his Senate campaign and after explaining to the young people in the audience what a map is, recalled the good old days:
I'd go into a town and it’d be 70% Republican, you know, a lot of evangelicals, et cetera, but I could go to a diner or a VFW hall or a county fair, I could go to the local newspaper and the owner there is conservative, and he's got a bow tie and buzz cut, he's kind of skeptical about my ideas, but there wasn't the filter that had been created by Fox News or the media infrastructure, the sort of right-wing conspiracy theory, you know, folks, and so they came at me with an open mind.”
However, this sort of campaigning no exists, “It started, I think, with Fox News and some of the other, you know, traditional media, and now with social media, that has gotten turbocharged. If you go into those same communities now, they have so many preconceptions about what somebody like me believes, cares about, et cetera, that it is very hard to penetrate.”
Obama did suggest that people, including progressives, have to get out of their bubbles, but then the president who sought to nationalize every political issue lamented the nationalization of politics:
And the nationalization of our politics, I think, has been damaging. The more we can focus on grassroots efforts, real world rather than just virtual meetings, conversations, that’s what, over time, I think can help strengthen democracy, and that is part of what it has been at the foundation is with young leaders who are working on the ground coming up with new ideas to create those connections.
Fox is one network; the left has all the rest. If Obama is truly concerned about the state of political discourse, he should’ve spent more time on that progressive echo chamber he only briefly mentioned or not used the bully pulpit to go after the one network that was critical of him during his presidency and Noah and his late night colleagues should take Obama’s advice and break out of their progressive bubbles.
This segment was sponsored by Lexus.
Here is a transcript for the November 17 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
11/17/2022
11:15 PM ET
TREVOR NOAH: When you look at the discourse in the country as well, and around the world but again, I think you're correct in that America is the leader in what’s happening right now, the discourse has become so toxic.
BARACK OBAMA: Yeah.
NOAH: And I wonder what you make of that—
OBAMA: That’s the—
NOAH: -- where do you think it’s coming from? Do you think it is social media? Do you think it’s a tenor of politicians in the Capitol?
OBAMA: That’s -- two things. The biggest change that is taking place, when I ran for, let's say, U.S. Senate in Illinois, you go downstate, that is the South. I mean, it’s rural, it's conservative, there aren't a lot of folks who look like you or me. And certainly, there are more Trevors than there are Baracks in these area, but—
And so—and I’m driving around, I've got, you know, a map -- for young people for here, it's this paper thing, you can't figure out how to fold it back, but it is how you find your way on roads—and but I'd go into a town and it’d be 70% Republican, you know, a lot of evangelicals, et cetera, but I could go to a diner or a VFW hall or a county fair, I could go to the local newspaper and the owner there is conservative, and he's got a bow tie and buzz cut, he's kind of skeptical about my ideas, but there wasn't the filter that had been created by Fox News or the media infrastructure, the sort of right-wing conspiracy theory, you know, folks, and so they came at me with an open mind.
And I could listen to them and they could listen to me, and at the end of the day, they might say, "well, he's a little liberal for our tastes, but we have something in common. He talked about, you know, his mom getting sick, I remember my mom getting sick. You know, it seems like he loves his kids, I love my kids." There was some sense of connection. And I think the filter now has become so thick.
It started, I think, with Fox News and some of the other, you know, traditional media, and now with social media, that has gotten turbocharged. If you go into those same communities now, they have so many preconceptions about what somebody like me believes, cares about, et cetera, that it is very hard to penetrate.
So I think the answer is both thinking about information flow and media and how can we break through that information bubble that people are in? That requires, by the way, progressives to get out of their media bubble. Because we've got some preconceptions that I think create barriers as well.
And then working a lot more locally, because you notice that when you are on the ground, doing stuff, it is harder to stereotype people. And the nationalization of our politics, I think, has been damaging. The more we can focus on grassroots efforts, real world rather than just virtual meetings, conversations, that’s what, over time, I think can help strengthen democracy, and that is part of what it has been at the foundation is with young leaders who are working on the ground—
NOAH: Right.
OBAMA: -- coming up with new ideas to create those connections.
