In March, ABC’s nominal funny man Jimmy Kimmel sat down with Rolling Stone’s Stephen Rodrick for a wide-ranging interview that was published on Tuesday and naturally touched on Kimmel’s place in the Trump era. Among other things, on America’s ability to “do the right thing,” Kimmel mourned, “That’s obviously in the past.”
At one point in the interview, Rodrick simply stated, “I hate to do this, but let’s start with Trump.” 
Kimmel, who is, according to Rodrick, “a defender of democracy,” responded in grand, cosmic terms, “I think most comedians have a strong sense of justice, and he violates that so frequently. I know we should be hardened to it by now, but I’m not. It is shocking to me; it seems like a comic-book villain. He seems like the kind of character that would flame out after a few years, but the fact that he’s still with us is remarkable.”
A year ago, I would’ve said I’m hoping to show people who aren’t paying attention to the news what’s actually going on, and hoping to change things that way. Obviously, that didn’t have enough impact before the election, so now I see myself more as a place to scream.
Rodrick also wondered, “When did you realize, ‘Oh, shit, this is serious and no longer just ridiculous’?”
After recalling that in 2016 he was among those who thought Trump had no chance, Kimmel proclaimed, “Listen, when O.J. was found not guilty, I was just absolutely shocked. I had that same feeling. I had this faith in America that was shaken, and I still am not over it. I thought that when it comes down to it, this country, we do the right thing. That’s obviously in the past.”
Rodrick then moved on to Kimmel’s habit of making politics personal, “You saw this up close in 2017. Your son was born with a serious heart condition while the Republicans were trying to repeal Obamacare. What made you go public about such a personal thing?”
Kimmel replied with his typical answer of assuming that Republicans have never experienced anything like he has, “There were a few things. I was sitting in the hospital; I was watching them debate this in Congress. I was watching them decide on whether Americans would have access to health insurance or not. And I am looking around this hospital and seeing all these kids and families that are obviously poor. And the idea that if these people were your next-door neighbors, you’d do anything you could to help them struck me. Health care is boring, and most people don’t understand it, so I just wanted to humanize it the best way I possibly could.”
Rodrick then asked about the state of the GOP under Trump, “I wonder if that experience gave you insight into the Republican Party during the Trump years in terms of, they are not going to display a moment of courage even when it seems like it is in America’s best interest.”
After claiming Republicans are “so scared of him,” Kimmel admitted, “I just don’t understand how Americans can support what he’s doing and the stupid stuff that he gets hung up on, like transgender sports and the stuff that affects almost no one.”
Perhaps Kimmel fails to understand Trump voters because he doesn’t invite conservatives on to his show anymore unless it is to put them in an arcade machine in order to mock them as a crank. As it is, Kimmel added, “I know politicians do this; they pick little things they know are going to push your buttons, and those are the things that they go with, but this is an extreme that we’ve never seen before. There’s no decency. It’s just a bunch of animals, and it’s disgusting.”
Speaking of no decency, Kimmel thinks conservatives and Trump voters exist to provide cheap laughs for his liberal audience by cherry-picking certain people to claim they collectively lack intelligence.
