Jon Stewart - the "lefty" that rightwingers hate to love?

In a US cultural and political environment where the level of acrimony rises steadily and discourse has the substance of a chorus of jack-hammers, Jon Stewart's show - on Comedy Central yet! - offers a gentle oasis for minds parched by the blistering hatred that radiates from Fox News and its imitators. From here

... Stewart seems to like hosting conservatives ... In recent weeks, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and Bill Kristol have stopped by. Since the beginning of the Obama administration, Stewart has interviewed more conservative pundits than liberal ones. (Remember when fans fretted he'd have trouble finding ways to be funny under the new president?) It may be because it's simply easier to tangle with an ideological adversary than to needle a compatriot. A clash of ideas is always more entertaining than an echo chamber. And, for a liberal wit like Stewart, it's easier to stake out a clear position when facing off against a direct opponent. ...

Conservatives like Stewart because he's providing them a platform to reach an audience that usually tunes them out. And they often find that Stewart takes them more seriously than right-wing political hosts, who are often just using them to validate their broad positions, do. Stewart will poke fun, but he offers a good-faith debate on powder kegs — torture, abortion, nuclear weapons, health care — that explode on other networks. "Shepard Smith did the same discussion [on torture]," says May. "He kept yelling me at me: 'This is where I get off the bus! Not in my name!' He wasn't arguing with me. It was just assertions and anger. That's not what Jon deals in."

To be sure, Stewart wants to outsmart and discombobulate his conservative guests. He loves catching them in inconsistencies. "I feel like you just trapped me," a grinning Kristol told Stewart, after Kristol conceded that the government provides "first-rate" health care to American soldiers. "I just want to get this on the record," said Stewart. "You just said ... the government can run a first-class health-care system."

At The Raw Story, Stephen C. Webster observes on the New Yorker magazine story:

... an exceptionally interesting look at the man who is quickly becoming, in this writer's humble opinion, this generation's Mark Twain and easily the most important iconoclast on cable. The man who won Time magazine's "most trusted newscaster" poll appears to have a little trick up his sleeve when it comes to seducing prominent Neoconservatives onto his program: Intellectual curiosity. And they "love" him for it. Who'd-a known?

Not everyone admires him or enjoys watching Stewart stick-handle his guests with finesse rather than slamming them on the boards. Says Andrew Sullivan:

Several of my friends argue that Stewart is toothless, but I think his deference is what sets him apart - both in civility and effectiveness.

The Kids Are All Right

I've had to move recently. In my old nabe, I lived right beside an elementary school and pretty close to the University of Toronto. So, the young people I saw and heard and watched were children or young adults.

In my new incarnation, I'm right beside a big high school in east end Toronto. Now I'm exposed to teenagers.

First, the diversity is really striking. According to Statistics Canada, by 2017 visible minorities will become the majority in Toronto and Vancouver. I think that might already be the case at this school. Riding the streetcar, I'll be listening to a conversation behind me in like, totally, Canajan voices, like, totally teenager uptalk. Then I turn around and see representatives from all the families on earth.

Cool.

And it's going to get better. Here's a report from the US about the growing influence of the young, which will lead to the end of the so-called culture wars.

Is this just a temporary breathing spell in the culture wars due to the sudden spike in concern about other issues—first Iraq, then the economy—or is a fundamental shift in our politics taking place? I believe the latter is the case since, as this report establishes, ongoing demographic shifts have seriously eroded the mass base for culture wars politics and will continue to erode this base in the future. That means that the advantage conservatives can gain from culture wars politics will steadily diminish and, consequently, so will conservatives’ incentive to engage in such politics.

There are numerous examples of how demographic change is undermining the culture wars. First, Millennials—the generation with birth years 1978 to 2000—support gay marriage, take race and gender equality as givens, are tolerant of religious and family diversity, have an open and positive attitude toward immigration, and generally display little interest in fighting over the divisive social issues of the past. The number of voting age Millennials will increase by about 4.5 million a year between now and 2018, and the number of Millennials who are eligible voters will increase by about 4 million a year. The 2020 presidential election will be the first where all Millennials will have reached voting age, and at that point the generation will be 103 million strong and have about 90 million eligible voters. Those 90 million Millennial eligible voters will represent just under 40 percent of America’s eligible voters in that year.

Second, the culturally conservative white working class has been declining rapidly as a proportion of the electorate for years. Exit polls show that the proportion of white working-class voters—scoring just 46.3 out of a 100 on the Progressive Studies Program comprehensive 10-item progressive cultural index covering topics ranging from religion, abortion, and homosexuality to race, immigration, and the family—is down 15 points since 1988, while the proportion of far more culturally progressive white college graduate voters (53.3 on the index) is up 4 points, and the proportion of minority voters (54.7 on the index) is up 11 points. State after state since 1988 has replicated this general pattern—a sharp decline in the share of white working-class voters accompanied by increases in the shares of minority voters and, in most cases, of increasingly progressive white college graduate voters.

Other demographic trends that will undermine the culture warriors include the growth of culturally progressive groups such as single women, and college-educated women and professionals, as well as increasing religious diversity. Unaffiliated or secular voters are hugely progressive on cultural issues and it is they—not white evangelical Protestants—who are the fastest-growing “religious” group in the United States.

Upshot: the good guys are winning. The dinosaurs are dying out.

In other words. . .