Last Thursday, Jon Stewart looked at Mitt Romney's statements about how Obama promised us "gifts", and then looked at how Bill O'Reilly demonized minorities in this country, and how the shoe used to be on the other foot.
BILL O'REILLY (11/6/2012): The demographics are changing. ... The white establishment is now the minority.
Yes. As America's demographics have always been changing, and the old establishment always giving way to — and resenting — a new establishment, Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Goldberg. (wild audience cheering)
Or perhaps, Mr. O'Reilly is forgetting the — hold on — 19th century. When people with names like O'Reilly were described in The Christian Examiner newspaper with phrases like:
THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER (1848): The ill-clad and destitute Irishman is repulsive to our habits and our tastes.
And by the way, The Christian Examiner newspaper at that time, considered to be one of the more progressive newspapers by acknowledging the Irish to be human. Here's Harper's Weekly on the 19th century threat to traditional white America:
HARPER'S WEEKLY (10/20/1860): We have given them land... employment at far better wages than they could have obtained at home; and political rights. ... They have come to us steeped in ignorance and superstition... nearly seventy-five percent of our criminals and paupers are Irish.
See, Bill? I mean, you guys turned most of that around. (wild audience laughter)
....
You don't need to worry so much! What you are demonstrating is the health and vitality of America's greatest tradition — a fevered, frightened ruling class lamenting the rise of a new ethnically and religiously diverse new class, one that will destroy all that is virtuous and good, and bring the American experiment crashing to the ground. Except you're forgetting one thing. That is the American experiment. An ethnic group arriving on America's shores to be reviled and hazed, living in squalor — or if they're lucky, Squalor Heights — working hard to give their children or grandchildren the opportunity to shit on the next group landing on our shores. (wild audience cheering and applause)
So enough! Enough! Relax! Enough with the lamentations! Unless your real name is Sitting Bill, you've got nothing to complain about.
Video and full transcript below the fold.
While Mitt Romney blamed his loss on Obama voters' bribability, Romney supporters saw a more permanent stark sea change.
BILL O'REILLY (11/6/2012): It's not a traditional America anymore.
11/12/2012:
BILL O'REILLY: Traditional America as we knew it is gone. Ward, June, Wally, and the Beav outta here.
BERNIE GOLDBERG: Yeah, pretty much.
(shocked audience laughter)
Yes, yes Bill. Obama's re-election marked the moment that traditional America ended. The moment when the family from the 1950s sitcom Leave It to Beaver... ceased to be real. (audience laughter and applause)
Yes, Obama's re-election was a moment when traditional America realized that even their witch wives couldn't save them from being replaced.
Bill O'Reilly, what are you talking about??
BILL O'REILLY (11/6/2012): The demographics are changing. ... The white establishment is now the minority.
Yes. As America's demographics have always been changing, and the old establishment always giving way to — and resenting — a new establishment, Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Goldberg. (wild audience cheering)
Or perhaps, Mr. O'Reilly is forgetting the — hold on — 19th century. When people with names like O'Reilly were described in The Christian Examiner newspaper with phrases like:
THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER (1848): The ill-clad and destitute Irishman is repulsive to our habits and our tastes.
And by the way, The Christian Examiner newspaper at that time, considered to be one of the more progressive newspapers by acknowledging the Irish to be human. Here's Harper's Weekly on the 19th century threat to traditional white America:
HARPER'S WEEKLY (10/20/1860): We have given them land... employment at far better wages than they could have obtained at home; and political rights. ... They have come to us steeped in ignorance and superstition... nearly seventy-five percent of our criminals and paupers are Irish.
See, Bill? I mean, you guys turned most of that around. (wild audience laughter)
Now as your friend Bernie Goldberg, Bill, I did search microfiche, Library of Congress, and could not find any instances at any point in American history when traditional Americans didn't like Jews. There was nothing there, I tried. Turns out, apparently, Jews have always been in America, and always been loved and accepted.
Wish I could say the same for Catholicism.
BILL O'REILLY (11/13/2012): Only about 30% of American Catholics now attend weekly mass. So you can see the impact of creeping secularism on the religious vote. On paper, the stats look hopeless for traditional Americans.
Right! As stats about creeping Catholicism in the 1840s looked to the American Society to Promote the Principles of the Protestant Reformation, or AS-P-P-P-R. They hadn't cracked the acronym thing yet then. But they were pretty sure that the extension of Catholicism endangered America's peace and freedom.
And back in the Leave It to Beaver days you miss so much, America wouldn't even elect a Catholic President, until JFK gave a speech assuring Protestant clergy that he wouldn't take orders from the Pope! Though Kennedy did admit he took orders from something else that starts with a "P" and also resembles a wrinkled old man wearing a hat. (audience laughter)
(in JFK voice) "Ask not what you can do for your country, let's just find some chicks!"
And how do you think traditional Americans would have reacted to a Mormon candidate for President? Seeing as in 1857, President Buchanan sent the U.S. Army to Utah to fight them. And believe me, not to protect America's claim to its least drinkable lake.
Bernie! Bernie, Bill, Fox, bubulas! You don't need to worry so much! What you are demonstrating is the health and vitality of America's greatest tradition — a fevered, frightened ruling class lamenting the rise of a new ethnically and religiously diverse new class, one that will destroy all that is virtuous and good, and bring the American experiment crashing to the ground. Except you're forgetting one thing. That is the American experiment. An ethnic group arriving on America's shores to be reviled and hazed, living in squalor — or if they're lucky, Squalor Heights — working hard to give their children or grandchildren the opportunity to shit on the next group landing on our shores. (wild audience cheering and applause)
So enough! Enough! Relax! Enough with the lamentations! Unless your real name is Sitting Bill, you've got nothing to complain about.
We'll be right back.
Al Madrigal then reported from Arizona about how a supermajority
hasn't worked out so well for many of the citizens of Arizona.
On Wednesday, Jon talked with Kristen Schaal about the role the
single woman vote played in the election.
He then talked about the
explosive BBC scandal that one of their own now-deceased personalities was a pedophile.
Meanwhile, last Thursday, Stephen looked at the growing
Petraeus scandal.
He then had another
Cheating Death segment.
On Wednesday, Stephen noted that Canada isn't happy with him for describing part of their country as Earth's taint.
He then talked about the danger of
high-frequency trading with journalist
Christopher Steiner.
Jon talked with
Jon Meacham on Wednesday, which went long. Here's the entire unedited interview in three parts.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
He talked with Fox News' legal analyst Andrew Napolitano on Thursday, which also went long. Here's the entire unedited interview in three parts.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Stephen had on Lincoln screenwriter Tony Kushner on Wednesday, who got two segments, and paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer on Thursday.