The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Embracing Uncertainty in the Election

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

Authors Rebecca Traister and Brittany Cooper join Desi Lydic to unpack the power in using anger and faith to keep up motivation during the election season. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, the weekly show. It's going to be coming out every Thursday. So exciting. You'll be saying to yourself, TGID. Thank God it's Thursday. We're going to be talking about all the things that hopefully obsess you in the same way that they obsess me. The election. Economics. Earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. And I know that I listed that fourth, but in importance it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday?

I mean, talk about innovative. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast. You're listening to Comedy Central. Hey, this is Ryan Chang. The Daily Show is on break this week, but don't worry. We put together some special highlights for you to catch up on in case you miss them. We'll be back on September 10th. Until then, enjoy this episode. Welcome back to the Daily Show. We have two incredible guests tonight. Rebecca Traster is a writer for New York magazine and author of Good and Mad. Welcome back to the Daily Show. We have two incredible guests tonight. Rebecca

Traster is a writer for New York magazine and author of Good and Mad and Brittany Cooper is a professor at Rutgers University and author of eloquent rage. Please welcome Rebecca Traster and Brittany Cooper. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here. I am so to have you both on. I am so excited to have you both on in this moment in particular. There's been a real vibe shift here. Thank you so excited to have you both on in this moment in particular. There's been a real vibe shift here with Kamla Harris entering the race. And Rebecca, you wrote this incredible article that I felt so beautifully articulated this collective feeling that many of us have about uncertainty and the beauty of an uncertainty and what a thrill it is in this moment in time. Yeah, I mean, I'm grateful for the uncertainty,

and that's a hard thing to say, because we live in a scary time. There's a lot to be terrified about. There are a lot of horrible things happening around us. And in the context of that fear, we often reach for sure things, but sure things often never done this before. We've never had a campaign like this in this amount of time in these circumstances. We have a black woman running for the presidency.

We don't have a model for how we do this on this schedule, at this scale, with so much on the line. And that is terrifying and many of us in political terms reach for things that make us feel safe. Poles that tell us that we're going to win or even polls that tell us we're going to lose because then at least we can be prepared and we're not going to be surprised and shaken but I actually think that right now the anxiety, the fear around this risk and this exciting moment is the exhilarating motivation we need because it is appropriate to this moment and the stakes

and what we're looking at and what it's gonna do is draw us into action, which is the only way to move forward through the next 83 days and beyond, is to let that uncertainty remind us that we have to act and engage. You brought up the polls and I think so many of us go to the polls and are, you know, watching them obsessively. Maybe I'm just referring to myself. But why are the polls so dangerous to be watching? Why should we not be hanging at all on that? I mean, have any of you ever been called for a poll?

None of us picks up the phone for 10 walls missed the VP's phone call? Because he didn't recognize her phone number. That's right. So that tells you all you need to know to know to know to know to know the to know the to know the to know the to know to know the to know, the need to know, the need to need to know, the the the to know, the the the the the the the the the the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their th. tho. tho. tho. tho. to. thoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooes. tooooooes. tooes. tooes. to. to. to. to call because he didn't recognize her phone no. That's right. So that tells you all you need to know about who's being polled. It's our grannies and our aunties and while they matter, they are reliable voters, but this election is about who is going to be newly engaged and newly excited and those of us, you know, and those folks are folks who who are glued to their phones and who are just not going to not going to not going to not going to not going to not going to not to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to their. their. their. their. to be to be their. to be to be to be their. their. their, their. their. their. the the the the the their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their.. their. their.. their.. their.. their. their. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. glued to their phones and who are just not going to pick up for anybody that they don't know. Right. Right. Brittany, you talk so much about the importance of faith in moments like these, the importance that faith has had in historical events and organization and social movements.

How does faith play into this moment right now? Yeah, you know, faith is a tricky term because most times people think that we're trying to, you know, draw them into the cult of organized religion. But we'll- Which is why I brought you all here today. We're gonna pass around the hat, take a little cullade, and we'll be on our way. to the Trump camp. Ultimately, faith is not just a religious project, it's a secular project, and it simply means that we have to believe

in things that we have not seen before in order to bring them about. Faith is the distance between what we can prove and what we think is possible. And sometimes, we struggle to have faith because we don't want to be wrong and we don't want to be made a fool of. We don't want to have to risk something because our politics is made a fool of us a lot.

But I tend to think that you know, it's just like falling in love. Everybody's somebody's fool as the Rita Franklin famously said. And so I want to be a fool for the side of the thoooo the side of to be to be to be to be f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f fool to to to to to the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the politics of the politics the politics the the politics the the the politics the the the the the politics the the the the the politics the the the the the the the the the the the politics the the the the the the the politics the the to to the politics of the toe toe toe toe toeate toeateateateateate toe toeatri. toeate toe of politics of politics of too.e of toe. toeate of politics of politics of toe toe the toe the the the the politics of politics of the the the the the side of saving democracy, for the side of justice and righteousness for the side of the people getting to participate in their politics for women having a say about what happens to their bodies. For trans folks getting the care that they need, for trans folks getting the care that they need, and for all the elders in my life, actually having health care and the things that they need to live well and thrive even thrive even thrive even to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to their to their their their their their their their the elders in my life actually having health care and the things that they need to live well and thrive

even into old age. Yeah. Yeah. We know what happened in 2016. If Kamala Harris becomes president, she would be the first female president. She'd be the first black female president. She'd be the first South Asian person to be president. This is obviously something to be celebrated

and incredibly meaningful for so many reasons. But at the same time, how should we be talking about this? How much should the campaign be leaning into this? And how much might it undermine how qualified she is as just being the right person for the job right now? I think it's a really tricky balance because on the one hand you don't want to fixate on these firsts and the pure identity changes and representative changes because there has

has to be substance along with that too, right? We could be talking about Nikki Haley and have some of the same first and we'd be feeling very different. Let's that situation that. That's that. So that. So that. So, so that. So, so th th you th th th th th, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, the, the, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, the, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th, th. th. th, th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi, thi.? We could be talking about Nikki Haley and have some of the same first and we'd be feeling very different about that situation, right? So, so I want to say that that just talking about the representative firsts isn't enough and yet we cannot behave in this country as though we are a nation that has ever previously managed to elect a woman in 250 years, right? So we can't trick ourselves either into thinking that there is not a lot happening in this campaign and on these stages that we do not have models for,

that we need to turn to different degrees of faith, that we need to sit in our anxiety about whether we as a country can become better, right, and become different, and do things differently, and imagine leadership that doesn't look like the leadership we've had in the past. So it would be silly to pretend that those things don't come into it, and I think deeply dishonest about who we are as a country, and about the possibility of who we could become as a country.

But at the same time, the thing you got to acknowledge when you acknowledge that she's first is also all of the unreasonable expectations that come with being first. It is the moment that a corporation decides they're going to let a woman actually run it after they've almost sunk it. You know we call those glass-cliff assignments or it's that moment that so many black women have experienced. Many times I've experienced where you look up and you're the only black person in the room, the only black woman in the room. And so the stakes are incredibly high and there is no margin for error. And we've got to remember how do we balance the fact that she is first but she doesn't get to be the exception, right? She is first what she is going to have to have to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to be to be to be to be to be a to be get to be the exception, right? She is first, but she is gonna have to respond to protesters.

She is first, but she is gonna have to be accountable for policy and how it actually shapes people's lives. She is first, and at the same time, people are going to expect her to be Jesus, because they always expect black women to be Jesus. You have both written extensively about using the power of anger and using the power of rage. Female politicians are not given any grace to have anger or rage. Is there any reason why they should give a flying f-bongue about that?

I mean, you know, look, my camp is, you know, lean into that shit. Like it'll, my camp is you know lean into that shit like it'll you know I have famously said that rage is a superpower because we live in a country that always does things to induce women's anger to induce black women's anger and then it gaslights us and tells us that we're actually irrational because we're angry at a country that says we don't have control over our bodies at a country that is disrespecting cat ladies you know you know you know in a country where women say brilliant things in meetings all the time and no one hears it until the dude in the room says the same thing and so of course we're mad but we're also geniuses, we're also dope,

we're also joyful. These things are not mutually exclusive. And I want to pick up on that joyful thing, which is that one of the things that Brittany and I both talked about is that anger and rage can have a lot of different qualities. It can be destructive, it can be divisive, but expressed anger, especially at injustice and power imbalance and anger on behalf of making the world better can also bring people together in communion can and what we see right now the vibe shift that you talked about there is this crucial thing happening which is that there is no question that there is a kind of fury at

what's at stake motivating so many people not only on the campaign trail but the people who are organizing these calls and yet that shared anger is bringing people together what is being projected by Kamala Harris and Tim Wals on that on those stages is unfettered joy. The the beauty of being able the happiness of being able to envision some a future that looks different from our past. That's right. That's good.

Rebecca, you had a really interesting piece on masculinity and the way that it's framed on both sides, on the Democratic side and on the Republican side, where are the contrast that you see? Oh, huh? Can you think of any? They're subtle. Yes. So it's interesting because coming out of two years of Republicans really having their clock cleaned

on every reproductive rights referenda in this country. There was this thought that Donald Trump and his campaign and the Republicans more broad, they're going that Donald Trump and his campaign and the Republicans more brawl, they're gonna stay away from abortion. They're not in a popular place on abortion. They're losing on abortion, so they weren't gonna talk about that. What is fascinating to me is their inability to hide their loathing for women, right?

They're scorn for women. So that if you look at th, if th, if th, if th, if you th, if you th, if you th, if you th, if you th, if you out to it's a man's world. Right. You have you have Jady Vance. He picked J. Vance. Right. And, and these guys. And these. And these guys, it's a man's world, right? You have J.D. He picked J.D. Vance, right? And these guys are trafficking, not only in the historic sort of patriarchal, we'd like to control reproductive bodies and, you know, exert our power over women. You have the newer manosphere, sort of ickier, real dislike of women, like resentment of women who won't have sex with them on demand and who won't bear their babies on demand. And that's really seeping into this in a kind of new gross way

that you see Donald Trump is doing interviews with Elon Musk who is a person who said that abortion and birth control have led to the crumbling of society and thinks that people who don't have children shouldn't vote. And that's who Trump is doing his podcast with. And you can hear all those resentments of the manosphere in everything Jadie Bance says about cat ladies and that he agrees with about the role of postmenapausal women as being a child. So that's what's happening for the Republican. And then on the left, in part because you have Kamala Harris leading the to, to, to, the to, to, to, the to, to, the to, to, the the to, the the to, to, to, the left, in part because you have Kamala Harris leading the ticket, what you've seen is a lot of guys coming out in really robust ways in support of her, talking

fulsomely about reproductive health care and access, talking about, I have been out there listening to Doug Mhoff talk about pap smears. Tim Walspast, you know, made period products available in in school bathrooms. He signed abortion protections into law in Minnesota. He talks about his IVF journey. These are very traditionally masculine guys, right? Like football coach, veterans. And yet they seem to be comfortable in a way that I have rarely seen Democratic men be comfortable before, making reproductive health care and access and women's full civic participation,

a clarion moral call of the Democratic Party. And that is a remarkable thing that we're watching on the left. Yes, indeed. You know, the only thing I would add about this masculinity is that I think that J.D. Vance is having the terrible realization that he picked the wrong daddy. He picked Trump and really what he wanted was Tim Walls. You know, look we have a politics that

actually rewards men who have these these embattled relationships with their fathers. It was true for Barack Obama, it's true for Donald Trump. We're seeing it with Jady Vance and then you have have have th the th th th th the th th th th th the th them th thi thi thi thi thi the thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi the the the the the thi thi thi the- the- thi thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi thi thi thi thi thi thi th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. the. the. I the. the. the. the. the. the. theat to theat to theat to theeeat theeat theeeat theat theat the. the. I the.. It was true for Barack Obama, it's true for Donald Trump, we're seeing it with J.D. Vance, and then you have Tim Walls, who's this lovely father figure, and so it is time for America to have this reckoning around its own consistent daddy issues. And you know, this is the way we can solve the in-cell problem. Who knew we just needed a high school football coach. I also want to say it is so important when we talked about the firstness of Kamala Harris. And often when we talk about gender and race, we behave as though the only people who have gender and race are people who are not white men and white men have both gender and race. And so I think it's really important that we keep the performances of all kinds of gender

in mind when we speak critically about what's happening on this election stage. That's right. That's right. There are 80 more days to go until the election. How are you feeling optimistic? What is the proper, healthy way to channel all of these feelings of anger and Rage and uncertainty and positivity and joy? Here's a thing. I believe in faith and hope because I come from working-class black people in the deep south who didn't grow up with a lot of possibility, thoub.

to try to up every day and trying again. And so it's always the height of a certain kind of access and privilege when I see people assuming that we get the benefit and the indulgence of our cynicism, the indulgence of our disaffection. What it means to be a black person in this country is that we have to fight every day for new possibilities for ourselves. And I think that that's the lesson that America can take from having a black woman run for the presidency. That is what black people have taught this country, is that if we want it, we have to fight

for it. And so let's go. That's where I am. Let's go. I'm going to leave it right there. Here, so let's go. To all being cool. Future to check out Boy and Mad and Ellicott Rage, Rebecca Tracer and Brittany Cooper. Explore more shows from the Daily Show, by searching the Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.

Paramount Podcasts. Hey, everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, the weekly show coming out every Thursday. We're going to be talking about the election, earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? Listen to the Weekly Show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast.