This Daily Show interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano is an entertaining and good-spirited debate that clearly delineates two points of view about government’s role in citizens’ lives. I wish all people I disagree with could be as charming as Napolitano, and Stewart is particularly on his Elizabeth Warren-y game. The interview is full of pithy quotes that effectively boil down complex issues (why can’t Democrats speak this way more often?). I particularly love this exchange:
Napolitano: Libertarians like I am believe the government should not pick winners and losers, the free market should.
Stewart: So what do we do with the losers that are picked by the free market?
(Napolitano pauses as he takes this in.)
Napolitano: If the government bails individuals out, there will be no limit to who and for what the government bails them out. You fail, you pick up and start over again.
Stewart: Don’t we have to decide, “Do we live in a society, or don’t we? Are we a collective-“
Napolitano: Oh no, that’s a bad word to me-
Stewart: But it’s not to me. Because everybody’s success is predicated on the hard work of all of us. So why should it be that the people that lose are hung out to dry? For a group that doesn’t necessarily believe in evolution, it’s awfully Darwinian.
The interview continues into an equally great Parts Two and Three, which includes maybe my the best exchange I’ve ever seen in a late night interview:
Napolitano: (looking into the audience) Is that who I think it is? Is that Reggie Jackson?
Stewart: (head in his hands) No, unfortunately that’s just a regular old black guy.
Napolitano: (saluting enthusiastically) I LOVE YA!
October 29, 2011
