Jon Stewart to Michael Steele: GOP Base Is ‘So Easily Ignitable’
On Tuesday's “Daily Show,” liberal comedian Jon Stewart flashed a smirk and wondered why the conservative base of the Republican Party is “so easily ignitable.” The comedian hosted former Republican Party chair Michael Steele, who recounted the story of how he had to go about “re-igniting our base” after the party lost the White House and fell further into the minority in Congress in 2008. “Why is it so easy to ignite your base?” Stewart asked with a smile. Amidst laughter from the audience, Michael Steele played along and quipped “they're an excitable bunch.” Stewart kept at it. “They are so flammable, your base,” he remarked, and added “so easily ignitable.” The remarks seem to echo Stewart's calls for civility in discourse, where he has focused much of his invective toward what he feels to be inflammatory political rhetoric. Earlier in the show, Stewart mocked “political hypochondriacs” on the Right who fear America will suffer the destructive fates of certain European and African countries; Stewart then lampooned Leftists who try to “cheer the hypochondriac up” by wishing America was in fact like certain European or Asian countries.
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on February 2, 2011. Filed under