A New York Times interview describes the film as capturing the bizarre world of politics in a comedic way using conflict over the social issue of immigration. While the film takes place in Wisconsin, he said it was based on the Jon Ossoff campaign in Georgia, where such a huge importance was placed on the race. In that case, it was a U.S. Senate race and the balance of power in the Senate was key for a special election against an anti-choice, right-wing conservative. Stewart took the election down to the local level instead.
Stewart, who has spent the past five years after the "Daily Show" largely helping his wife on their farm, lobbying for the 9/11 first responders fund and cracking jokes on his friend Stephen Colbert's "Late Show."
"Look, we certainly were part of that ecosystem, but I don’t think that news became entertainment because they thought our show was a success," Stewart says. "Twenty-four-hour news networks are built for one thing, and that’s 9/11. There are very few events that would justify being covered 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So in the absence of urgency, they have to create it. You create urgency through conflict. There are people on the right predisposed to say, 'F*ck that guy.’"
He said that coming out with a film at a time the world is on fire is like showing up to a plane crash offering chocolate bars to people.
"It feels ridiculous. But what doesn’t feel ridiculous is to continue to fight for nuance and precision and solutions," he told the Times.
When it comes to the slaying of George Floyd, Stewart said that he would like to say he's surprised by the killing, but he isn't.
"This is a cycle, and I feel that in some ways, the issue is that we’re addressing the wrong problem," he explained. We continue to make this about the police — the how of it. How can they police? Is it about sensitivity and de-escalation training and community policing? All that can make for a less-egregious relationship between the police and people of color."
He said that the "how" isn't as important as the "why," which is never addressed in the conversations about policing.
"The police are a reflection of a society," he continued. "They’re not a rogue alien organization that came down to torment the black community. They’re enforcing segregation. Segregation is legally over, but it never ended. The police are, in some respects, a border patrol, and they patrol the border between the two Americas. We have that so that the rest of us don’t have to deal with it. Then that situation erupts, and we express our shock and indignation. But if we don’t address the anguish of a people, the pain of being a people who built this country through forced labor — people say, 'I’m tired of everything being about race.' Well, imagine how f*cking exhausting it is to live that."
He went on to explain that he believes police brutality is an offshoot of a power structure that dehumanizes others.
"There are always going to be consequences of authority," Stewart said. "When you give someone a badge and a gun, that’s going to create its own issues, and there’s no question that those issues can be addressed with greater accountability. It can be true that you can value and admire the contribution and sacrifice that it takes to be a law-enforcement officer or an emergency medical worker in this country and yet still feel that there should be standards and accountability. Both can be true. But I still believe that the root of this problem is the society that we’ve created that contains this schism, and we don’t deal with it, because we’ve outsourced our accountability to the police."
While he said that he believes that the police brutality is part of the dehumanization of people, the Times asked if there is some positivity to the massive protests demanding accountability.
"Maybe. Look, every advancement toward equality has come with the spilling of blood," said Stewart. "Then, when that’s over, a defensiveness from the group that had been doing the oppressing. There’s always this begrudging sense that Black people are being granted something, when it’s white people’s lack of being able to live up to the defining words of the birth of the country that is the problem. There’s a lack of recognition of the difference in our system."
He recalled comedian Chris Rock saying that no white person wants to change places with a Black person, even him as a wealthy Black man. He said we must address why.
"You know, we’re in a bizarre time of quarantine. White people lasted six weeks and then stormed a state building with rifles, shouting: ‘Give me liberty! This is causing economic distress! I’m not going to wear a mask, because that’s tyranny!’" Stewart said mocking the reopening protests. "That’s six weeks versus 400 years of quarantining a race of people. The policing is an issue, but it’s the least of it. We use the police as surrogates to quarantine these racial and economic inequalities so that we don’t have to deal with them."
Stewart went on to say that the greatest shock he's had over the last several years is that Trump hasn't evolved or changed his tactics.
"You would have thought that somebody would have mentioned to Trump the idea of rising to greatness. Instead, it’s: ‘Why don’t I tweet out that Joe Scarborough killed people? Would that be good in a pandemic?’" he said.
On the 2020 campaign, he said that he feels like Vice President Joe Biden can't break through because Trump's Twitter account is sucking all of the oxygen out of the room.
"And no matter what, Trump has defined the terms of the fight. It’s going to be: What is America’s greatness? You have to fight on those terms, and that’s an opportunity to define what you believe is our greatness," said Stewart.
In the end, Stewart explained the answer to many political problems is simply, "The enemy is noise. The goal is clarity."
Read the full interview with Stewart at the New York Times.
