While they initially agreed on taking down the Patriot Act, Jon Stewart and Sen. Rand Paul (R) tangled over issues such as gay marriage and discrimination in a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday night.
Eventually, the host of “The Daily Show” pressed Paul on the logic of so-called religious liberty laws allowing Christian business owners to turn away gay customers.
“We’re asking them to do the thing that they do for their business,” Stewart said of the religious businesspeople.
Paul argued that he believed, under his libertarian credo, that Christians should be allowed to “live life” the way they see fit.
Soon Stewart brought up the free market doctrine that corporations are people — and Paul pounced.
“Here’s the thing Jon,” Paul said, “you’ve brought us full circle because now we’re talking about whether corporations are people.”
“Yeah?” Stewart said, flailing his arms in mock surprise.
“And that’s exactly the question in the Patriot Act,” Paul continued, “because what I’ve bene filibustering is whether or not a warrant that has a corporation’s name on it — Verizon — can collect people’s records.”
“That’s my point!” Stewart said.
“So we’re right back to the Patriot Act and I think we agree now,” Paul said, clinking his coffee mug against Stewart’s.
The host did a double take: “This is gonna keep me awake tonight, isn’t it?”
Watch the clip:
Randa should not enter a battle of wit unarmed.
The IQ ratio for tonight’s debate will be 3:1 in favor of Mr Stewart.
I have to give Rand Paul credit on this one: Jon Stewart presented him with the blatantly obvious logical fallacy of the religious freedom laws, and posed a question that, if answered, could not help but anger conservatives regardless of the answer.
So he didn’t. He managed to hook on a single phrase Jon used while organizing the thought, and gave a complete non-sequitur answer as the clock ran out. A smart move from an often very silly man.
Rand Paul is a master of Double Speak and Double Think…the problem is that the only time anyone ever managed to pin him down on anything he ran away whining and complaining about how horrible that person (Maddow) was.
Never mind the fact that the Freedom of Speech is, the late Terry Pratchett pointed out, is predicated, like all freedoms, upon the Freedom to Take The Consequences.
Sadly for him doesn’t have much choice, but luckily for him he doesn’t know it.