Late night comedy gets serious
And quite civil. Both are unusual these days.
Jon Stewart invited Mike Huckabee on the Daily Show the other night to have a candid and cordial conversation about abortion.
“I think sometimes this is an issue where people get, maybe – generating a lot more heat than light,” said Huckabee. “And for me, the issue is so much more than about abortion, it’s about the fundamental issue of whether or not every human life has intrinsic worth and value.”
Stewart pressed Huckabee: “Do you think that on the side of choice, that they don’t believe that every human life has value?”
“I don’t think there’s anybody that wakes up and says, ‘I really think abortion is a wonderful, wonderful thing,” Huckabee replied. “I don’t truly believe that even people who would consider themselves ‘pro-choice’ like abortion – I think that they haven’t thought through the implications and the logical conclusion.”
Noting that 93% of abortions in America are elective rather than health-based, Huckabee pointed out the consequences of training future generations “that it is OK to take a human life because that life represents to us an interference, or an interruption to our lives either economically or socially.”
“What happens when our children one day look at us and we’re old?” he asked. “I do not want to give my kids the opportunity to say, ‘Dad, you are an interference. Coming to see you in the nursing home is really messing up my social life. You are very expensive, Dad.'”
That’s the ‘logical’ extension of the abortion culture’s mentality. This was a good exchange, provocative, and polite.
Huckabee also pursued the question of equal rights in a parallel to slavery, asking: “Does a person have a right to own another person? … Can the mother totally own the child?”
“I just think our culture ought to do everything it can to support and encourage her to make a life decision and to be honest with her and to explain to her: this is a heartbeat, this is a child,” he said.Â
The host expressed openness to Huckabee’s arguments, though defending the pro-choice position throughout, and said he hoped “people begin to see that both sides can come at it with good faith and good intentions.”
“Out of all issues – I can be incredibly certain about so many issues and get my dander up, and self-righteousness,” said Stewart. “This is one I can’t, and this is the one that I probably, in the culture, struggle with the most. I think it’s a very difficult issue.”
Now we’re talking.
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“Understand – I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away. No matter how much we may want to fudge it – indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory – the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature.
Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words.” -Barack Obama, May 17, 2009
There once was a day when people thought the black and white races were irreconcilable. Our current president stands as witness to the fact that there were people in this nation who were wrong on that issue. As Cardinal George said recently, President Obama is on the wrong side of history when it comes to this issue.
Civil dialogue, open hearts and minds are a step in the right direction when it comes to this issue. Bravo to Huckabee and Stewart for setting the stage!