Jon Stewart: 'Wisconsin Union Protest Is The Bizarro Tea Party' (VIDEO)

"The Daily Show" returned Monday night to pick up on the Wisconsin union protests against Governor Scott Walker's controversial cost-cutting plan, leading Jon Stewart to believe that a "bizarro Tea Party" had been born.

Walker said Monday he will not back down from his plan to cut teachers union's benefits as well as their collective bargaining rights to bring down the state's $3.6 billion deficit. And while Stewart understands that Walker was elected to cut costs, his method defeats the purpose of having a union:

"That can't be right. Take away a union's collective bargaining rights? I believe that makes them just a bunch of people wearing identical T-shirts."

Stewart also had some criticism for the media's reaction to the protests, particularly the comparison made by many news outlets that Wisconsin is similar to Egypt in its uprising. Stewart disagreed wholeheartedly:

"Is it the same as people in the Middle East overthrowing years of dictatorship?" Stewart asked. "Or is that just the last story you saw on the news?"

Searching for a better analogy, Stewart looked at the media's varied reactions. MSNBC seemed to romanticize the protesters like Fox News did with the Tea Party, but Fox failed to give the Wisconsin protesters the same praise as they did with the Tea Partiers. Stewart finally realized: the Wisconsin protesters are an alternate-universe Tea Party, right down to the "three cornered hats":

"Do you see what's happening here?! The Wisconsin union protest is the bizarro Tea Party! Yes! You've all seen that episode of 'Super Man'."

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Comments

[Hillbilly49]

05:19 AM on 02/24/2011

Everyone has turned on Scottie except for the Nutzbaggers.

[allengoldchain]

06:00 PM on 02/23/2011

haha hilarious.. The so called liberal news trying to tie the protests to what is happening in the middle east is just too much..

haha

[JBourret]

07:41 PM on 02/23/2011

What about Fox News calling the Tea Party protests being patriotic but the union protests as being ridiculous. The hypocrisy cuts both ways, allen.

[grimshaid]

11:56 PM on 03/11/2011

Don't buy the hype. The unions at issue here are the public unions which have forced local economies to pay often double the rate for jobs that the private sector might pay, with ridiculous benefits such as workers being paid 80% of their salary for life as pension after 5 years of service in the job. In what world does anyone live in that they feel they deserve to be taken care of by taxpayers in such a way after such a short term in a position!? The public unions in question make up around 7-9% of all actual unions btw.

The only reason other unions are getting on board here is that they've spent all their members dues/pensions getting people elected who cannot fulfill the promises made (Obama) and they're looking for a means to cover their losses before their own membership starts demanding the benefits they're paid into for however many years they've been a part of the organization.

[Seeitmyway]

07:58 AM on 03/19/2011

Not as much as a skinny middle aged white guy using MR T to be representin' his bad, Mr. Noodle self.

[derspado]

04:55 PM on 02/23/2011

Did Jon not think the camel torture in this video was fitting for his segment?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/video-daily-show-tortures-camel-madison_552378.html

[gibbers]

10:17 PM on 02/23/2011

Actually whoever brought the camel to the site (i.e, the handlers or the zoo people) should have not have agreed to it. It was a bad decision by them. Just because the DS has a bad idea for a comedy skit, it does not mean that those who are professionals in the specific field should agree to it. But I I love the headline "tortures-camel."

I wonder what adjectives the Weekly Standard used to describe 'waterboarding?

[CJDavidson]

02:08 AM on 02/25/2011

I agree: torture is bad. And, in this case, not really an accurate noun. It was an unfortunate accident that resulted in the putting down of an arguably beautiful animal. On the other hand, Jon Stewart and Glenn Beck et al are merely the ring masters, but aren't we the clowns?

[yoozum]

04:35 PM on 02/23/2011

Jon is completely right, as usual. You really cannot deny the Fox/MSNBC love/hate with the Tea Party/WI Protesters dynamic.

[Collin Hawkins]

07:06 AM on 02/24/2011

Yeah, he's right if you accept that people fighting for their jobs and school funding are the same as upper-middle-class people pissed off because poor people are getting health care. Buy that narrative and al Qaeda is basically equivalent to the civil rights movement.

[JBourret]

11:01 AM on 02/24/2011

What does that have to do with the fact that he was referring to Fox and MSNBC? He never said anything against the protest itself. In fact, in the segment after, he showed he was very much in the workers' corner.

I find it funny that you make snide comments that make no sense.

[rebel9999]

03:25 PM on 02/23/2011

They could be easily replaced. There is a large talent pool (about 10% of our population) to choose from.

[Iccarus]

06:59 PM on 02/23/2011

Scab.

[JBourret]

09:29 PM on 02/23/2011

While we would agree rebel's comment is wrong and mean spirited, I would caution about resorting to name calling. Try debating...it is much more liberating.

[Seeitmyway]

08:00 AM on 03/19/2011

Replaced with minimum salary employees with little or no experience? Yeah. Churn n' burn makes a LOT of sense at companies like Frito Lay. But using the same tactic on our kids to save $20 on property taxes is foollish and short-sighted.

[rebel9999]

03:22 PM on 02/23/2011

The politicians are being protected by security. That says alot about the people who are protesting.

[JustMyWords]

08:42 PM on 02/23/2011

Um, it says absolutely nothing about the people protesting. That security is there whether or not anyone is protesting.

[JBourret]

09:33 PM on 02/23/2011

That is a very ignorant statement, Rebel.

[storeysound]

01:50 AM on 02/24/2011

Surprised?

[devildog21]

11:28 AM on 02/23/2011

While I agree there is no comparison to events in the middle east, I hate when Stuart feels the need for false equivalency. Using the Ed Schultz clips to say that there is no difference between the Wisconsin protesters and the Tea Party is disingenuous at best.

[JBourret]

12:10 PM on 02/23/2011

He didn't say there was no difference between the protesters. He was saying how Fox and MSNBC covers protests are hypocritical. So you false equivalency argument is disingenuous at best.

[devildog21]

12:33 PM on 02/23/2011

If he is blasting the reporting by these networks, he is also establishing a false equivalency that because MSNBC has accurately reported that the tea party is a faux movement sponsored by large corporations. But when MSNBC then accurately reports that the Wisconsin protests are in fact a true grass roots movement and Faux Noise and the right wing noise machine has determined that the WI protesters are anything but grass roots. If he is blasting the reporting, he is as much as saying there is no difference in the two movements.

Not sure how you could miss that connection.

[Iccarus]

07:04 PM on 02/23/2011

I didn't like the way he made fun of the Senators leaving the state to avoid a quorum, doe's he really not get it.?

[iagorune]

11:25 AM on 02/23/2011

I like Jon and more often than not I agree with him. But I do really think he is missing the point about why these people are out there protesting and why their Democratic representatives had to leave the state.

[gibbers]

01:52 PM on 02/23/2011

If you watched the second part of the video, you will see that he did NOT miss the point about why these people are out there rallying. He understands that completely.

[elan4444]

10:21 AM on 02/23/2011

Jon may find it easy to satirize the people in Wisconsin who have turned out day after day in extremely cold weather to support the principles of the American right to collective bargaining. Recently the anniversary was observed of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Women working in crowded conditions doing repetitive, tedious work had been locked in the rooms where fire raged. The fire resulted in the deaths of 146 garment workers, mostly women. The tragedy resulted in the creation of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Gov. Walker's proposed legislation would tear down the progress that has been achieved over the last 100 years since that horrendous fire. In being capricious toward this issue, comedians trifle with years of hard-won rights, and even workers comp.

[PhineasGage730]

11:04 AM on 02/23/2011

Wow, that is a good point if you didn't use it to maligne comedians that felt this isn't the equal of Chiaro. To connect this peaceful protest with a tradgedy to add to it is kind of insulting. Sure they are fighting for the same thing but it's not in the same enviorment. I don't think he was belittling thier argument, but looking at it from a realistic viewpoint.

[stuoverit]

05:08 PM on 02/23/2011

You missed the point.

[lisaman]

10:09 AM on 02/23/2011

Nobody calls out the insanity better than Jon!

[virtual0]

10:29 AM on 02/23/2011

Nobody seems to miss the major underlying political tenor of the time than Jon!

[JBourret]

12:12 PM on 02/23/2011

Nobody seems to miss Jon's points and what he actually believes more than certain Huffington Post commenters.

[imajoebob]

10:03 AM on 02/23/2011

This was a really LAME show, from start to finish. For some reason Stewart thinks he has to criticize everything, not just the idiots. Stewart spent most of his show trying to draw painfully lame comparisons between union workers under attack from their government and powerful right wing billionaires and Tea partiers attacking their government with the help of powerful billionaires.

Just like his feeble comparisons of progressive and reactionary right wing media at his Washington rally, somehow Stewart believes there is an equivalency between people trying to preserve their rights from an autocratiic politician and a group of ignorant thugs disrupting public discourse.

Almost as bad, it simply sucked on a comedic level.

[gisellestwocents]

07:07 PM on 02/23/2011

Well put.

[JBourret]

07:52 PM on 02/23/2011

He never said there was an equivalency between the Tea Party and the WI protesters. That is what we call a lie.

[Mack Wingett]

09:47 AM on 02/23/2011

"Give us our free stuff that other people have to work for! We DEMAND it!" "I only get rich off of your tax dollars!" "I'm a janitor! I deserve $40,000/yr.!"

That ain't flyin' with the remaining 88% of us that are at work watching these spoiled-rotten brats.

[virtual0]

10:09 AM on 02/23/2011

That is because you're falling for the divide and conquer strategy of the plutocrats. Instead, you should be focusing your anger on those who truly *are* getting rich on our tax dollars - Wall Street, the multi-national corporations, Congress...esp. Congress, who caused the economy to crash in the first place via radical de-regulation designed to unduly favor their benefactors/enrich themselves.

[elan4444]

01:28 PM on 02/23/2011

Totally. Notice that we haven't heard a peep from anyone lately about the huge sums in bailouts and bonuses that the banks and corporations got? Just so those same corporations could resume business as usual at their overseas locations. America, wake up!

[lisaman]

10:23 AM on 02/23/2011

Posting on your computer while you should be working??

Since you are on the side of the Governor, maybe you could tell me exactly what how taking away the collective bargaining rights of teachers and other public workers will help balance the budget? Or how it will bring jobs to the state because frankly I wouldn't want to move my company to a state where the teachers are going to be the worst of the worst because any good teacher will simply move away where they are appreciated for the job they do.

Oh and I have NO idea how you figure 88% are on the same side you are but you had better think again.

[massnana]

09:33 AM on 02/23/2011

Unions are the medicare of labor. I mean this in a good way. Medicare sets the standard for the insurance industry. Labor unions set the standard for American workers.
The whole issue is health care. We will compete and win globally, when we no longer have to worry about paying the doctor. Of course the doctor is a small business owner, many of whom (certainly not all) care alot more about profits than anything else. And why wouldn't they when they have had to spend so much money for education. The ins industry preys upon them for liability insurance, they cut the amounts that they will pay for for certain procedures the patients co-pays go up and up and up AND YET... The republican party worships at the altar of the insurance industry why can't these "leaders" see that the public option is the only way to reduce labor costs. They can't see because they do not have a plexiglass window over the naval to see through. It is also hard to walk when your head is in that position.

[eyeitall]

09:32 AM on 02/23/2011

As Obama said to the republicans "I won" well in Wisconsin Walker won the election and if the unions don't like the fact that thier candidate lost well "tough nuggies" get another candidate who can convince the Wisconsin voters that continuing debt is good for them and that the unions should have everything they want. And another thing Wisconsin spends more money per student than any other midwest state and according to the DOE 2/3 of all Wisconsin 8th graders cannot read at the 8th grade level so whenever I hear when the so called teachers or union rep talk about how this is for the children I will throw up .

[madatnewsmedia]

10:57 AM on 02/23/2011

Governor Walker won, but that doesn't mean that folks have to roll over and play dead. They certainly haven't done it with President Obama and this is still America.

[ScaredAcademic]

01:24 PM on 02/23/2011

Nice talking point, straight from CPAC news. In case it was mailed to you by your astroturf layer, I will share it for you:

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/two-thirds-wisconsin-public-school-8th-g

Did you look at the rest of the study from which the 2/3 number you cite comes from or think about how anyone could compare it to anything meaningful? If you had, you would have noticed that Wisconsin is well above the median in both 8th grade math and reading scores. It may be that schools are failing nationally but Wisconsin's are failing far less than the vast majority. The states that do better than Wisconsin are mostly Northeastern/New England.

Unlike taking unsubstantiated talking points from CPAC, I'll link the data from NAEP:

http://nationsreportcard.gov/

Most interesting fact is that EVERY state below the Mason-Dixon line is below the national average and many are statistically different (meaning that measurement error is not enough to explain their failure). This fact is, of course, omitted from CPAC's talking points. Nice try, though... I'm sure some sheeple bought it.

[Tribidemp]

01:25 AM on 02/24/2011

Nice!