On last night’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart took on Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s trip to Howard University.
“Some have said that I’m either brave or crazy to be here today,” Paul said Wednesday at the historically black university.
“But that’s what heroes do,” Stewart added. “They don’t think head first when the plunge into a symposium with high-achieving students at a prestigious university.”
Stewart then addressed a question posed by Paul: How did the party that became the first party elect black members of Congress lost so much of the black vote? The host reminded his audience of the GOP’s “southern strategy,” devised during the Nixon campaign to appeal to white, southern voters through subtle (or not so subtle) racism.
“From Nixon’s law and order, to Reagan’s Cadillac-driving welfare queens, to H.W. Bush’s Willie Horton campaign, all the way up to the present day where the party had a serious presidential candidate who lived on a ranch that had once been called…” Stewart paused, letting CNN play the racially charged name of Governor Rick Perry’s old summer home.
We were then treated to clips of Senator Paul noting the Republican Party’s contributions to Emancipation and Civil Rights, to which Stewart responds, “You can’t just ‘yadda yadda yadda’ the last 60 Republican years.”
“The problem with this theory that all that stands between the Republicans and the plurality of the black vote is a history lesson is, well, enjoy…” Stewart said before cutting to Senator Paul “whitesplaining” the Republican origins of the NAACP, an instant classic.
Watch: