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Two Old White Men Bet $20 On The Country's Future

By Andrew Sanford | TV | March 21, 2023 |

By Andrew Sanford | TV | March 21, 2023 |


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Our country is more divided than ever! We need to find common ground if we want to thrive. Why must we talk circles around each other? What happened to the good old days when politicians could set aside their political differences and have a frank chat? It’s almost as if those days didn’t exist, to begin with. Any common sense or empathy can be undone thanks to politicians appealing strictly to their base or being too out of touch with regular people. Those problems were on full display during a chat between current Senator Lindsey Graham and former Senator Al Franken on The Daily Show.

I appreciate what Franken and (to a lesser extent) Graham were trying to do here. At a time when members of Congress are stalking the halls of their colleagues looking for a fight or shouting obscenities during the State of the Union Address, it’s vital to see that these people are all friends. They note political strain on those relationships when it benefits them, but they are friends. Anyone who has worked a job with many employees knows that sometimes it’s just easier to be friends with an asshole because you are forced to work with them.

While a show of companionship is all well and good, it is constantly undermined in this interview. The people I mentioned who are harassing their colleagues? Republicans are doing that stuff. Franken points that out, and Graham dismisses the chief offenders but stops shy of admitting how dangerous she is. He makes a joke about it, and because, as Franken says, Graham is the funniest Senator, Franken laughs and offers no pushback. Instead of friendship begetting an honest conversation, Franken doesn’t get as critical as he should.

That said, he may not want to. Franken and Graham find common ground initially by criticizing Trump, even though Graham proudly admits he wants Trump as the next President because he (checks notes) kills real good. Later, they find common ground over dismissing the “defund the police” movement. The interview is twenty minutes long, and some batshit things are said throughout. The craziest is Al Franken, sitting in a city with a police budget of $12 billion annually, dismissing the idea that police are overpaid.

In perhaps one of the most on-the-nose “old white man” cliches during the interview, Franken and Graham reenact a scene from Trading Places. They place a bet on who will win the next election: Joe Biden or Donald Trump? One, despite his flaws, led the country in the wake of a disastrous former administration that attempted to retain power through a violent coup. The other was the head of that administration. Pardon my pearl-clutching if I think that betting a crisp Andrew Jackson on that election is tone-deaf at best.

At one point during the interview, Graham jokes that the other Daily Show guest hosts tried to get him on but he would only talk to Franken. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was true. None of the other hosts were old, out-of-touch white men. How on earth could they find the ever-elusive common ground we so desperately need?! That common ground exists, just not in the way that people like Graham and Franken are interested in.