Jon Stewart is leaving his post at the Daily Show after sixteen years. Rolling Stone wished goodbye to him as the “last honest newsman.” He was one of the few people who kept both the media and politicians honest. The Daily Show and Stewart rose to prominence in an era when Americans had very little faith in news and politicians. He leaves a vacuum in American satire, commentary, and politics but also leaves a legacy in form of the shows hosted by Larry Wilmore and John Oliver.
While he leaves his own legacy, Stewart is part of a longer tradition of the New Left. The New Left came about in the 1960s and 1970s. They were young college students upset with the Vietnam War, inspired by the Civil Rights movements across the country, and made comfortable by the plenty of the post-WWII economy. The New Left set itself apart from the old left of the 1920s and 1930s. The old left was a political tradition worried about the inherent inequality of the capitalist system, focused on the need to organize workers on the shop floor, and tried to resist the efforts of a global bourgeoisie. The New Left was not interested in the Marxist alienation from the means of production, instead their alienation was personal. They were disenchanted and disaffected. They felt themselves empty and sought a truer form of authenticity.
