Leading the Cultural Initiative

The other night, my boyfriend made an excellent point.
It was about "The Daily Show with John Stewart."

You see, whenever he and I go political, it's a firefight. His strong point-of-view is highly rational and truthful, leaving little room for idealism. While he argues with topical points and comparative reasoning, I retreat into a "can't we all just get along" recourse*. Ultimately, if you don't actually fight to change the situation, don't complain. Just like voting or picking a dinner venue, not participating means you don't have a say after. It gets pretty stressful. I find both our points-of-view valid and important, but I could never understand why he couldn't abide the late night entertainment with leftist slant news jokes. I know he is intelligent and conservative - nay - libertarian. So what is it about this comic vet that sends him reeling?

After a heated row rallying behind the reality that any news station puts forth a certain level of editorial-ism and assumption that administers persuasion towards the viewer, I took long breathes trying to achieve the apolitical zen I've become accustomed to while he spoke through the reality that our opinions need to matter. He rambled on for a bit about whether or not he should join a sect of the tea party at the risk of being called a racist. After all that, we quieted down.
So we walk through the door into our disenfranchised youth studio apartment for two, and he pauses to tell me the exact culmination of why those who hate the Daily Show hate it...

"It's just...he makes it okay to laugh at what they're doing. The reason everyone judges is because they don't know what's going on. They just watch him...Nobody takes it seriously, and he makes it okay."
This gave me pause. It's a completely apolitical statement. Moreover, it's true. And it's more than just the show generating a casual dissent to popular opinion, it's the aversion to the tragic loss of political involvement. Not only is it okay to laugh at Occupy Wall Street, but let's laugh at those who laugh. Let's polarize, then attempt to unify through comedy. Let's draw in the undesirables then make fun of them while they stand there awkwardly. It's unhealthy.
This is a view I've known and cared for quite a bit, and my true feeling which will probably leave me in a sticky hot mess sometime: It's the view that the two major political parties are so polarized that the thought of dissension to the other party's idea is sickening to our political leaders. And rather than compromising, it's become easier to just say no and try to do it themselves (a value which I believe is inherently American).
This party polarization has grown so rigid that being wrong is implicit with being of different political ideology. It isn't about listening and understanding, it's about values being intrinsically wrong coming from the other side. I wonder what this conflict will look like to future generations. That being said, the passing of judgement has become second nature...
"If it looks like a hippie, it's wrong."
"If it looks like a yuppie, it's wrong."
This is best shown through our celebrity culture, where every other news report on Yahoo forces us to ask "Who wore it better?" It's a social programming in competition. We refuse to understand the other side not because it sounds wrong, but it looks wrong.
So, where does that leave us? Picking sides. And even the media diffuses our conditioning of respect in lieu of separation and laughing at the other side.
The only sides left are extreme frustration or complete abandon. The middle doesn't exist anymore.

*I can be quite the hippie when it comes to this stuff.