Two Lewises, sounding very much alike

First off, Lewis Black here:

I don’t really like Hillary Clinton. But [Marco Rubio] is saying she’s the past. We need someone who is going to take us to the future. And he’s the one who is going to take us to the future. And I’m sitting there thinking he doesn’t get it.

Not only do we need to get back to yesterday, we need to get to the day before yesterday. That’s how far behind we are. Don’t tell me about the future. What are you going to do? Magically make racial tensions disappear, Marco? The future is to go back and pick up the strands that have been staring you in the face and start working on them.

Where have I heard something like this before?

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road, and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.

I am an avowed fan of both Lewises, just for full disclosure. (Though I do have certain points of disagreement with Mr. Black, particularly when it comes to religion.) But it is truly fun to see a self-described ‘democratic socialist’ make an argument about the myth of progress and the future-pointing direction of American politics which sounds so classically conservative! Bonus points to him for taking Marco Rubio to task from just such a conservative perspective, and showing that the Republicans are just as (and in some ways, even more) susceptible to the calls of an errant and heretical myth of progress.