Dear Jon,

I love the Daily Show. It has been an island of sanity in an insane world ever since the Clinton administration. And yes, I’ve been watching for that long. In fact, I remember watching you on the Daily Show before it was cool to do so, back when you replaced Craig Kilborn and everyone else thought that the show sucked without him. And let’s be honest, for a while it did. But that was only because you were trying to do his show, and not your own. After a while, when the Daily Show really became your show, and you did it in your own style, I knew that there was nothing else like it on TV. And I told everyone I thought would be interested to watch you, but most thought you were lame, I’m sad to say.

But all of that is long in the past. Your show is now the late-night show to beat. And you’ve given the world Stephen Colbert, and the world thanks you for this. But with your stardom and your success, Jon, you seem to have at least one foot in the door of being part of the establishment. And with this has come an ever-increasing guest list on the Daily Show of conservatives and centrists and other media celebrities who already have a voice in their respective arenas.

On the conservative side, you’ve repeatedly had William Kristol, Bill O’Reilly and John McCain on your show, in addition to Newt Gingrich, Andrew Card, Ron Paul, Lynne Cheney, Peggy Noonan, Chris Wallace and so on.  And, you’ve had every Bush press secretary on your show.  Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan, Tony Snow, and Dana Perino have all sat in the chair opposite you.

And then you’ve had centrists and Democrats like Doris Kearns Goodwin, Presidents Clinton and Carter, Senators Clinton and Obama, Al Gore, John Kerry, Al Franken, Michael Moore and so on.

In addition, you’ve presented us with a string of book authors, some we’ve heard of, many we haven’t, and I do applaud your show for being one of the only places where books are openly discussed on popular television.

And then there are the comedians and movie stars and musicians you have on to plug their latest project.  We understand, Jon, that you have to do this to keep the corporation you work for happy, but most of the time, when someone tells me that “tonight’s guest is Adam Sandler,” I cannot change the channel fast enough.

Which brings me to my point.  Jon, you are sitting pretty in life.  You have a show where you can do basically anything you want.  You and Colbert own Comedy Central, and they need you way more than you need them.  And you’re financially set for life and will never have to work again.  You could walk away from the Daily Show today and live the rest of your life in opulent splendor if you wish.  Since you have this rare opportunity to do something that few people do, namely have a voice in popular culture that people listen to and respect for its honesty and integrity, I dare you in the next few years of your contract to use your show not to promote people who are already famous, who already have a voice in the media, but to promote the voices and causes and concerns of the people who have no voice in the media, who are fighting the establishment of corporate life and the Democratic/Republican hegemony, and who are trying to actually make the world a better place, not those who are simply promoting their own money-making agenda.

It’s true that ours is generally a celebrity-obsessed culture, but you, Jon, have a core audience that will sit and listen to unknown, non-telegenic authors discuss their latest book about war or history or whatever with no complaint.  If they will tune in for that, then you can get them to tune in for anything.  In fact, your friend Stephen Colbert has had, frankly, a much more diverse and interesting group of guests on his show than you have on yours as of late.  My plea to you, Jon, as an intelligent human, and as a father, is to bring on your show those guests who are not Democrats or Republicans, who are not part of the establishment, who do not already have a voice in mainstream media.  Because they will be the ones who will ultimately make the world a better place for your children to live in, not Peggy Noonan or John Kerry.

For instance, you talk a lot about gay rights and gay marriage on your show, but I can’t remember a single time when you’ve had a guest on to speak specifically in favor of gay rights.  We hear, on your show, from the Bill O’Reillys and Bill Kristols about the “culture war,” but in response we only hear your personal opinion on the subject.  How about hearing from someone directly affected by this conservative bigotry, and what their point of view is?

In general, your show is still better than anything else out there, and I have an enormous amount of respect for you personally.  In addition, the writers and reporters on your show are, to a person, intelligent and hilarious and compelling, and your usually brilliant take on the news in the first segment of the show is really why people tune in every night.  My challenge to you, then, is to use your established fame and credibility to not just give the already famous people of the world yet another place to appear on TV, but instead to help those who should be famous but aren’t get a foothold in popular culture.  You can do it if you want to, Jon.  You can use your show, as Colbert is doing, to help bridge the gap between old and new media, and between the old and new ways of thinking.  The rest of us can only dream of ever having the reach or influence that you have achieved, and I know that if I had that kind of reach and influence, I would not squander it by becoming just another corporate media establishment.

Thanks, Jon, for making a great TV show and for giving me a reason to keep my cable.  I’m looking forward to seeing what you do during an Obama administration, and I will continue to hope that you use your show to help change the world, not just make fun of it.