Stephanie Miller: Jester of the Resistance

By ED RAMPELL

Radio host Stephanie Miller is in the vanguard of the cutting-edge comedy currently attacking Donald Trump through humor. Interestingly, the lefty Miller is the daughter of Republican royalty. Born 1961 in Washington, Stephanie’s father William Miller ran for vice president on the GOP ticket with ultra-conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater in 1964. The openly lesbian Stephanie was honored as one of the LOGO30 LGBT icon/artists/activists across Logo TV’s platforms featured for pride month and nominated for the Radio Hall of Fame.

RAMPELL: Did the midterms result in a Blue Wave?

STEPHANIE MILLER: It’s a tsunami, that’s what I think. No matter how they try to spin it, it’s still a Blue Wave. The Democrats won so many House seats. There’s not one Republican in Orange County, California, now. Let me just say that Adam Schiff getting subpoena power is the sexiest thing I ever heard.

There was not only a “Blue Wave” but a “Pink Wave.” A lot of new women entered Congress. What do you think of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez…?

Listen, I’m thrilled about all of it. I knew that the day of - I’m not going to say “inauguration” - but the “Putin puppet installation,” when I was in Washington for the “Women’s March.” If you thought women were pissed off then - and I always said, “This Blue Wave is going to be female” - and it was. It was the women that voted and the women that ran and got elected. It’s fantastic.

At one point, I said, “Stop listening to the pundits or the polls.” Because they kept saying, “The Kavanaugh thing was going to help the Republicans.” It absolutely did not. Guess what? Women were pissed off about the Kavanaugh hearings. And that’s how they voted…

In general, I was thrilled. The [candidate] I loved was the Native American lesbian kick boxer [Kansan Sharice Davids]. I said, “I’d love to see Trump call her ‘Pocahontas’!” There was a female wave, an LGBT wave, a people of color wave - it’s like Obama says: “When people vote our representatives look more like America.”

AOC belongs to Democratic Socialists of America. What about the idea of democratic socialism?

…They tarred - they tried that with her right when she won [the Democratic primary]. Because they love to push this “the-Democrats-are-in-disarray” narrative. And she said immediately, “I am a proud Democrat. Period.” They were using that as a kind of, the Bernie-versus-the Hillary people, “are you a socialist?” Yadda yadda yadda. They don’t ask Republicans “are you a fascist?” And guess what? Some of them are. You know? They literally elected two indicted felons and a dead pimp. Some of the people they had running literally identified as neo-Nazis. The division is not on the left — we’re always going to have a big tent.

When you say “socialism,” I don’t know what that means. Americans agree on most issues - Democrats in general are for Medicare, minimum wage, affordable healthcare, right?

[With] Democrats control[ling] the House what do you want them to do?

Well, job one for me [is] getting the traitorous lunatic away from the nuclear codes. But I don’t think that’s just being hysterical. I honestly think we’re in a really dangerous time. I feel like people are — I don’t think enough people have their hair on fire to what an incredible international crisis we’re in. It’s like the whole “the emperor has no clothes on” … You can’t watch him, read a transcript, without going “he is not well.” He is not sane. He is a complete conspiracy theorist. He is obviously becoming unglued … There’s no telling what [Trump] would do.

We have never had a president that doesn’t care about being president for anyone who didn’t vote for him or doesn’t like him. And that’s an awful lot of the country. I mean, during the horrible wildfires in California he takes the time to send a dick-ish tweet about not sending any federal funds because of some other ridiculous conspiracy theory. However bad you thought it was going to be, this is worse — isn’t it?

Your Dad, William Miller, was Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater’s running mate. What do you think your Dad, and Barry, would have thought of Trump and today’s GOP?

They’d be appalled. …My Dad …was a prosecutor at Nuremberg [trials] and… he… identified Nazism as the source of evil, more than communism — because of what he’d just seen in Germany. [Trump] has outright Nazis identifying with Trump and the Republican Party … The mass shooter at the [Pittsburgh] synagogue followed exactly the conspiracy theory that Trump was espousing. The shooter was responding to the caravan. It just feels like such a dangerous time. Somebody sent bombs to 15 of Trump’s biggest targets - politicians, including ex-presidents … I was shutting down our post office box. I wasn’t going to put any of my staff at risk when all this mail bombing of liberal targets was going on.

What was the ​Sexy Liberal Blue Wave Tour?

We’ve been doing the ​Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour for a few years and selling out theatres all over the country. …We re-launched in 2017 as the ​Sexy Liberal Resistance Tour. In 2018, we just did three shows specifically for the midterms called the ​Sexy Liberal Blue Wave Tour, and it was all about getting out the vote. We worked with Tom Steyer’s group, NeedToImpeach.com, NeedToVote.com… We sold out D.C., Chicago and L.A. …The Sexy Liberal Podcast Network just launched sexyliberal.com/.

Congressman Schiff was one of your guests at the ​Sexy Liberal Blue Wave Tour comedy show at [L.A.’s] Saban Theatre.

He was hilarious. He was there with Rob Reiner, Martin Sheen and Margaret Cho. The biggest cheer in the room went up - everybody was like, “Oh my god! He’s here!” when Adam Schiff walked in. Obviously a theatre of political nerds.

One of the best parts was when Congressman Schiff said “f**k.”

Yeah! Twice I think. Dropped a couple of F-bombs.

Congressman Ted Lieu was onstage with you.

Yeah. He is a rock star. He’s a Twitter god. I love the way he trolls the president. Like Adam Schiff, he’s a prosecutor. I just love how they take it to him every day. They are not afraid to back down. That’s what we need is fighters, because we’re in the fight of our lives in this country.

You not only had Congressmen on the stage with you… but also the US “acting president.” What do you make of Martin Sheen?

It’s not for nothing how many people say, “Oh god, why can’t he be president?” Trump is like the 180-degree opposite, the Bizarro World evil twin of President Bartlet. Beyond that, Martin Sheen has been such an amazing activist for years himself … He’s honestly one of the most deeply kind, decent, moral people I’ve ever met. He doesn’t have to do this — he’s obviously a hugely successful actor. But we talked about it onstage with Rob Reiner, how many times he’s been arrested for his activism. He really walks the talk …

That kind of man - it’s really lacking. Quite honestly, Trump is not just the worst president, he’s just the worst human we’ve ever been exposed to. He is a traitor to the US. …just a terrible, terrible human. He’s mean, he’s divisive, he’s only in this for himself. It’s just extraordinary.

Sheen is a good role model for Trump because not only has Sheen portrayed the president on TV like Trump tries to, but Sheen has been arrested more than 60 times. Like Trump, he’s a president who will be a jailbird.

Well, right - except at least Martin got arrested for good things. Whereas treason and money laundering generally are not good things to get arrested for.

Has Trump tried to obstruct justice?

Yeah. Absolutely … This Manafort thing, he’s obviously been dangling a pardon in exchange for information about the Mueller probe. It is clearly obstruction of justice and witness tampering. He adds more counts every day of obstruction of justice, witness tampering - you name it.

Do you favor impeachment?

Yes, I’m for impeach YESTERDAY. I call myself the Veruca Salts of impeachment: “I want it NOW, daddy!”

Who do you want… for president in 2020?

Literally f**king anyone but Trump. At this point we have a wealth of great people on our side. Look at how Bill Clinton and Obama came from out of nowhere — maybe it’s someone we don’t even know yet? … I love a lot of people on our side … Let’s see it play out — we just have a lot to do before then.

Who are some of the candidates you love?

I love Kamala Harris. I love Julián Castro… Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren. There’s a lot of great people on our side.

To hear “The Stephanie Miller Show,” if you don’t have a liberal talk radio station, see stephaniemiller.com or use the TuneIn app on your smart phone. Find liberal podcasters such as Bob Cesca, Frangela, John Fugelsang, Randi Rhodes, Dean Obeidallah, Jody Hamilton and others at sexyliberal.com.

An extended version of this interview originally appeared in the May 2019 Hustler.

Ed Rampell is a film historian and critic based in Los Angeles. Rampell is the author of “Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States” and he co-authored “The Hawaii Movie and Television Book,” now in its third edition.

From The Progressive Populist, August 1, 2019

Populist.com