Young Americans look to Jon Stewart for news

This article was published in The Guardian 22 September 2010

With his 'rally to restore sanity', Jon Stewart has become the figurehead for American liberalism – not bad for a comedy show host.

One does not need to go far in America for confirmation that the middle ground is a foreign land, and one that few natives have the passport to visit. Recently, this realisation came about 10 minutes from my front door.

"Are you aware of the dangers of fornication?" a woman who looked like she had walked out of the pages of Little House on the Prairie asked me in New York's Washington Square. Before I could even ask her where DID one buy bonnets from these days, she handed me a leaflet warning – with accompanying stick-figure illustrations – that fornication causes "dirty thoughts; lustful motives and selfish friendships" (and, to be fair, one can't really argue with any of those points).

Just as I was about to figure out what that stick figure next to point two on the list was supposed to be doing, another leaflet was shoved my way, this time advertising lessons at a local sex shop where I could learn how to do things that would probably not be approved of by people in bonnets. Interestingly, the two leaflets weren't that different – both favoured the list format and both were fond of the word "filthy" – it's just that one had more of an emphasis on the Corinthians and the other's only commandment was that "lube should be your BFF". Chastity or lube? As we say in America: and these are my options?