This is a different kind of "Dear Jon" letter — the kind where we beg Jon to take us back.

Jon, we know why you left us. We remember it well. "This show doesn't deserve an even slightly restless host," you said, just over a year ago, in announcing your Daily Show retirement.

It was an admirable sentiment. You were, as always, fighting the demons of self-delusion, reminding us of the need for change, for progress. You wanted to ensure things were getting better.

But things have changed since then, as you know. A dark cloud has settled over America. We are being haunted, improbably, by the specter of a blustering billionaire bullsh*t artist with bad hair.

Oct 23, 2015 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets guests at his Rally event in Doral, Florida Image: Michele Eve Sandberg

Nobody seems to know how to defeat him. Every time we point out his nonsense, he spouts more of it, gets more free media, and the problem gets worse.

Oct 23, 2015 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets guests at his Rally event in Doral, Florida Image: Michele Eve Sandberg

A serial liar, misogynist and racist is just a stone's throw away from the presidency, and the press is not holding his feet close enough to the fire. This is the kind of situation you and your kind of cut-the-bullies-down-to-size comedy were made for. And the villain in question just happens to be your old nemesis, The Trumpster.

Oct 23, 2015 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets guests at his Rally event in Doral, Florida Image: Michele Eve Sandberg

Honestly, if there were such a thing as a Bat Signal in the shape of Jon Stewart's head, we'd be lighting the crap out of that thing right now.

Here's the thing, Batman. We don't have a few years. The Republic is in danger now.

We're not suggesting that you kick Trevor Noah out of his seat on the Daily Show. We like Trevor. We're sure he'll eventually return the show to the 2.5 million viewer level it reached under your stewardship. He's settling into the role, just as it took you a few years to figure out your niche.

Here's the thing, Batman. We don't have a few years. The Republic is in danger now.

I know you signed a deal with HBO last November — to produce digital short-form content. But honestly, we need more from you than what you described as "a few minutes of content every now and again."

I know you're tired. I know doing so many nights of television wore you out. But it's like the game is in its third quarter already, and the common sense team is barely hanging on. It's time to get our strongest player up off the bench. It's time to #BringBackJon.

Image: Andre Chung for The Washington Post

Now, taking on The Trumpster won't be easy. The way the candidate tangles up the truth, confounding and soft-soaping his interviewers, requires constant vigilance. Go to the tape, compare and contrast his statements, do the surprised face, do a spot-on impression, get furious. Wash, rinse, repeat.

That's why this situation calls for more than just a single appearance. We don't just need another "Rally to Restore Sanity," like the one you held on the Washington Mall in 2010 at the height of Tea Party insanity.

We need something more drastic. Perhaps a whole nationwide tour of sanity-restoring rallies — following in Trump's wake, perhaps, the med team to his virulent disease.

I was reminded of all this on Tuesday, when Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was charged with simple battery against a reporter who was trying to ask a simple question.



Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, March 15, 2016. At left is his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Image: AP

Trump and Lewandowski had been denying the incident even happened for weeks. Now they simply changed their tune, blamed the victim, claimed she'd changed her story, and wondered out loud whether her bruises had been there before she was manhandled.

It was a classic abuse scenario. But what was even more breathtaking was the fact that none of the major outlets asked Trump about the incident.

That's why we're starting the #BringBackJon campaign.

Those in the conservative wing of the #NeverTrump movement have a new hero in Charlie Sykes, a radio host in Wisconsin who kept his head while interviewing Trump on air this week, calmly and cleverly exposing his pettiness. Those of us in the political center and left are looking for the same kind of hero.

That's why we're starting the #BringBackJon campaign. We aim to pull you from your plow, Cincinnatus-style. Don't even try to pretend you don't get that reference.

#BringBackJon, because informed, talented and entertaining mockery is the best way to ensure that we #NeverTrump.

So brush that dust off your suit and put on a fresh pot of coffee, Jon. We're going to need you to stay up and figure this sh*t out for a while yet.

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