Bill Maher Shows He's Still a Pompous Bag of Hot Air

I caught a little of Bill Maher's RealTime season opener last night. I used to be a regular follower until Maher's ego got the best of him as he launched into pedantic diatribes, absolutist editorials built on cherry-picked facts. Last night's show continued in that vein.

Maher chose for his opening interview guest Trump shill Kellyanne Conway.  Predictably, Conway made up a stream of excuses for Trump and the events of the 6th on Capitol Hill and, of course, pointed out that 74 million Americans had voted for Trump and the insurrectionists were a piffle, a few thousand or slightly more. Maher immediately jumped in, telling Conway that he would be making that very point in his closing monologue which he often uses to chastise liberals for not having reached his level of personal enlightenment.

Maher's closer was as promised. America needed reconciliation and that would never happen so long as "smug liberals" kept blaming Republicans for the sins of a few. Liberals were to blame for deepening the wedge between Democrats and Republicans.

I liked Bill Maher much more when he stuck to what he does well - satirical comedy. There's a lot of licence in satire. It doesn't require balance or accuracy. Unfortunately Maher never understood that the loose bounds of satire rarely suit political punditry.

Yes, there were some 73.9 million Trump voters who didn't travel to sack Washington on January 6. Yes, the insurrectionists numbered 15 thousand, maybe 20 tops. Those are facts and we can probably all agree on them.

What Maher, like Conway, hide behind the curtain is the representational factor. In the aftermath of the attack, Newsweek reported on a poll that found 45 per cent of Republicans surveyed supported the attack on the Capitol while slightly less, 43 per cent, strongly or somewhat opposed the protesters' behaviour. Another poll revealed that 51 per cent of Republican respondents said Trump bore no blame for the sacking of the Capitol or the five deaths that resulted. 

In other words, half of rank and file Republicans supported the insurrectionists and absolved Trump of any responsibility. With that, Conway's and Maher's nonsense about a "few bad apples" is reduced to pathetic sophistry.

How are American liberals supposed to reconcile with Republicans? What Republicans should they embrace with benevolent forgiveness? 

Yes, the protesters were bad actors. Their numbers included some militia types, Proud Boys and other white nationalists. Proud Boys appeared wearing shirts emblazoned with "6MWE." That means 'six million weren't enough.' I hope I don't need to explain that but it's in the link. Remember, hours after the riots started, Trump took to the airwaves to speak to these miscreants, adding that "you're special" and "we love you." And he does. 

The Brown Shirts and SA paramilitaries who tore up Germany on Krystallnacht were also a small minority of the German population. Easily half of the German people found them reprehensible but, as Sebastian Haffner documents in "Defying Hitler," many went along to get along. That's how these movements take hold, incrementally, and, when 45 per cent of Republicans surveyed come out in support of insurrection, this radical rightwing movement has taken hold.

How can liberal Americans reconcile with their Republican adversaries in these circumstances? Hell, there's a civil war underway in the Republican ranks now that pits a radical rightwing, Tea Party/Treason Caucus contingent against old school, centre-right conservative Republicans.  The radicals are seeking to purge the moderates from positions of power within the GOP. The big tent is shrinking fast.

For Maher to suggest that good liberal Americans must turn the other cheek in these circumstances is rank sophistry built on astonishing ignorance. This guy needs to stick to satirical comedy.