Kudos to Bill Maher. We need more of this from all sides...
Posted By Ian Schwartz On Date January 16, 2021
Bill Maher called on Democrats not to write off all Trump voters as deplorable and asks Republicans to consider whether some of their anger is misdirected in a monologue delivered about the "tragedy" of Trump voters Friday on his HBO show "Real Time."
"Let's not confuse 5,000 people with 74 million," Maher said to his audience. "Yes, even supporting the insurrection in spirit is, well, deplorable. But there's a difference between holding illiberal beliefs and acting violently on them. At least that's what they always told me about Islamic terrorism."
"I keep wrestling on this show with the hard question of how do Americans, all of us, learn to share a country with assholes you can't stand," the host said. "I preach, and still do, you can hate Trump, but not all the people who like him. And as counterintuitive as it may seem, you can like something run by assholes without being one yourself."
Maher shared the sad story of Air Force vet Ashli Babbitt, a Qanon follower, who was killed in the Capitol Hill riot and was in dire economic straits. He said her compatriots were storming the wrong building, implying the White House, because President Donald Trump failed his supporters. The HBO host also criticized the state of California for not protecting her from a radical loan rate (169% interest).
"Guys, you are storming the wrong building," Maher said to Capitol Hill rioters. "The feet up shouldn't have been on Pelosi's desk, it should have been on Trump's tanning bed. You thought Trump was going to be your bull in the china shop? Yeah, he was, but you were the china."
"Should Ashli Babbitt have applied better logic in seeing that her real problem in life wasn't pedophile Democrats or Antifa and that people like Elizabeth Warren were actually the ones who were at least trying to do something about predatory lending and economic exploitation? Yes. But not everyone can watch MSNBC all day. She had other priorities, like fighting overseas," he said.
"Maybe, since all politics is local, all she knew was she lives in a state that cares more about her toxic whiteness than her toxic brokeness," Maher added. "And that the state that is run entirely by Democrats. Yeah. They didn't stop anyone from charging her 169% interest on a loan either."
"It shouldn't be that surprising that America is full of fed-up unhappy people who just want to break shit," Maher continued. "Trump sure didn't drain any swamps but when it comes to graft and corruption and everybody wetting his beak, California, yeah, that's a swamp too. We can't put up a housing unit for the homeless for less than $500,000 or build a rail line connecting the state for less than $200 million a mile."
"California is a blue state that is completely held together by red tape," Maher declared. "It's no wonder people are leaving in droves. I am in year 4 of trying to get my solar power hooked up. Just building this shed (pictured) up to code took 3 years. We'll all be getting our power from dilithium crystals before my solar gets turned on."
"How about this? Will you let me hook it up if I let the homeless live in it?" Maher quipped.