No I won’t be nice. This is your fault.
I’m glad Real Time with Bill Maher is back on the air after its winter hiatus. I missed the show. Yes, I have some big disagreements with Bill Maher. He’s completely blind to his own racism and doesn’t seem to care. He is pro-gun mostly because – as a celebrity – he thinks he should have guns. He allows his hatred of religion to bleed into an unapologetic form of bigotry against Muslims. And he’s just way too comfortable with his own narcissism. But he’s still one of the smartest comedians – and commentators – on television. He has a gift for persuasively articulating important, sometimes complex ideas. And we can always use more of that.
But for the past two weeks he has been repeating a talking point that causes me to say, “Nope. You and I just don’t agree on this.” Bill Maher has been saying, “It’s okay to hate Donald Trump, but it’s not okay to hate the people who support him.”
Well, you know, that sounds very high-minded. It sounds like the sort of thing that a person of good moral character and tolerance should embrace. Here’s why that’s just plain wrong.
First, let’s just take the word “hate” off the table. The word is highly emotional and highly subjective. We could spend the rest of the day debating exactly what “hate” means and get nowhere. We don’t need that word in order to debate this issue. I am “against” Donald Trump and I am “against” the people who support him.
First of all, Donald Trump was elected president because a substantial segment of American voters felt the need to push back violently against the previous eight years of having a black president. Sure, a lot of other reasons contributed to the outcome, but none would have been sufficient without good old fashioned American racism.
And so, all you folks out there who did that. This is your fault. I blame you and I’m gonna have a real hard time forgiving you.
Second, every single stupid, incompetent, evil and corrupt thing that Donald Trump has done in office – every goddamn thing – was only possible because Republicans in Congress let him do it. They had the power to thwart him, just as they had thwarted Barack Obama for eight years, but they chose not to because they were scared. They were scared of Trump’s base of supporters. They were scared of their own dumbass voters. They were too afraid of losing their own power, which is really all they care about.
So if you are part of Trump’s base of supporters, if you are one of the dumbass voters who are keeping Congress scared, this is your fault. Your fault. You are responsible for empowering everything that I am against. So I am against you.
And all those high-minded folks who think I ought to be more civil, all those people like Bill Maher who say Trump supporters are not the enemy, you need to take a seat, drink your tea and shut up. There are real life and death stakes here. I’ll be civil when the rest of you stop trying to destroy our country.
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