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Comedian and Real Time host Bill Maher appeared as an interviewee this Wednesday night on Chris Cuomo’s show on CNN, where he delivered a harsh constructive critique of the Democratic Party, its woke discourse and progressive policies.
According to his position, today’s Democrats are “completely toxic” to the American public, which was demonstrated by the sweeping Republican victory in the Virginia election.
While Maher is clearly adverse to the Republican Party (especially Donald Trump) and defines himself as an “old-school liberal,” he believes that the political divide has been exacerbated by radical positions on both sides of the political spectrum.
Maher thinks that the Republican wing backing Trump has contributed to deepening distrust in the American democratic system, keeping alive the idea that the Democrats rigged the 2020 election and fueling a “slow-motion coup.”
Whereas, for him, the Democrats have become a party “without common sense,” dominated by “woke” ideology and cancellation culture, and have blindly defended controversial situations that would have been scandalous had they been staged by Republicans.
One clear example Maher used to illustrate his claim was the liberal media’s little (or no) coverage of the Hunter Biden scandals.
“If Don Jr. had done what Hunter Biden has done, it would be every night, all night on MSNBC. But the fact that it’s Hunter Biden, and Joe’s on the blue team… see? That’s the problem in America: everything is so binary. Everything that the red team doesn’t like, goes in the blue bin and viceversa,” Maher said.
Regarding the term “woke” and the progressive ideology behind it, Maher believes it has lost its original meaning and has become a sign of extremism.
“In its best sense, if we’re talking about being aware of things we should have always been aware of more, reckonings that we’ve had with sexual maleficence and racial injustice, that’s all a good thing… but there’s a reason why the term ‘woke’ has come to signify going too far. And doing things that don’t make sense,” the comedian said.
When Cuomo tried to come to the defense of Democrats and attack Republicans by saying they are a “group of people” whose goal is to “destroy our institutions,” Maher said Americans care about things that feel “close to home” and affect them directly.
“If my kid comes home from school and tells me, ‘They’re telling me I’m a racist. What does that word mean, Mommy?’ Is a kid, a young kid, old enough to process that?” responded Maher to Cuomo’s insinuation. “If a child wants to change his name to a girl’s name, that stuff is right in your home. That’s at your kitchen table.”
Maher and Cuomo go head to head on Critical Race Theory
The conversation turned to Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its teaching in schools. While Cuomo implied that “nobody knows what it stands for” and that it’s not being taught “anywhere,” Maher’s response was upfront: “it’s not a phantom.”
The HBO star confronted Cuomo over his attempt to hide the fact that CRT is a national issue, telling him that it’s different to teach the history of racism “honestly” than to say that racism is “the essence” of the country. “Kids are taught and sometimes separated into groups: oppressor and oppressed,” Maher said.
