Bill Maher Isn’t a Progressive After All
Bill Maher lost a considerable amount of respect among peers in response to his egregious attack of principled Progressives. Although Maher adamantly defended Progressives against attacks by establishment Democrats in the past, today that's no longer the case. Although Maher may have occasionally faltered at times, his political analysis had been usually thoughtful, and intelligent. Unfortunately, Maher has changed over the past couple of years into just another cheerleader for establishment Democrats.
Last week, Maher dedicated his new rules segment to once again attack progressives, he calls purists, because they have the nerve to stand up to money in politics. Maher did this while defending the people who created the environment that produced the Trump Presidency.
Now Maher has sadly changed into just another partisan hack, berating progressives continuously. On top of all that the comedian is fully blaming principled liberals for Trump winning the 2016 election. Although the change in Maher didn't happen overnight the 2016 Democratic National Convention clearly stands out as the tipping point where his feeling changed. Bill Maher's attitude completely transformed during the convention. His criticisms of protesters were misleading and unwarranted, while making his disdain of Bernie or Bust supporters clear. Rather than listening to the valid concerns of protesters, Maher viciously attacks them and anyone else not bowing down to Hillary Clinton. He made his position clear, progressives must fall in line, even though there was no way to vote against foreign interventions Wall Street or Big Pharma.
Although Bill Maher was not the only one attacking progressives for pointing out clear problems was Hillary's campaign, he was one of the few Bernie supporters to act in such a shameful matter. Many of these people who were speaking up we're trying to help Hillary, but instead of listening they turn their backs saying that they could win Republicans over instead.
It's now been 6 months since the election concluded, yet Bill Maher continues his finger pointing, while continuing to make excuses for Mrs. Clinton weekly on his show. Last weekend Maher took a step far over the line when he said "fuck you" to principled progressives that didn't vote for Hillary Clinton, instead choosing to vote for Jill Stein. There is a problem with Maher's conclusion that is the fault of "Bernie or bust" that he obviously overlooked. Yes, Stein did get 1 percent of the vote, but 9 percent of Democrats voted for Trump. Why doesn't Bill chastise them? Where it's the big "fuck you" to the Bill? Oh yes, it doesn't fit your narrative,does it Bill? These are Democratic party voters who voted for Obama twice, but because they felt abandoned by their party they voted for Donald Trump.
So why did these Democrats that voted for Obama twice feel so abandoned by their own party that they voted for Donald Trump? Well there are several reasons, but two major issues were at fault in the Rust Belt States that swung the election. First Obama's relentless attempt to pass the Trans Pacific Partnership, which the Democratic Base strongly opposed. Second was the fact that as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lobbied on behalf of the TPP 45 times, and as first lady supported NAFTA, which cost States like Pennsylvania, and Michigan millions of high paying quality jobs.
It all goes back to Hillary not having a message I'm with her and stronger together are not a message. Hillary Clinton lost because she failed to run on policy due to the severity of her hubris, assuming she had the election in the bag. The plan of running on it clichés platitudes and PC outrage didn't work. Talking about how horrible Donald Trump because he said " I grab them by the pussy". In all honesty, Clinton should have gone after Trump saying things like the "Geneva conventions are the problem". Additionally she should have pointed out his outrageous view that it is okay to kill civilians "saying he would take out their families" when referring to terrorists. These are all things that Bill Maher doesn't want to mention because it doesn't support his narrative that so-called Progressive purists cost Hillary the election which is simply not true.
Making things worse Maher when on to make a false conclusion that Hillary Clinton wasn't actually the lesser of two evils at all instead implying she was great. He then went on to create an alternate reality where Hillary was portrayed as a liberal hero of sorts. He did this to attract the people who were actually on his side whether or not he knows it that said she was the lesser of two evils. He then brought up Donald Trump's so called love of dictators, which yes it's true Trump has praised certain dictators. In contrast the Clinton Foundation actually has done far worse, taking millions of dollars in donations from dictators all over the world. They accepted donations from Saudi royals, and Hillary even approved one of the largest weapons deals with the same country as Secretary of State. Weapons they then used to slaughter innocent civilians in Yemen, while arming extremist rebels in Syria.
Maher continued falsely representing Clinton’s policies, by exaggerating how she would be far better on climate change. Now Clinton wouldn't have backed out of the Paris Accords, which is certainly a possibility with Trump. But when considering Hillary's position on fracking a problem arises with Maher's assumption. Just to be clear the progressive position on fracking I said to this dangerous and should be banned. In contrast Mrs. Clinton refused to say she would ban the practice, despite the fact scientific studies have shown just how dangerous fracking is to the environment. Not to mention Clinton actually went around the world as Secretary of State to sell fracking to the international community on behalf of big oil.
What Bill Maher fails to realize is that Hillary Clinton is one of the people that helped fuel the rise of the populist right literally. Memos leaked by Wikileaks of John Podesta emails showed Hillary's campaign actively tried to boost Trump during the Republican primary, because the Clinton campaign thought he would be the easiest candidate to beat and the general election. Furthermore, sources close to Trump have verified Bill Clinton spoke with the supposed billionaire urging him to run for president during phone weeks before Trump launched his campaign in 2015.
This isn’t the first time Maher has analyzed an election incorrectly. In 2014 he claimed Democrats lost because “the American people are stupid, and they don’t care”. To give him some credit, he was somewhat right, but largely missed the real problem Democrats created for themselves by running as Republican light. This strategy caused the Democrats to lose the majority in the Senate. When voters are presented with two Republicans, they tend to vote for the person actually in the Republican Party.
The problem with a Democratic party goes back even further than just 2014. When considering the losses, Democrats have suffered between 2008 and 2016 due the "Republican Light" strategy it’s clearly time for a new strategy. Republicans control every branch of government, thanks to faux Progressives like Hillary Clinton losing races that should be easy to win.
Clinton did face several problems, although she clearly faced sexism, and bigotry it’s not what ultimately cost her the election. Furthermore, there is a lack of direct evidence to substantiate allegations of Russian interference with the election. Wikileaks maintains Russia was not the source of leaked Clinton campaign, and DNC emails. If your campaign had never done anything wrong the emails would have never existed. As for the very valid FBI criminal investigation polls showed only a minor effect on the election. However, Hillary could have avoided the investigation by following U.S. law, and state department protocol. Clinton’s decision to have the private server with ever obtaining permission was irresponsible.
Hillary is deeply flawed, she ran a campaign based on platitudes, without ever having a real message. Her insistence on running as the status quo candidate left the door wide open for Donald Trump to run as pretend right-wing Populist. The American people saw through the bullshit of Hillary Clinton, and her entitled attitude toward Bernie Sanders supporters, acting like they owed her their vote without ever earning it, costing Clinton the election. Bill Maher, and the rest of the left need to admit they were wrong. The Establishment needs to acknowledge that they screwed up when they rigged the primary against Bernie Sanders. Maher and the Democratic Establishment are condemning the party to failure every time they attack Progressives. Regardless, the Democratic Party cannot survive under establishment rule. The party will become irrelevance unless the establishment surrenders control to Progressives.
By: Jay Krainert
Editor in Cheif
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