Bill Maher acknowledged on his show last night that his over-the-top, hysterical exaggerations about the dangers to the republic of past Republican candidates now make his criticisms of Trump ring hollow. He admitted to crying “wolf” in criticizing John McCain and Mitt Romney, whom he then referred to as “honorable men.”
Bully for him. The only problem is, his criticisms of Trump — calling him a “fascist” – are equally ridiculous.
On HBO his show “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the comedian was discussing “young and idealistic” millennials who say they are not fans of Trump or Hillary Clinton.
“So I’ve heard these young people on the news they say things like Donald Trump I don’t like him but Hillary, I can’t vote for a liar,” he began.
“First of all, it’s just apples, and oranges — and orange,” Maher joked.
Maher made a plea to young voters, warning them against a “fascist” Trump.
“This is different. I promise it, this will not make your life better. And also, once fascists get power, they don’t give it up. You’ve got President Trump for life,” he said.
Maher admitted to being too harsh in criticizing Republican candidates before Trump, acknowledging that they wouldn’t have been the “end of the world.”
“I know liberals made a big mistake because we attacked your boy [George W.] Bush like he was the end of the world, and he wasn’t,” he said. “And Mitt Romney we attacked that way. I gave Obama a million dollars because I was so afraid of Mitt Romney.”
Maher said neither Romney nor Sen. John McCain would have “changed my life that much” if they’d defeated President Obama.
“They were honorable men who we disagreed with and we should have kept it that way,” he said. “So we cried wolf and that was wrong. But this is real. This is going to be way different.”
https://twitter.com/popcornreel/status/794776387215192064
“President Trump for life”? Either he is incapable of recognizing his own hysteria or he’s besotted with partisanship to the point that paranoia has taken over. Trump has never said anything that would give any reasonable person cause to think he is planning to become a dictator.
Trump’s towering ignorance will make him an incompetent president. But is that “dangerous” in the sense that our basic liberties will suffer? Trump will not have the power to close newspapers or shut down TV networks. He won’t be able to cancel an election. He can talk tough about denying people entry into the U.S. based on their faith, but he will need the cooperation of Congress to get that done, which isn’t likely.
The U.S. is a lot stronger than either a President Trump or a President Clinton and neither candidate is capable of “destroying” America. That’s not to say that neither candidate’s incompetence won’t get us entangled in a military conflict somewhere or a public policy like amnesty or wall building won’t be seen as a big mistake. But we’ve got almost 230 years of building a functional republic that worked pretty well even in the midst of a civil war and two world wars. How much worse can either candidate be than that?
The hysterical criticism directed at both candidates does not serve American democracy.
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