Just reading the transcript of the exchange between Bill Maher and Michael Moore from Friday night’s “Real Time” episode doesn’t quite capture the surreal nature of what these two prominent liberals are talking about.
So here’s a video of the entire segment.
“You know, I was going to ask you, about ‘Bowling for Columbine,’ about guns,” Maher said.
“Now that facism’s coming to America, and their side has all the guns. Any second thoughts?” he asked.
The only jackbooted, uniformed thugs in the streets are Antifa leftists. The only speech being suppressed is on college campuses, where conservative speakers are routinely harassed, threatened with bodily harm, intimidated, and shouted down.
Maher may be right about “fascism coming to America.” He just has the wrong source.
“There are 7 million Americans that own 160 million guns,” Moore continued. “They have stockpiled them. This is the elephant in the room in terms of the discussion of what are we all going to do, putting our bodies on the line, what does that really mean.”
What evidence — except in Moore’s fevered, unbalanced imagination — is there that a significant number of people who own guns would ever consider turning them on their political opponents? This kind of hysterical paranoia is growing on the left the further we get into Donald Trump’s tenure.
Nearly four months until midterms, Mr. Moore said Democrats “have to find ways” in the interim to stop the Senate from voting on whoever Mr. Trump picks to replace Justice Kennedy, who announced his retirement earlier this week.
“‘Find ways?’ What does that mean? Like what?” asked Mr. Maher.
“I’ll join a million other people surrounding the United States Capitol,” replied Mr. Moore. “I will stand there. I will put my- Bill, let me tell you something. If this judge goes through, for at least the rest of all of our lives, it’s a right-wing court. That’s it. It’s over.”
What’s “over”? Partisan liberal dominance of the Supreme Court? Judicial lawmaking? Being able to ignore the spirit and intent of the Constitution? What makes America such a marvelous country is that there are at least two (usually more) ways to view just about every issue. The Supreme Court is supposed to ignore politics and decide a case based on its relationship — if any — to the Constitution.
Now, you and I are grownups and we know that isn’t usually the case, as evidenced by liberal and conservative justices almost always splitting along partisan or ideological lines. But, at the very least, you want a justice who respects the Constitution as it was written as well as the intent of those who wrote it. It’s a no brainer. If liberals don’t like certain parts of the Constitution, let them change it. The mechanism to do so was written into the document.
But that’s hard work and would mean trying to convince a large number of your fellow citizens of the righteousness of your cause. It’s so much easier to appoint judges who share your disrespect for our founding document and can invent legal justifications to enact a political agenda than it is to elect legislators at the federal and state level who share your views and would change America via the constitutional amendment.
That, Mr. Moore, is what would be “over” — the “living Constitution.” Indeed, an entire body of law has been created in service to a left-wing political agenda, bypassing Congress and the legislatures — and short-circuiting democracy.
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