Bill Maher on 'Identity Politics'

[Frayed Knot]

Excerpts from “Real Time” host Bill Maher closing his show last Friday night by scorching Democrats for "pandering” to minority groups for votes, telling them the time of relying on “identity politics” to win elections is over. 

“... but I do give a shit about who wins the next election and outdated racial pandering is one reason Democrats lose elections. ... Here in California, we’re now segregating kidnapping. Really. California doesn’t just have AMBER alerts for missing children. We have “Ebony alerts” for Black children and “feather” alerts for Native American kids. What is that, you look for them by listening on the ground?

Pointing to statistics that show a “276%” increase in Americans who identify as multiracial and how “one in five” new newlyweds are in interracial marriages … “You couldn’t do a remake of ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ today because almost 100% of Americans approve of interracial marriage, especially with rich in-laws”

In America now, you’re allowed to be many things all at once and that’s a good thing, even when it’s really stupid,” (while showing an image of “Queers for Palestine” protesters) “We’re all Jelly Roll now. We’re sloppy, complicated and contradictory. Two-thirds of Republican voters support weed legalization … 41% of Democrats own or live with someone who owns a gun. Ms. Marvel is Pakistani and the winner of the last two NBA dunk contests is White. The new Captain America is Black and Spider-Man is Black and Puerto Rican, just like [the AI version of] George Washington.”

“Latinos make up half of the Border Patrol and the name of the coolest Black dude on the planet is Lenny Kravitz. RuPaul has a ranch in Wyoming that does fracking!… Somehow the leader of The Village People was straight… The leader of the Proud Boys isn’t an old White guy it’s Enrique Tarrio, an Afro-Cuban… Caitlyn Jenner is a pro-Trump trans woman who supports a ban on trans athletes competing in women’s sports… Our Black president was half White and our Black vice president is half Asian.” 

“The liberal group MoveOn.org formed in 1998 to urge Republicans to move on from the Clinton impeachment. Today’s Democrats should move on from identity politics. It’s not working for them or for us. Democrats are hemorrhaging the very voters they think they’re pandering to. ... The more you obsess over identity, the more you ignore the bread and butter issues that win and lose elections. The real issue is class, not race. And the real gap is the diploma divide. And the real future of the party and maybe democracy depends on Democrats figuring that out.”



Now he's obviously playing some of these lines for laughs and there's a fair amount of leaning on anecdotes for support ... but I don't think he's wrong.

[MFS62]

Neither do I.
For years he has been saying that the Democrats are pushing an agenda that is too tied up in identity politics for most Americans, and it will cause them to lose more votes than they gain.
Later

[A Boy Named Seo]

As long as the racists and transphobes are down to quit blaming all the problems of our once-proud country on drag shows, fuckable M&Ms, migrants and DEI, I think the Dems might agree to Bill's terms.

But seriously, from that excerpt, I'm not sure specifically what he's complaining about besides feather and amber alerts. And even if he thinks those are stupid or don't work as intended, there's a reason for both and it has nothing to do with segregation. He should maybe ask how we got here and how we're supposed to get to wherever it is he thinks we should be going in this post-Trump America because no one "others" people like Trump and his followers do and that's sadly not stopping anytime soon.

Also Lenny Kravitz lol. Bill Maher's a blowhard.

[Edgy MD]

I think he's a no-account, massively wealthy, unfunny jerk.

I am not a member of either major party, and I don't traffic in identity politics and don't respect those who do — but the idea that they don't work is sadly absurd, as is the notion that it's the province of one party.

But the last thing we need is one more mega-wealthy, mega-snotty, fact-averse, conflict-entrepreneur tool raking in profit by sparking people's Americans' contempt for one another. And that's what Bill Maher is and what his long career as a make-believe public intellectual has amounted to.

[smg58]

The only demographic group you can sway votes with by appealing to their sense of identity over tangible self-interest is straight, white, Christian men.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Fuckable M&Ms.

Lolollolol.

[kcmets]

The only demographic group you can sway votes with by appealing to their sense of identity over tangible self-interest is straight, white, Christian men.

Publicly straight.

What happens at the hunting cabin stays at the cabin.

[Edgy MD]

Dude! I thought we agreed to never mention the untinghay abincay!

[Methead]

Fuckable M&Ms.

Lolollolol.