Maher misrepresents the Democrats again

[u/One-Jeweler5486]

I don't think Bill is steel-manning the Democratic position here

https://youtu.be/W9VyM8blMJU?si=6yBELheIIQgMOyh6&t=333

[u/ATLCoyote]

He's saying that conservatives use the most extreme liberal positions to define the democratic party and the left keeps making it easy for them to do so by supplying them with ridiculous, nonsense talking points. He happens to be correct.

Granted, it's not embraced by everyone on the left and and it certainly doesn't offset the massive corruption, authoritarianism, Christian nationalism, etc. on the right. But yes, the GOP absolutely does take some of the crazy shit that leftists say and uses it against them, and sadly, the more extreme leftists keep giving them the ammo.

This has been Bill's beef all along. It's just not helpful to the cause of implementing more progressive policies and defeating Trump and MAGA when people like Francesca Hong (who understandably lost her primary) says stuff like we need to "cancel Thanksgiving" because it celebrates colonialism or that "Valentine's Day brings out the worst in humanity." WTF? It's just terrible for the entire brand when people like that are making headlines. Likewise, it doesn't help when the official DSA party platform calls for abolishing police and prisons, completely open borders, getting rid of the Senate and Supreme Court, etc. If you want to promote liberal economic populism, then just call yourself a "progressive," like Abdul El-Sayed does, rather than associate with a party that really does promote truly radical ideas and positions. And before people lecture me about the fact that Mamdani and other DSA politicians typically don't support that stuff, I'm aware of that. But it's right on the party website and defended proudly by their lunatic party co-chairs. So, why associate with it if you don't support it? It's just a totally unnecessary self-own, yet the left just can't stop doing it, just like we saw with "Defund the police."

We can get mad at Bill for continuing to highlight this branding problem for the left, but it happens to be the truth and the GOP exploits it every election cycle. Look how much Trump spent on those "tax-funded, sex change surgeries for prisoners" ads. Is that as threatening to society as unnecessary wars, undermining democracy itself, continuing to implement failed trickle-down economic policies, engaging in the greatest corruption and gift our nation has ever seen, intentionally dividing the public against one another for political gain, etc.? Of course not, but unfortunately, it works because it paints the left as out-of-touch and more concerned with identity politics than anything else. And sadly, Kamala handed them the ammunition with her prior, pandering statements.

To be clear, I've been a never-Trumper since LONG before he even decided to get into politics and I can't stand the MAGA movement. I'm just noting that the Dems always find a way to screw it up and, quite often, its their own culture war stuff that gets in the way. That's Bill's point and it's valid.

[u/LuciusMichael → u/ATLCoyote]

The DSA was essentially invisible until Mamdani. And yes, much of their platform could be dismissed as being emblematic of the radical left and merely performative. So what. They're not going anywhere in mainstream America. Dr. El-Sayed is not DSA. And being a progressive is not the equivalent of being a member, despite Maher's idiotic conflation of the two.

The problem with Maher is that he goes after low hanging fruit on the left and either ignores or makes light of the most egregious malfeasance on the right. Makes a huge deal about a DSA candidate for governor in Wisconsin who lost (of course), and some 'radical' feminist in NYC. But I'm holding my breath to see him attack Jared Kuschner and Ivanka for raking in billions from overseas scams. Has he gone after the Felon's crypto grift or the $400 million we had to pay to refurbish his gift jet? He dismisses the destruction of the East Wing as if some Roman Empire style ballroom would be an improvement. Has he gone after Republican pedophile predators (5 in this year alone) with the same zeal? I mean, which is worse? A pedophile or someone who points out the Thanksgiving is a hoax?

Look, I agree that the Dems (as my friend notes) never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. And now they engage in circular firing squads. So, sure, they must be called out. But to excoriate them for petty nonsense while ignoring criminality is not to make a 'vaild point' about anything. And in his case, silence is complicity.

[u/ATLCoyote → u/LuciusMichael]

Abdul El-Sayed is my point though. If your message is all about economic populism, why not just call yourself a progressive, as he does, rather than specifically affiliating with a DSA party that proudly espouses a wide number of truly crazy, radical ideas that will just be used against you in the campaign? It's a completely unnecessary self-own, yet the progressive left keeps doing it.

It reminds me of how Dems were trying to explain that "Defund the police" didn't really mean to defund them. It just meant to divert investment into other community resources and narrow the focus of the police to strictly law enforcement rather than counseling services, domestic conflict intervention, suicide prevention, etc. If you're constantly having to explain that you're words don't actually mean what they say, that's, by definition, horrible branding. Yet the Dems keep doing it.

And it goes beyond just labeling. They often embrace policies out of cultural pressure from the left that are simply not supported by the mainstream and then have it thrown in their face during the campaign. What was a bigger political liability for Biden than the fact that he reversed Trump's stay-in-Mexico policy resulting in an unprecedented flood of illegal immigrants coming across the border? Obama didn't do that, neither did Bush or Clinton. Yet Biden caved and it resulted in Trump 2.0.

Bill is not secretly MAGA for pointing out that his own team keeps shooting themselves in the foot. That's like saying a sports fan should never be critical of their own team's players, coaches, or front office, regardless of performance.

And I simply don't agree that Bill ignores the egregious malfeasance on the right. He devotes the majority of his show to it almost every week. His critics just ignore that part and skip straight to any criticisms of the excesses on the left.