Bill Maher Dares To Dream Of Mediocrity

Shut the fuck up, Bill Maher.

If the fictional “limousine liberal” conservatives imagine could somehow impregnate the living embodiment of smug condescension, somehow that would still result in something better than Bill Maher.

On last Friday’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO Max, Maher ended the show with his “New Rules” segment. While the various “rules” in this recurring segment can vary from mild chuckle to groan, his final “rule” featured really stupid attacks on NYC Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani.

It was off to a rough start when his first “joke” landed with deafening silence:

And finally, New Rule: Democrats must recognize that Zohran Mamdani is the future of the party.

Unfortunately, it’s the Republican Party.

Maher, somehow shocked that he’s not funny, looked at the audience with a mixture of anger and Jeb Bush “please clap” entitlement.

Captured the moment here for your enjoyment.

The audience gave him consolation laughs (or were cattle prodded for ignoring the laugh/clap sign in his studio), but Maher couldn’t help giving a snide retort as if it was the audience’s fault he’s a bad comedian:

Get it?

No, we do, Bill. You’re just not very good at this.

Maher proceeded to the rest of his scripted screed, as he had no other choice and he’s not very good at improv. Problem is the rest of the segment seems to have been written about the fictional AI scary version of Mamdani that haunts the NY Post, Van Jones, and Andrew Cuomo in their nightmares.

And if you missed his victory speech in last week’s mayoral election in New York, don’t worry. You’ll see it in every attack ad for the next two years.

Maher then proceeded to flash the screen with out-of-context quotes or positions Mamdani has changed on that were not part of his victory speech.

If you really want to know what Mamdani said in his victory speech, here is the video and a link to the transcript of his speech.

But it doesn’t matter how centrist or radical a Democratic politician or candidate is, Bill.

Mamdani could be the reincarnation of Bill Clinton (minus the sex pest part) and would still be the subject of GOP attack ads. Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were all called communists/socialists/Marxists just as viciously. The GOP will lie, villainize and take them out of context all the same … similarly to what you did there, Maher!

Maher then proceeded to give Mamdani backhanded praise before beginning his praise for the one true avatar of the Democratic Party.

Let’s listen to the other big winner in last Tuesday’s election, Virginia Governor-Elect Abigail Spanberger, who, before the 24 elections said things like, “If the party didn’t shift to the center, we will get fucking torn apart.” And “we need to never use the word socialist or socialism ever again.”

While we’re glad Virginia was spared a crazy person like Winsome Earle-Sears as Virginia’s governor, let’s not get it twisted and believe Spanberger has always been right. We’ve already mentioned the numerous times that she’s undercut the Democratic Party immediately after successful elections. But Maher, taking a cue from these Spanberger quotes, then proceeds to give bad analogies.

We’ve run this experiment many times, and the results are always obvious. […]

In 1990, Venezuela was wealthier than Poland. But then Poland, finally free of Soviet-style economics, went all in on capitalism. And now their economy is as big as Japan. […]

Meanwhile, Venezuela traded capitalism for Hugo Chavez’s socialism for the 21st century, which turned out to be like socialism in the last century, or any century. […] It turned one of Latin America’s richest countries into one of its poorest.

Hey, what happened to successful democratic socialist countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain? Where’d they go? We guess Bill Maher just forgot!

Maher also avoids a very clear factor in his examples: American intervention.

During the ‘80s, Poland benefitted from the US funneling millions to trade unions and the CIA performing covert operations providing money/equipment while helping with propaganda for Maher’s ideal capitalism.

From the 1960s to the ‘70s, to the ‘80s and ‘90s, Latin America has been subject to numerous disruptive American interventions through CIA assisted coups and the US exerting its economic power. This, of course, included Venezuela. Maybe scientists could explain to Maher how results are not accurate if you constantly intervene with an experiment mid-process.

Or maybe a former CIA agent could talk to Maher about this interventionist history, but we digress.

Maher then made an excellent point, which he should have listened to:

I don’t think people realize we already have a lot of socialism. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, food stamps, veterans’ benefits, Pell Grants, COVID-era payments, farm subsidies, disability payments. […] All that is socialism, much of it appropriate to soften the edges of capitalism.

Then he said some more stupid bullshit.

Governor-elect Spanberger once said about Biden’s presidency that, quote, “nobody elected him to be FDR. They elected him to be normal.” Normal!

Maher went on to bitch about the DSA convention, woke politics and other pet peeves of his. But the question we want answered by Maher (or Spanberger) is simple:

What is abnormal about FDR’s presidency?

Maher literally listed all the programs created or inspired by FDR as “much of it appropriate to soften the edges of capitalism.” Not only have those policies been politically popular, as they had to create an amendment to prevent three terms like FDR had, but they’re also societally good.

Zohran Mamdani might not be FDR, but we should elect people who say “yes, we can” and that “the only thing we have to fear but fear itself” rather than those resigned to the status quo like a Joe Manchin. We should always strive to progress and make a better society for all.

Although as Maher is an incredibly successful mediocrity, we totally get why he advocates to never reach for higher.

Follow Michael Mora on Bluesky and Threads. (If you are still on Twitter, I’m also HERE)

You can subscribe to Michael Mora’s Substack, The Diasporican Writer, for additional thoughts and topics!