Bill Maher took aim at the Republican party in a big way on Friday night’s “Real Time,” saying that the GOP’s new platform is “making the world safe FROM democracy.”
The Washington Post’s assertion that “democracy dies in darkness” is wrong, according to the comedian and late-night host. “It dies in plain sight because enough people think democracy is a luxury America can no longer afford. That is pretty much the position of the Republican party now, that you can vote for anyone you like but it doesn’t count if it’s not us,” Maher said during his New Rules segment. “Heads we win, tails we coup.”
He went on to argue that there has never been as much difference between the political parties as there is in today’s America.
“Here’s why,” he said. “Democrats, for all their flaws, still see democracy as the essence of America. They see America and democracy as inextricably linked. They believe that one without the other is unthinkable. Republicans – thinkable. Very, very thinkable. Republicans now seem to be OK with America continuing to exist as a country, but without being a democracy.”
Utah Senator Mike Lee is one such example of that kind of thinking, Maher said, pointing out that Lee said we’re not a democracy. “‘Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty peace and prosperity are we want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that,’” Maher said, quoting Lee. “Which is a weird idea for a campaign ad: vote for Mike Lee because voting is bad.”
Also cited as an example, the Republican candidate for Congress in Washington state who called Democracy “mob rule.”
“And that is a big talking point from conservatives these days, that the founding fathers feared mob rule. This from the party that on Jan. 6 encouraged a literal mob to attempt to rule. If you violently attack the US Capitol, kicking in doors, breaking windows, killing cops, chasing duly elected representatives out of the building, all with the intent of overturning a lawful election and hanging the vice president for certifying it, you know, in the name of patriotism, maybe you’ve lost the thread of exactly what it is you’re supposed to be loyal to. I’m no constitutional scholar but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t say, ‘in the case of an election loss, break and install your guy anyway.’”
Yes, we are a republic, he said, “an improved type of democracy, not something apart from democracy. Still, a system where we vote! The votes count! And the winners, with reasonable restraints, are put in charge. That’s the best, albeit imperfect, way to do this thing called government. And we all used to get that, but now many Republicans have decided that democracy is what’s wrong with America.”
The persistent claim by the right that Joe Biden “stole” the election and that there is rampant voter fraud were all debunked. Numerous times. “In the circular logic of today’s right, the evidence that the election was stolen IS that they lost,” Maher said. “The evidence of voter fraud is that sometimes Democrats win. This is madness.”
Differences between the parties have always existed. But Maher said that “neither ever really doubted that our system of accepting electoral loss was what made America different from so many countries who could never get that right. It was, as much as anything, what made America great, despite the fact that, in a democracy, yes the people who win sometimes get things wrong. Maybe that’s why Churchill called Democracy ‘the worst system of government, except for all the others.’”
Maher understands the panic these days, acknowledging that the left is getting some things looked on as “wrong.” “But conservatives now sound creepily like the generals in some country where they finally experimented with democracy for the first time and, well, they didn’t like it so much. ‘I’m afraid we let the voters decide and they f’—ed up.’”
Next month CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference is holding their convention in Hungary. Maher asks, “Hungary? What’s the matter with Kansas? Well, apparently, it’s not authoritarian enough because the new platform from the right is ‘making the world safe FROM democracy.’”
You can check out the entire New Rules segment in the clip at the top.
