Bill Maher, a self-avowed libertarian who prides himself on doling out critical opinions against conservatives and liberals alike, dove into a problem he sees with Democrats and the left in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday night.
Maher and Tapper were discussing the notion of “wokeness,” with Tapper pointing out that he hears the term often but that it “means something different to everybody.”
“I think it’s this collection of ideas that are not building on liberalism but very often undoing it,” Maher said. “I mean, five years ago, Abraham Lincoln was not a controversial figure among liberals. We liked him. Now they take his name off schools and tear down his statues. Really, Abraham Lincoln isn’t good enough for you?”
Maher was likely referring to a recent effort by the San Francisco school board to rename 44 schools whose names it deemed had a link to slavery, oppression, racism, genocide or other similar criteria. Those names included Lincoln, George Washington and Dianne Feinstein, among others. The city’s mayor, London Breed, opposed the measure, saying at the time it was an important consideration but that there were more pressing matters the school board should be dealing with — like the physical return of children to schools.
On the matter of Lincoln statues, in December 2020, Boston removed a controversial statue of the former president from the city’s Park Square. The statue featured Lincoln standing over the kneeling figure of a formerly enslaved man atop a platform labeled “Emancipation.”
In the CNN interview, Tapper set up a question about the evolution of identity politics, mentioning inclusion and asking the HBO show host whether he supported it — “theoretically.”
“Yeah, I support it — in fact,” Maher replied. “But, I mean, the Democrats can sometimes take it too far.”
But Maher stressed that he would “categorize ‘liberal’ as different than ‘woke.’”
“Woke, which started out as a good thing, ‘Alert to injustice’ — who could be against that? — but it became sort of an eye roll, because they love diversity, except of ideas,” Maher said. “And that’s not really where we should be. I mean they have a trail of very bad ideas, I would think.”
Watch video of the conversation between Maher and Tapper at the top of this post.
