Bill Maher: George Carlin's Successor

I recently discovered Bill Maher interviewing a couple of political pundits. How did I not listen to him before?

I don’t access pundits on TV who spin webs of cherry-picked information to influence me, much like a Madison Avenue advertising agency. Think Mad Men. But not funny.

Bill Maher is different, much like the great comedian and social critic George Carlin before, Maher critiques politics and culture within a veneer of humor designed to make the uncomfortable more comfortable. In the broadcast I saw, he noted the Democratic party’s popularity now lies around 20%. and for all practical purposes they can’t change what President Trump and Republicans do. Not unless democrats change their messaging or the economy tanks in the next two years because of new tariffs and Wall Street nerves.

I prefer that the Democrats change their messaging and approaches in politics.

What should they change? Here’s what Maher suggests and I agree:

1. Get off the DEIS horse. Mr. Ed has long left his barn and running well, if not winning every race. Forcing diversity where culturally it makes little sense similarly makes no sense. For example, some populations gravitate to some professions and not others. I know lots of Jewish lawyers, doctors, and businessmen, but few Jewish farmers, craftsmen, 7-11 owners, or HVAC repairmen.

Everyone should have the same opportunity to succeed in any profession, but success will still be predicated on performance, work ethic, and perseverance--putting in the metaphorical 10,000 hours (five years) of hard work. I understand that some p3ople because of circumstances ranging from genetics to where they grew up at children come to the table with disadvantages compared to others.

This has been the case since human history began. It cannot be changed by edict or handouts. Only individual effort can change what would appear to be a future of difficulty. I don’t agree at all with J.D. Vance’s opinions as ,our current vice president, but his life story, regardless Trump’s spell over him, serves as a reminder of how someone growing up in dysfunctional poverty can rise out of it.

Here’s another example of DEIS and hypocrisy within it. At Syracuse University where I worked, I found it odd that DEIS did not extend to money-making sports but only academic units and student applications. Could basketball coach Jimmy Boeheim have built NCAA tournament quality basketball teams of 80% white players, commensurate with general population statistics? Maybe. But white men can’t jump.

2. Find communicators/candidates to address the problems that actually concern ordinary Americans, the “common man.” Even the highly educated people I know mostly concern themselves about paying their bills, housing, advancing in their jobs, and providing secular and religious education for their children.

To communicate to the common man, think Aaron Coplan’s fanfare or poet Carl Sandburg’s Chicago, Maher thinks a politician has to project “authenticity, balls, and charisma.”

You can’t teach these attributes; you either have them or you do not. Hillory Clinton, Kamala Harris, the Bushes, and Joe Biden didn’t. Ronald Reagon, Bill Clinton, John Kennedy, and Donald Trump did and do.

Chicago

BY CARL SANDBURG

Hog Butcher for the World,

Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;

Stormy, husky, brawling,

City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,

Bareheaded,

Shoveling,

Wrecking,

Planning,

Building, breaking, rebuilding,

Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,

Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,

Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,

Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,

Laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.”

Having charisma, authenticity and balls doesn’t necessarily mean a person will be good for the presidency, but it will give a candidate a fighting chance to find out in a time where social media and web “influencing” serve as the norms in communication. Jeff Bezos is cutting back on pundit commentaries in The Washington Post because people can get all the commentary they want online. Good and bad, just like the legacy press. I’m not saying the loss of legacy press will be good or bad. It is just more likely than not.

Maher likes Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania for the next democratic presidential candidate, “Trump like” in broad characteristics, while smarter, not a lier or bully, and he respects real facts.

Fetterman speaks his mind in a common way, unafraid of controversy by doing it. He said, “I am not woke,” which speaks volumes to his wanting to reach people tired of being harangued and having to accept new liberal norms that violate their religious sensibilities and even their common sense. Maher suggests the democratic party has to stop acting like it’s part of the Netflix series Portlandia, and I agree.

So there you go—a plan for democrats to try to be politically relevant in the future. If they decide to go this way and not extent Democratic Portlandia for another season, they need to do it in outstanding sound bites and images. And then deliver their promises should they regain power in Washington.

Trump is delivering on promises to his core supporters. Some of what he tries will succeed and some will fail. But in all cases he doesn’t hold back to aggressively communicate what he has done. Last night, I could not bear to watch Trump’s State of the Union address, filled will insults and crudity pitched to his staunchest supporters and not the entire electorate. He might as well have used the F-bomb.

Had Biden better messaged his administration’s successes and Obama before, we might not be in the political chaos we now find ourselves in. Both presidencies did good (and some bad) but the message of the good never got out clearly in the style of Twitter or Instagram. The democrats need to go to Madison Avenue and get help.

“Where’s the meat?” Well—HERE’S the meat. And its juicy!”

The democrats remind me of NASA, whose technical prowess getting us to the moon and beyond played an enormous role creating the technology today: robotics in medicine, miniaturization of everything, computing, electric vehicles, wireless, GPS, and the list goes on. I saw seeing a piece of equipment at Goddard Space Center the size of a bread box that consisted of four geochemical instruments (one on each side), the commercial versions of which literally filled four labs in my academic building. NASA miniaturization that legally could not go to market.

Nobody knows it but space enthusiasts. People STILL me why we have NASA anymore when so much needs to be done here on earth. Indeed. They go hand in hand but most people don’t know it.

Go Bill Maher. I look forward to your commentary in the future.

No music. Just Bill Maher.