Maher’s real point is that Democrats should be more like Republicans and do whatever they can get away with
Bill Maher had a lot on his mind Friday on “Real Time,” his first new show of 2020. The episode covered topics ranging from the attacks on democracy by increasingly right wing Republicans, frustrations with COVID-19 measures, and some of the usual complaining about “wokeness” with frequent guest Bari Weiss. And then at the end, Maher closed things out with a novel suggestion for how President Joe Biden could save his presidency (and, maybe, the country): By getting married to his ex-boss, former President Barack Obama. The inspiration was Biden’s dismal polling numbers, which Maher attributed to a serious lack of enthusiasm for Biden, compared for the cult-like devotion Donald Trump inspires in his supporters. This means bad things for the 2024 election, Maher continued, since the Democratic party doesn’t, at the moment, seem to have anybody waiting in the wings who could energize the base. And that’s when he suggested Biden and Obama tie the knot. Now, Maher’s real aim here wasn’t a cheap joke at the expense of gay people, it was to make a point about what he sees as a gross asymmetry between how Democrats govern and how Republicans govern. Democrats, Maher correctly noted, are basically obsessed with following the rules, even when those rules are nothing more that established traditions not really rooted in laws. Republicans, Maher argued, have increasingly just done whatever they can get away with it; if it isn’t expressly against the rules, they just go for it.
