During his closing monologue on Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that “Every election year, Democrats seem to remember patriotism for about an hour at their convention when they’re trying to win back swing voters.” But “treat patriotism as something vaguely embarrassing” the rest of the time.
Maher began by saying, “Everybody has to start getting a little more excited for America’s birthday. … I’m not down with this attitude of, well, we’re having a party, but if Trump’s going, I’m not. That’s so high school it should be in the Epstein files. … I’m not saying Trump doesn’t want to muddy the distinction between himself and the country. He sure as shit does. That’s what wannabe authoritarians do. They try to blur that line. Don’t be an accomplice. Especially since, for all of Trump’s nonsense, America is still here, still incredibly prosperous by world standards, still the place people want to get to, still free enough to let me put the word nonsense next to the president’s name [Maher then crossed his fingers]. You do know it’s not that way everywhere? Now am I worried about creeping authoritarianism and attacks on free speech and politicizing the Justice Department and enemies lists? Yes, as I have been since 2016, when I first used the term slow-moving coup. But we’re ten years on now, and while Trump wanting to act like a king in many ways is still a story, so is the fact that he’s also been checked.”
He added, “America may right now be the country Donald Trump is president of, but America is also everything that keeps Trump from being the king he wishes he were. So, this Fourth of July, let’s celebrate the genius, American idea of checks and balances, which, yes, is threatened, and yes, is taking on water, but is still afloat, like those tall ships I remember from 1976.”
Maher further stated that, in 1976, “I wore a bicentennial t-shirt that whole summer. … And nobody thought it meant that I loved Nixon. Because 50 years ago, liberals didn’t concede patriotism. Abbie Hoffman was the quintessential ’60s radical. And when he had to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he wore an American flag shirt, which some cops later ripped off his back. Because the message that most threatens authoritarians isn’t America sucks, it’s America is ours too. Every election year, Democrats seem to remember patriotism for about an hour at their convention when they’re trying to win back swing voters. The whole message of Kamala’s speech in 2024 was take back the flag. That’s why she talked about America like a pageant contestant. … Well, you can’t take back the flag in an hour if the rest of the time you treat patriotism as something vaguely embarrassing. It shouldn’t be, even though we are far from perfect. In 1976, when I was wearing that t-shirt with my nut-hugger shorts, America wasn’t exactly crushing it then either. … And yet, it didn’t stop us from making 1976 one big P. Diddy freak-off for America. Because, ask Joe Biden, you only turn 200 once.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett