Damn the River

 

On the Political Divide

I tried to watch Meghan Kelly interview Bill Maher on YouTube. I didn’t realize it was from 2 months ago, but Bill Maher’s on hiatus right now so I thought I’d watch.

Meghan Kelly used to be one of Fox's news bunnies. A pretty blonde girl who was given a script and told to say stuff in front of a camera so men would watch.

Meghan Kelly wasn’t stupid, so when she asked Donald Trump a hard question he attacked her and eventually Fox dropped her because she wasn’t all in for their presidential candidate.

Meghan Kelly went on to make her own show for something called the Triumph Channel and she has a podcast. (Who doesn’t have a podcast these days?)

During the interview Maher said the peaceful transfer of power is one of the core principles of democracy and that Trump tried to overthrow that principle on January 6, 2021. Trump claimed the election was rigged because he lost.

Maher called Trump an election denier.

What Meghan Kelly said next is typical of how conservatives think about politics. If they feel attacked they don’t analyze what’s being said, they look for what they see as a parallel from the other side. They come back with a ‘whataboutism’.

“And Hillary Clinton is the OG of election deniers,” said Meghan Kelly.

Bill Maher took the bait.

Instead of asking Kelly why she wouldn’t address what he said: try to bring her back to his point, he fought with her, trying to logically compare Clinton’s actions to Trump’s actions.

Meghan Kelly was referring to how Hillary Clinton complained about Donald Trump during his presidency. Kelly’s answer had nothing to do with Maher’s statement. She was attempting to say that democrats do it too. She created a false equivalency.

Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million. Trump was granted the presidency by the electoral college, but before the sun rose the day after the election Clinton called Trump and conceded.

Clinton congratulated Trump for winning the election.

Clinton did not deny that she lost the election. She never said it was rigged. She may have said the electoral college is an antiquated system that denies Americans a direct choice in who gets to be the most powerful person in the world, but she didn’t say republicans stole the election.

Clinton was the most unpopular democratic candidate for the office of the presidency that I’ve ever witnessed. So much so that I can’t name one person who voted for her, including me. I voted 3rd party. Screw the haters, I never thought of her as a democrat in the first place. I never thought Bill Clinton was a democrat either.

Yet Trump lost to her by nearly 3 million votes.

I saw the thumbnail of a clip from that interview with the title of, “Because you’re stupid.” Apparently Bill Maher got tired of Kelly’s tactics and resorted to name calling.

Bill Maher thinks he’s getting through to Megan Kelly’s audience, because they’re only going to get conservative talking points unless someone talks about something other than building the wall that Trump says is already built, but is going to complete it if he gets re-elected.

Jon Stewart saw the trend; the bickering political pundits, and thought it was terrible. Especially when that was the format of the show.

Crossfire was a perfect example of pundits from either side bickering. Jon Stewart went on to the show and told them they’re bad for America and literally asked them to stop.

CNN cancelled Crossfire.

Bill Maher didn’t go on Meghan Kelly’s show and ask her to stop. He didn’t tell her she was bad for America because of her ‘whataboutisms’ and how she plays 3 card monte with the facts. He bickered, she pushed back, he called her stupid, then (I’m guessing) they shook hands and parted as friends.

Bill Maher’s visit to Meghan Kelly’s show was a stick in a river. Few will notice he was there and when he’s gone no one will remember or care.

Rivers are powerful. If you want to use that power for something else you have to build a damn. You have to stop the flow and only let if pass after you taken it’s power.

Or you stop it at the source: money. Overturn Citizens United and a large part of this madness will go away.