Bill Maher Shreds the Old Trope That ‘Both Sides’ Are to Blame – By Peter Wade (Rolling Stone) / Feb 9 2019
“This idea of a pox on both of their houses is just factually wrong”
Bill Maher attempted to put to rest the conventional wisdom that both political parties are to blame for the apocalyptic nightmare we are currently in. On Real Time Friday night, he started his argument using former Starbucks CEO and possible 2020 Independent presidential candidate Howard Schultz as an example. Schultz’s main stated motivation to run is to save Americans from both Democrats and Republicans.
Schultz’s “central premise that we need an independent because both sides have become equally extreme” and “this idea of a pox on both of their houses is just factually wrong,” Maher said during his New Rules segment.
“Congress is not broken, the Republican Party is broken,” Maher added. Then he went on to list some of the fiscal differences between the two parties when each controlled the White House during the past 30 years:
- “Bill Clinton left office with a surplus.”
- “Obamacare was paid for.”
- “Obama’s bank bailouts–necessary because of a Republican recession–were paid back.”
- “Reagan, [George] W. [Bush], and Trump all ran up huge debt.”
Maher also pointed out the lies and conspiracy theories that are being spread by modern Republicans and how they gain traction among supporters and some portion of the voting public. And he is correct. There is simply no equivalence of insane, factless stories like Pizzagate that take hold on the left.
“So when you say they’re equally bad, just know that doesn’t make you a sage,” Maher said. “It’s a stupid person’s idea of a smart thing to say. It’s a cheat. It says you’re above it all when you’re really just to lazy to tell shit from Shinola.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/bill-maher-both-sides-792492/
