Why I Don’t Like Bill Maher

My roommate loves Bill Maher.  He gets tickets to the live recordings here in LA and lines up hours before the show just so he can be one of the voices in the background.  He occasionally asks me if I want to join him and I usually say no.  I don’t like Bill Maher.  But how can that be?  I am a staunch Democrat, young , Latino and gay, no less.  I should be a far left liberal (or progressive) cheering Bill Maher’s politics – a man who no matter what he says is a left wing activist.  But that is also not true.  I am a self-described left-leaning moderate Democrat.  With that alone, some of you may stop reading right here thinking that my politics are different than Maher’s.  But that is not the case either.  I generally agree with Bill Maher’s political ends, such as universal healthcare, the legalization of same-sex marriage and decriminalizing pot use.  But I still don’t like Bill Maher.

Progressives, Liberals, Moderates, Oh My!

There are a lot of labels that associate with political parties.  On the Democrat side, we have “Progressives”, “Liberals” and “Moderates”.  The Republican side as “Conservatives”, “Neo-Cons” and now awkwardly introducing “Tea Partiers”.  However, a recent Gallup poll shows that the majority of Americans don’t know what the term “Progressive” means.

Gallup polling reveals widespread public uncertainty about the “progressive” political label — a label recently embraced by no less than Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. While Kagan described her political views as “generally progressive” during her Senate confirmation hearings, fewer than half of Americans can say whether “progressive” does (12%) or does not (31%) describe their own views. The majority (54%) are unsure.