"Real Time" host Bill Maher closed his show on Friday night scorching Democrats for "pandering" to minority groups for votes, telling them the time of relying on "identity politics" to win elections is over.
"I do give a s--- about who wins the next election. And outdated racial pandering is one reason Democrats lose elections," Maher told viewers. "When Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi put on Kente cloth, I don't think it earned them one vote for their powerful emotional ties to Ghana."
"Here in California, we're now segregating kidnapping. Really. California doesn't just have AMBER alerts for missing children. We have "Ebony alerts" for Black children and "feather" alerts for Native American kids. What is that, you look for them by listening on the ground?"
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Maher pointed to statistics that show a "276%" increase in Americans who identify as multiracial and how "one in five" newlyweds are in interracial marriages.
"You couldn't do a remake of 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' today because almost 100% of Americans approve of interracial marriage, especially with rich in-laws," Maher quipped.
The HBO host then quoted Black celebrities like Idris Elba, Raven-Symoné and Morgan Freeman who've made comments shrugging off racial identity.
"The liberal group MoveOn.org formed in 1998 to urge Republicans to move on from the Clinton impeachment. Today's Democrats should move on from identity politics. It's not working," Maher said.
"It's not working for them or for us. Democrats are hemorrhaging the very voters they think they're pandering to. The Financial Times writes ‘Democrats are going backwards faster with voters of color than any other demographic.’ And suggests the reason is 'a less racially divided America is in America where people vote more based on their beliefs than their identity.' Exactly. Far-left liberals are living in an old paradigm. Americans don't fit into neat little boxes anymore. Who has the number one country song right now? Beyonce. Lil Nas X won a Country Music Award and he's Black and gay!"
Maher went on to cite country singer Jelly Roll, who he noted was previously a drug dealer, a prisoner and a rapper, arguing he is a "giant middle finger to the idea of staying in your own lane."
"In America now, you're allowed to be many things all at once and that's a good thing, even when it's really stupid," Maher said while showing an image of "Queers for Palestine" protesters. "We're all Jelly Roll now. We're sloppy, complicated and contradictory. Two-thirds of Republican voters support weed legalization. And 41% of Democrats own or live with someone who owns a gun. Ms. Marvel is Pakistani and the winner of the last two NBA dunk contests is White. The new Captain America is Black and Spider-Man is Black and Puerto Rican, just like AI George Washington."
"Latinos make up half of the Border Patrol and the name of the coolest Black dude on the planet is Lenny Kravitz. RuPaul has a ranch in Wyoming that does fracking!… Somehow the leader of The Villiage People was straight… The leader of the Proud Boys isn't an old White guy. It's Enrique Tarrio, an Afro-Cuban… Caitlyn Jenner is a pro-Trump trans woman who supports a ban on trans athletes competing in women's sports… Our Black president was half White and our Black vice president is half Asian."
"My point is look, you're still building your politics around slicing and dicing people into these fixed categories. Democrats need to get the memo that you can't win elections anymore by automatically assuming you're going to get every voter who's not these guys," Maher said while showing a photo of White men in suits from the 1950s. "The more you obsess over identity, the more you ignore the bread and butter issues that win and lose elections. The real issue is class, not race. And the real gap is the diploma divide. And the real future of the party and maybe democracy depends on Democrats figuring that out."
