I have seen a lot of distressing headlines across U.S. politics over the past few weeks, but “Bill Maher on Hating Donald Trump, the Far Left and 69ing” is certainly up there.
Things become even more demoralizing after one realizes this title refers to the comedian’s recent appearance on the Pod Save America Podcast.
In recent years, I have had an increasingly difficult time determining exactly who makes up the Bill Maher audience. In the bleak days after 9/11, anyone who occasionally spoke ill of the Bush regime was inevitably viewed as some progressive truth teller. Maher had the added allure of a high-profile firing amid a nationwide suppression of dissent. Some misremember the cancellation and still think it was connected to Maher opposing the U.S. war effort. In actuality, he was simply agreeing with far-right, conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza about whether the hijackers were cowards. He dutifully cheered on the war and the central focus of his commentary became cartoonish critiques of Islam.
“It’s funny that I got in trouble for what I said…I’m so right-wing on this,” he explained toward the end of 2001.
Back then, I assumed that most liberals put up with his Islamophobia and sexism because he often attacked the GOP, but nowadays, his prevailing shtick seems to be unhinged rants about how the Democrats have moved too far to the left. This position might be confounding to anyone who witnessed the last election, in which the Democratic candidate was a former prosecutor who ran a centrist campaign, championed support from the Cheney family, and essentially promised to continue the genocide in Gaza, but I digress.
I’m not sure this kind of stuff is appealing to liberals, especially because there are so many options for content now. Maybe a number of Conservatives follow Maher now, but I assume many find his anti-religion stuff unappealing. Who knows?
At any rate, I did see one part of this interview that is worth noting. Maher attacks Rep. Rashida Tlaib for alleged dual loyalty, presumably because she’s a Palestinian-American who criticizes U.S. support for Israel.
“It’s one thing to be interested in other countries,” says Maher. “It’s another thing to sort of be the Palestinian representative in the Congress, as opposed to representing Michigan.”
I saw that Maher clip on social media on the same day that I saw a very interesting tweet from JD Vance. He claims that a Ukrainian American confronted him during his 2022 Senate campaign. “You are trying to abandon my country, and I don’t like it,” the voter allegedly told him.
“Sir, your country is the United States of America, and so is mine,” Vance replied.
“I always found it offensive that a new immigrant to our country would be willing to use the power and influence of their new nation to settle the ethnic rivalries of the old,” explains the Vice President’s tweet.
“One of the most important parts of assimilation is seeing *your* country as the USA,” it continues. “It’s part of the bargain: if you’re welcomed into our national family, you ought to look out for the interests of the United States. I know many immigrants who have the right perspective, and I’m grateful to them. For example, I met many Ukrainian Americans during that campaign (and since) who agreed with my views, or at the very least, asked the right question: what is in the best interests of the United States?”
Like Maher’s smear of Tlaib, Vance’s position embraces a nativist view of the U.S. which views a commitment or connection to any other country as suspect. Personally, I find this position pretty ridiculous, but it’s certainly a discernible principle in theory.
However, in the case of Maher and Vance, it can’t possibly be taken seriously because they don’t actually adhere to their own doctrine.
Maher is an ardent supporter of Israel and he’s repeatedly defended its genocidal assault on Gaza. He would never suggest that someone like Ritchie Torres represents Tel Aviv instead of his Bronx district, even though you’d get that impression by taking a peak at the Representative’s Twitter feed. In fact, Maher had Torres on his show, where he praised his support for apartheid and congratulated him on being “sane” instead of “woke.”
The same goes for Vance, who has taken money from AIPAC and says that unfettered support for Israel is important because there are a lot of Christians in the United States.
“If we are going to support Israel, as I think that we should, we have to articulate a reason why it’s in our best interest,” said Vance during a 2024 speech. “A big part of the reason why Americans care about Israel is because we are still the largest Christian-majority country in the world, which means that a majority of citizens of this country think that their Savior, and I count myself a Christian, was born and died and resurrected in that narrow little strip of territory on the Mediterranean. The idea that there is ever going to be an American foreign policy that doesn’t care a lot about that slice of the world is preposterous.”
Later that year, at an October 7 memorial rally, he told fellow Israel supporters that, “We are united in the basic, common-sense principle that we want the good guys to win, and we want the bad guys to lose.”
Messianic sentiments like this are certainly not unique among U.S. lawmakers, but they’re pretty rich coming from a crew that claims to be skeptical of foreign engagement.
Last week former Trump aide and far-right commentator Steve Bannon seemingly gave a Nazi salute at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), then walked off stage and told an interviewer that the United States had to support Israel.
“The number one enemy to the people in Israel are American Jews that do not support Israel and do not support MAGA,” declared Bannon. “MAGA and the evangelical Christians and the traditional Catholics in this country have Israel’s back.”
This doesn’t really seem like “America First.” More of a tie if anything.
Gallup Poll: Support for Israel 📉
A couple of newsletters ago, I wrote about an Economist poll that showed Americans are more supportive of the Palestinians than at any time since at least 2017. According to that survey, and many other recent studies, the biggest turnaround on the issue can be found among Democratic voters.
Now, we have new polling from Gallup showing similar trends. The survey found that just 33% of Democrats say they have a favorable view of Israel, the lowest level Gallup has ever encountered.
48% of Independents expressed a favorable view of the country. A whopping 83% of Republican voters still back the apartheid state.
In a post breaking down the findings, Gallup Senior Editor Jeffrey M. Jones writes:
The 50 points separating Republican and Democratic positivity toward Israel shatters the prior record of 30 points measured last year, primarily because of a 14-point drop in Democrats’ rating. The current gap is also nearly three times larger than the average 18-point difference that existed between 2001 and 2023. Over this time, Republicans have consistently viewed Israel more favorably than Democrats have.
The widening partisan gap likely reflects Democrats’ opposition to Israel’s actions in the Israel-Hamas war. It could also be a reaction to Trump’s strong backing of Israel, highlighted in his meeting with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House earlier this month.
Political independents’ opinions of Israel have also worsened significantly since the war started in 2023.
The poll covered U.S. opinions concerning a number of countries, leading to a hilarious National Review frame: “Democrats Now Prefer Cuba to Israel.”
That story was run with an image of Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, but such progressive voices obviously make up a very small percentage of Democratic lawmakers.
New Newsletter
We launched this newsletter years ago to catch all the political stories that were falling through the cracks. The Shift has enabled us to zero in on a couple of notable developments from the given week and round up articles from other sites that we thought readers might find interesting.
In the same spirit, we are about to launch Power & Pushback, a bi-weekly email that covers the suppression of the Palestine movement within the United States, but also the important organizing of activists.
Look out for our new newsletter in your inboxes starting next week!
Odds & Ends
🇮🇱 Sanders introduces new resolutions to block U.S. arms sales to Israel
🇺🇸 Aaron Bushnell and the universe of moral obligation
🤯 Trump promotes Gaza ethnic cleansing in bizarre AI video
🚓 New report details police repression of Palestine activism at UCLA
🇨🇦 The arrest of Yves Engler and the criminalization of political speech in Canada
♯ Brooklyn Academy of Music: Drop Batsheva Dance Company, cultural ambassadors for genocide
✝️ JNS: Tenney launches congressional Friends of Judea and Samaria Caucus
🫏 Jewish Insider: Newly appointed Michigan Democratic official threatened to leave party over its support for Israel
🇸🇦 Responsible Statecraft: Did Trump just crown Saudi with leadership of Gaza ‘day after’ plan?
🇵🇸 Counterpunch: Stop Repeating the Vast Undercount of Gazan Deaths. It Is Ten Times Greater.
🚫 Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle: Jewish Federation, city controller challenge BDS referendum question
🏫 Jewish Insider: GW professor’s office vandalized, called ‘a pernicious symptom’ of ‘bloodthirsty Zionism’
🟥 Haaretz: ‘Enemy Inside the Wire’: Steve Bannon’s Toxic Take on Jews, Israel and the Far Right
🗒️ Times of Israel: DC prof sent Trump study on Gaza relocation, development in July
👁️ Truthout: Campus Police Are Using Israeli Spy Tech to Crack Down on Student Protest
⛖ Drop Site News: The Gaza “Ceasefire” Is at a Crucial Crossroads
Recent news: yesterday, Feb 26, Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, delivered this speech:
…For more than 57 years, people in Gaza and in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have been suffocating under Israeli occupation. They have been denied their most basic human rights, from the right to self-determination, to freedom of movement, to an adequate standard of living. In Gaza, they have been subjected to blockades amounting to collective punishment. In the West Bank, illegal settlements and violence have been growing for decades, in violation of international law, with a significant increase over the past three years. Most of these violations have gone unpunished...There is absolutely no justification for the horrific attacks committed on 7 October 2023 when Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups brutally assaulted Israeli communities, killed civilians, and took more than 250 hostages, and I have repeatedly condemned these acts…..And nothing justifies the appalling manner in which Israel has conducted its military operations in Gaza, which consistently breached fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.…We urgently need an end to the conflict, the unconditional freeing of all hostages, the release of arbitrarily held detainees, and an end, as rapidly as possible, to Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as affirmed by the International Court of Justice.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2025/02/hc-turk-occupied-palestinian-territory-any-plans-better-future-must
The perception, left essentially misunderstood, that the Palestinian motive is “free of Jews, from the river to the sea”, will continue to undermine political support, not withstanding “genocide” revulsion.
That perception substantially undermines political support. How to understand this?