Bill Maher: Someone The Founding Fathers Would Embrace

Bill Maher is a well known comedian and host of the HBO show "Real Time". He’s had his own political commentary show for most of the last 20 years. When he is not hosting his once a week show he can usually be found on stage in any number of small or big towns in America doing "stand up" comedy. Bill wrote and starred in his own documentary in 2008 called Religulous”. Yes, Bill Maher is hilarious, but he is also irreverent, often crude, and unapologetic. So, why do I call him a “model” citizen?

What is a “model” citizen anyways? Well, that’s certainly subjective based on a person’s values but let me give you my definition. Actually. I’ll just give you the characteristics Of Bill Maher that, I feel, qualify for that distinction.

• Strict and unwavering adherence to truth no matter the personal consequences
• Unwavering commitment to democracy and the power of the people to determine their fate
• No allegiances to any party, group, or club. His only allegiances are to truth, fairness, dignity, and mostly, his own conscience.
• Supporter of woman’s rights, gay rights, advocate for the poor and the working class. Advocate for free speech, the environment, all liberal principles, separation of Church and State
• He stands up against corruption in government.
• He’s a stalwart warrior against anything that would weaken our democracy. He’s against special interests, the disproportionately powerful and, of course, against other countries that would interfere with the most sacred exercise of a democracy: Our election process.

Maher’s show on HBO typically has a diverse panel of guests each week to discuss current events and politics. He routinely invites those who have completely opposing views and he politely gives them the chance to express their views.

Maher’s hard on hypocrites, especially in Government and in Religion, who preach family values but who live a private life of debauchery, infidelity, and contradiction. Maher himself lives the life that he preaches. He has never married and he has no children. He is quite open about his love for cannabis and how he sold drugs to get through college at Cornell.

He identifies mostly with the Democrats but he criticizes them often and with sharpness when he feels they are too weak, too inept, or too distracted by fringe concerns (i.e. transgender bathrooms, etc..). He is one of those rare “liberals” who is more than eager to disparage any set of ideas that are an assault on liberal principles, even if those “ideas” are the cornerstone to one of the world’s largest religions. Religion gets no special dispensation with Maher. He insists that progressives stand up against any and all ideas that force one to be subjugated or denigrated, or denied their civil and equal rights.

Bill Maher, I would maintain, acts the way every American should act in a democracy if it is going to survive. He is fiercely independent and he deplores “group think”. He thinks critically which means that he has a healthy skepticism about anything that he is being "sold". He insists on bringing his own microscope to the table. He recognizes bullshit when he sees it. He doesn’t lie to others and, perhaps more importantly, he doesn’t lie to himself. He reads the ingredients on the label and he follows the money back to it’s source. I get the feeling that Maher reached his world views by hard work and sweat. He did the work. That is more than I can say for most of us….the ones who just adopt the views of their parents or peer group or the church they happened to be raised in. He went out and made his independent journey and reached his own conclusions without the slightest regard for how many others agreed with him. He was willing to live with any isolation that his commitment to Truth required. He’s willing to stand alone if he has to.

And, he's never been caught in a scandal…In the age of the #metoo movement Maher can stand up without fear of being the next Bill Cosby or Matt Lauer, etc., etc.. Maher is the kind of person who, if you were playing tennis with him and you each called your own lines, he would never cheat. I don't think I could say that for most people I know.

I’ve almost never heard him say anything that was contradictory to his core values. Well, maybe just once, in my opinion, and that was when he was trying to cut David Bowie some slack regarding a certain topic. It was the one and only time he disappointed me. Integrity is very hard to come by….it’s nothing to take for granted. We should all know that by now in this gilded age. When you see someone take positions that would cost them money and power (just because they are the proper thing to do) then take note. It’s one of the rarest things to behold. Bill Maher is that rare, tropical fish.

Yes….honesty, integrity, compassion, empathy, fairness, That’s what a good citizen looks and smells like…and, let’s not forget that Maher is one of the funniest people on the planet. Yes, his language is far too crude for my taste and I think it detracts from his profile but it can’t diminish the thoughtfulness and goodness in the man.

He is someone who could easily just count his money and measure his fame and ego and be indifferent and unmoved by the issues and people that don’t directly affect him. He doesn’t. He "talks the talk" and he "walks the walk". Maher is the true patriot in that he will fight for the principles in the Constitution. He will fight for the principles set forth by the Founders. He will criticize America but only because he wants it to come to it’s senses and live up to its principles. That is the spirit (and more) of the Founding Fathers; an unwavering intolerance to oligarchs, plutocrats, and autocrats. A government "of, by, and for the people".

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

James Baldwin

My Opinions.....