A Voice in the Wilderness In Defense of "Mere Conservatism"

A View From the Left

By: R.J. Moeller

Bill Maher: It’s Sarah Palin’s birthday today – do you have any special wishes for her?

[Sarcastic laughter and snickering from the audience and Real Time with Bill Maher panel]

Hooman Majd: I don’t think we can say it.  Even on HBO.

Matthew Perry: Do you think she even understands that it’s her birthday?

[Raucous laughter from the audience, grins from the panel]

Bill Maher: I don’t.  I think they said, ‘Sarah, it’s your birthday,’ and she thought her water broke.

[More approving laughter]

And thus began the “Ask the Panel” portion of the most recent episode of HBO’s political talk-show Real Time with Bill Maher.  Straddling the same “It’s a comedy show when I want laughter and applause (or when I get in trouble for going too far), but I really want to subversively promote an ideological agenda the rest of the time” line that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert walk every night on Comedy Central, Real Time offers the hard-hitting analysis one can only find anywhere two or more liberals are gathered in President Obama’s name.

To say that the banter I printed above is childish and petty is a slight against all children and petty people everywhere.

But it’s a “comedy” show, dude.  Why take it so seriously?

It is my belief that politically-involved public figures are who they really are when no one is voting – when elections are not imminent, politicians and pundits become increasingly loose-lipped.

I am a student of the culture, as we all should be, and I know (as we all do) that there is more than a hint of truth in any joke.  More people under the age of 40 get their information about current events from fake news and political talk shows like Real Time and The Daily Show than anywhere else.  The opinions offered on these mediums matter.  It wasn’t my decision to make these shows and these comedians the gatekeepers of information in this country, but for (far too) many they are.

And I think it more than fair to say that after watching the clips I’ve included in this column, you will see that the smokescreen-like attempts by people on the Left to dismiss the importance of these shows simply because comedians host them is either misguided or purposely misleading.  The Left want students and young adults to watch these shows and lap up the ideas and values streaming off their television and computer screens.  They want parents to remain where (far too) many of them are: oblivious, out of the picture, and utterly disengaged from the ideological development of their child’s worldview.

Now, if a show like Maher’s Real Time or Stewart’s Daily Show simply had actors, actresses and entertainers on as their guests, they might be able to get away with the “We’re just joking around, bro” excuse.  But the cavalcade of intellectuals, politicians, and influential members of the mainstream media that grace the sets of these shows reveals the deeper intent: they want to promote a specific, progressive, liberal-Democratic understanding of everything from foreign policy to the abortion debate.

Alright, enough with the (valid) generalizations.  Let me show you what I mean when I say that not only are these types of shows actively pursuing the hearts and minds of as many Americans as they can, but that what you hear on such shows is typically how the guests and their host truly feel about the matter being discussed.

After bravely mocking Sarah Palin’s intellect, raising the level of civil discourse in this country by complaining that the Republican Party is merely the party of “insane people,” claiming that Abraham Lincoln would not be a Republican if he were alive today, and insisting that the French and Russian revolutions were each hijacked by “right-wingers,” Bill Maher opened a discussion with his panel of experts on the topic of Barack Obama’s personal and religious convictions:

So much to say about what you just saw, but let me quickly introduce the players involved in this little drama.  First there is Bill Maher himself.  Most of you are familiar with him, but for those who aren’t, all you need to know is that stand-up comedian Maher is an outspoken far-Left atheist who despises religion, Judeo-Christian morality, conservative politics, and not being able to use profanity and coarse sexual humor (which is why he had to leave network television for HBO).

Going from right to left on the panel you had MSNBC political correspondent Norah O’Donnell, Iranian-born author Hooman Majd, and Professor Cornel West of Princeton University.  Oh, and next to Maher was, of course, actor Matthew Perry (aka Chandler, from Friends).  O’Donnell works for MSNBC, so I’ll let you do the math on where she’s coming from politically.  Mr. Majd writes books and articles for publications like The New York Times and Huffington Post, and loves playing the moral equivalency “they’re bad, but we’re not great either” game between the dictatorial regime in his native Iran and the republican democracy known as the United States of America.

Last, but certainly not least, is Professor Cornel West.  A practicing Christian, and outspoken Socialist, West is an “expert” on racial issues in this country.  He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.  This group’s founder, and someone West holds in high regard, Catholic-turned-atheist Michael Harrington, once explained the organization’s political ideology like this:

“Put it this way. Marx was a democrat with a small d.  The Democratic Socialists envision a humane social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning...and racial equality. I share an immediate program with liberals in this country because the best liberalism leads toward socialism.... I want to be on the left wing of the possible.”

Nice.

With the introductions out of the way, let’s tackle the actual words spoken – and valuable insights revealed – in the YouTube clip above.

Commenting on the president’s insistence that he is a “Centrist” politically, Maher said, “I think [Obama] is a Centrist the way he is a Christian…He’s pretending to be a Centrist.”

I applaud Mr. Maher for his candor in recognizing what any casual observer ought to clearly see in our president (and, to be fair, a large number of politicians): an unnatural comfort-level with presenting yourself as one thing, when you really you are nothing of the kind.  To the issue of his politics, it is without a doubt true that the president often tries to cover up his true ideological leanings.  We on the Right see right through this and are disappointed, both by the fact that he is a progressive liberal to begin with, and also by the fact that so many people buy the moderate rhetoric he has peppered throughout a decidedly far-Left political career.

As to his faith in God – no one can know another man’s heart, and it is not my place to speak to the nature of a personal relationship one has (or does not have) with their Maker.  We generally take someone at their word about such matters.

But Bill Maher is insinuating what we all know to be true: actions speak louder than words.  What about the president’s actions since taking office point to a real, energetic faith in God?  We all knew George W. Bush was a Christian, in large part because the media never shut up about it.  They mocked President Bush for being honest and direct about his prayer life and faith in Jesus Christ.  With President Obama, in between the times it is convenient to reassure Americans that he is a Christian, the media goes out of its way to downplay the man’s faith.

The only way someone would know President Obama is a Christ-follower is if he or she has read either of his two memoirs.  But those are the books that also tell us about the radical nature of the president’s political ideology and worldview, as well as his deep affection for (and connection to) people like Jeremiah Wright.  If we’re supposed to look at the president’s own words about his own beliefs, we find an affinity for the Marxist rabble-rouser Saul Alinsky and his radicalizing manifesto Rules for Radicals (which Obama believed so much in that he took action and taught classes on the text to up-and-coming community organizers in Chicago for more than a decade).

Please hear me: I do not stand in judgment of President Obama’s heart.  Only his actions.  In this case, however, even Bill Maher can read through these lines.

The conversation continued:

Bill Maher: His mother was a secular-humanist, and I think he is too…It’s like when he (Obama) says ‘I struggle with the issue of gay marriage.’  You don’t struggle with it.  You’re fine with it.

Professor West: He supports gay marriage, of course.

Maher: No, he says he struggles with it…that he doesn’t like it.

West: Yeah, but that’s the political answer…

[Panel concurs with knowing glances]

Hmm.

When a conservative or Republican, say, Rush Limbaugh, for example, attempts to analyze the president’s track-record and make pronouncements about his actual stance on the issues they are scoffed at and accused of having partisan blinders on.  When one of the most respected liberal professors in the country comes to the same conclusion that Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity have about the president’s disingenuous position on the redefinition of marriage, it is affirmed as a fact that everyone ought to already know.

This, of course, says something less-than-favorable about President Obama’s character, but it also speaks to the minimal importance that modern liberalism puts on the subject of character and integrity in its leaders.  Neither Right nor Left, Republicans nor Democrats, hold the moral high ground in the sense that one side or the other are literally “better” people.  We’re all sinners.  But the comfort-level that the Left has with morally-questionable (or out-right immoral) behavior on the part of their leaders is worth noting.

To the majority of Americans, traditional marriage is held up and recognized as a sacred institution – the building block of society.  It is a massively important issue.  In order to garner votes in 2008, the president and vice president claimed to be on the side of history, biology, 6,000 years of religious teaching, and the will of the American people when it came to keeping marriage one man-one woman.  But again I ask: what actions have these men taken to solidify and strengthen the institution of marriage?  Heck, what words have we heard from either of them in 2 years on the matter (other than their enthusiastic support for the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy)?  With a heavy heart, I must admit that I think Professor West speaks the truth in this matter.

Admittedly, one episode of Bill Maher’s show is not a comprehensive or exhaustive representation of all Center-Left thought – but it is a fair one.  It is fair because it is common.  You can hear such things any night of the week on everything from The Daily Show to The Rachel Maddow Show to TBS re-runs of The Steve Harvey Show.

If you only get your news and information about politicians and the issues they represent from skimming newspaper headlines or Katie Couric’s nightly reports on CBS, you will assume that Maher and his panel are joking.  With even a minimal effort to investigate the people you lend power to, and the issues that are impacting your jobs, schools, and families, you will learn that the joke has only been on you.  (And that the Left has been laughing us all the way to Western Europe for 40 years.)

It is said that a nation gets the leaders it deserves.  If West and Maher are correct in their appraisals of President Obama, what does that say about us?