There’s still nine months to go until the presidential election, and we’ve already reached peak talking points. At least, that was the contention from Bill Maher in his “New Rules” editorial on Friday’s Real Time.
“It gets so dull hearing these talking points,” Maher lamented, running down a list of common complaints about the economy and other issues. “The American dream is dead because Mars bars were $1 and are now $1.25,” he noted as one example of the hyperbole he abhors.
While Maher allowed that he wouldn’t choose President Joe Biden as his partner for the Squid Game, he ran through a list of things that are going well at the moment, from the economy to home ownership to energy output.
Yet, “I know what you hacks on both sides will say before they say it,” he said.
He asked, “Is it really healthy to blame every problem on Joe Biden?” He pointed out the record numbers of voters who claim they are independents. “The reason for that is this kind of mindless partisanship.”
The coming months will see a campaign that will feature “a mostly useless campaign,” since everyone has decided whether they will back the candidate who can’t walk up stairs or the candidate who can’t walk down a ramp.
This week’s panel discussion included Van Jones, CNN political commentator and host of the podcast Uncommon Ground with Van Jones, and Ann Coulter, conservative political commentator, author of 13 New York Times bestselling books, and who now writes the column Unsafe on Substack.
The Kansas City Super Bowl victory parade shooting was discussed, and predictably, no resolution was reached. Maher pointed out the contradictions between what people say they want in gun laws in surveys and the state laws.
Coulter argued that people just respond to questions without much thought. “They don’t care,” she said.
Jones noted that it takes pro-active policies and programs to get kids on the right path that will avoid trouble. Coulter blamed the lack of fathers in the home as the root cause of urban violence.
Maher asked if such a problem needs to be solved internally.
Jones said he has two small children, and that he is not part of the pro-crime lobby. But he said that what is missing in many cases is a sense of “hope, that there is a tomorrow.” He blamed social media for creating a climate where those who are insulted in an online forum feel the need to take revenge.
The first guest on the night was Dr. Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America’s Future.
She blamed technology for the way society is changing, and said that the surveys that indicated that no one reads will continue to decline among “Polars,” the group that will take over once Gen Z has run its course. That generation takes its name from polarization, the political kind and the emphasis on melting ice caps.