So Long, Bill

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

-William Shakespeare

During the political crisis of the last several months, we've gotten in the habit of watching Real Time with Bill Maher every week. His guests have been interesting, his panel discussions both aggravating and enlightening at times, always including one progressive and one "conservative", often MAGA, commentator.

All that ended last night. We didn't even make it through the entire show.

Why?

Bill started by describing his dinner with DJT at the White House. He portrayed himself as confronting Dear Leader on a few issues, but the gist of the narrative was that they were two ordinary guys, and Trump and he got along famously. Then he cut to Trump at a rally, being his profane, semi-lucid public persona, and suggested that maybe that was all sort of a schtick. Hell, Trump even autographed a printout of all the nasty monikers he'd used to describe Maher. It's all an act, it seems. He's an ordinary guy, just like us.

Then his first guest was Steve Bannon. Yes, that Steve Bannon. I mentioned to P that he'd likely come off as a lot more charming than the typical MAGA blowhard or bubblehead, and he did. In a diabolical way. He confidently proclaimed Trump would be elected to a third term, which of course is facially unconstitutional. Maher pushed back, even handed him a pocket Constitution. But what in the hell was Bannon even doing on the show? Why give him a platform to spew deceit and authoritarian nonsense?

Then the show shifted to the three person panel, one of whom was a writer named Josh Rogin, whose misfortune is that his name sounds awfully close to the podcasting nut job, Joe Rogan. Josh comes off as a geeky liberal, an author and political analyst for the WaPo.

Josh's other misfortune came when he pushed back at Maher's self-congratulatory description of his Trump encounter, describing him as basically a pawn in a PR stunt. At that point Maher's very, very thin skin became manifest, and he laid into his guest as the "conservative" panelist gleefully looked on.

Josh's point was well-taken. Maher doesn't understand the moment, thinks you can break bread with evil and we can start a dialogue and find common ground and common solutions.

But you can't negotiate with these people. This is an authoritarian power grab, and if you allow yourself to be a photo op as a way to suggest otherwise, you are an enabler.

And I don't care if Trump comes across as a nice guy you'd meet in a country club locker room when he's not onstage starting insurrections or mocking the handicapped. Evil can be charming. Evil often is charming. Sociopaths operate that way. Failing to recognize what you're dealing with doesn't make you a bad person, but you probably shouldn't be holding yourself out as a pundit.

So we'll move on to other TV offerings. We've enjoyed our few weeks of Real Time, but the sarcasm and the grossly flawed message are too much to take right now.

So long, Bill.