March 19, 2012 by David K. Sutton
The Video That Bill Maher Says Will ‘Make Liberals Go Insane’
In the article – Biden Calls Republicans Party Of ‘Privilege’, Priebus Offers Bombastic Rebuttal – I mentioned the Alexandra Pelosi / Mississippi video that aired on the March 9th episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. In the video Pelosi asks Mississippi residents about why they vote Republican and why the poorest state in the country is so conservative.
If you haven’t seen the video, here it is:
As you might imagine, the right-wing media wasted no time in ‘critiquing’ both Pelosi and the video. In an appearance on the March 16th episode of Real Time, Pelosi referred to it as “the right-wing feeding frenzy”. In response, Pelosi shot another video in New York City, this time at the welfare office. This new video is supposed to ‘make liberals go insane’ according to Bill Maher. Pelosi said, “the left-wing feeding frenzy is going to come after us.” Only, I’m liberal, and I’m not going insane after watching this. Maybe the ‘left-wing feeding frenzy’ might kick into action but personally there is nothing in Pelosi’s new video that is shocking to me.
Here’s the video:
Is this shocking to you? Who knew there are people taking advantage of the system? Is this news to anybody? As a liberal, I have the sense to understand that we should not take a few bad apples and assume the entire batch is bad. I don’t assume all Republican voters are like the ones in the ‘Mississippi’ video and I know there are many honest Americans who are out of work and would rather not accept help but have no choice.
This video is not proof that we need to end all assistance for the poor and disenfranchised but I’m certain some on the Right will try to make that case. We should use this video and any other evidence of abuse to help make the system work better. My reaction to this video is not to cut services just because people can take advantage of them. I would expect that reaction from the Right.
So no, this video doesn’t make me ‘go insane’ and it shouldn’t make any liberals go insane. We can’t be afraid to expose abuse for fear of how the Right will respond. As liberals, we believe government can and should work for all people. We can’t make it work better by hiding abuses.
dks