Bill Maher is no fan of President Trump, but he is a fan of America.
The comedian often uses his HBO show “Real Time” to wax patriotic, even though he has plenty of gripes about America.
In his show Friday, Maher said Americans had better put aside their political differences or “there will be blood.”
“This year, just celebrate Thanksgiving. Don’t try to win it. And never forget the single shining truth about democracy: it means sharing a country with ***holes you can’t stand,” Maher said.
Maher said politics have gotten ugly, especially with the explosion of social media.
“It’s no longer enough to just make a point,” he said. “You have to destroy. You have to own people. Except the person who gets owned doesn’t change their mind. They just make a mental note never to interact again with DM_Me_Your_T*tties.”
“Lately we’ve been hearing more and more about a second civil war, which sounds impossible in this modern, affluent country. It is not,” Maher said. “We talk about Trump as an existential threat, but his side sees Democratic control of government the exact same way. When both sides believe the other guy taking over means the end of the world, yes, you can have a civil war.”
Maher said the real problem is hate, and he largely blamed Republicans for it.
“Yes, I have said things like that but I’m going to try to stop because I have learned that the anti-intellectualism on the right doesn’t come primarily through stupidity, it comes from hate. Telling people that you think they’re irredeemable is what makes them say ‘You know what, I’d rather side with Russia than you.'”
And Maher said liberals and conservatives are going to have to learn to live together.
“Home is where you learn that the three magic words in any relationship aren’t ‘I love you,’ they’re ‘Let it go,'” he said.
“We are going to have to learn to live with each other or else there will be blood,” Maher said. “So don’t freak out if Ellen [DeGeneres] sits next to George Bush at a football game. Bush was not my idea of a good president but I never worried that he was going to lock up his political opponents or reporters or me.”
“If you can’t see the difference between that and Donald Trump, then Democrats are doomed,” he said.
DeGeneres was pictured with former president Bush at a Dallas Cowboys game, and the internet exploded. But, like Maher, DeGeneres said people have just got to calm down.
“Here’s the thing,” she said on her daytime talk show. “I’m friends with George Bush. In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have. We’re all different, and I think that we’ve forgotten that that’s OK.”
“Just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be friends with them,” she said. “When I say, ‘Be kind to one another,’ I don’t mean only the people that think the same way that you do. I mean be kind to everyone. Doesn’t matter.”