From comedian Bill Maher to AZ Gov. Katie Hobbs to Sen. John Fetterman, some Democrats are suddenly sounding a lot more like Conservatives.
“I know it’s supposed to be that magical time of year but maybe what we all really need right now is a real dose of realism,” began comedian Bill Maher on a recent episode of his hit show, Real Time with Bill Maher.
“I see a lot of nativity scenes when I’m out, as you always do before Christmas, and I can’t help thinking about where that manger really is,” Maher mused to his audience. “It’s in the West Bank, on Palestinian land controlled by the Palestinian Authority. In 1950, the little town of Bethlehem was 86% Christian. Now, it’s overwhelmingly Muslim.”
“And that’s my point tonight: Things change,” Maher said. “To 2.3 billion Christians, there could be no more sacred site than where their savior was born, but they don’t have it anymore. And yet no crusader army has geared up to take it back. Things change- countries, boundaries, empires.”
“The city of Byzantium became the city of Constantinople became Istanbul,” noted Maher. “Not everybody liked it, but you can’t keep arguing the call forever. The Irish had the entire island to themselves, but the British were starting an empire and, well, the Irish lost their temper. They blew each other up over it for 30 years, but eventually, everybody comes to an accommodation — except the Palestinians.”
“Was it unjust that even a single Arab family was forced to move upon the founding of the Jewish state?” asked Maher. “Yes, but it’s also not rare. Happening all through history all over the world.”
“The Palestinian people should know your leaders and the useful idiots on college campuses who are their allies are not doing any favors by keeping alive the “river to the sea” myth,” Maher explained. “I mean, where do you think Israel is going? Spoiler alert: nowhere.”
“It’s one of the most powerful countries in the world with a $500 billion economy, the world’s second-largest tech sector after Silicon Valley and nuclear weapons,” argued Maher. “They’re here, they like their bagel with a schmear, get used to it.”
“If I give you the benefit of the doubt and say your plan for a completely Jewless Palestine isn’t that all the Jews should die, what is the only other option?” Maher asked. “They move. You move all the Jews. Okay, I’ve got to warn you, there’s going to be some kvetching. You move all the Jews? You do with this with what? You move a fleet of trucks called Jew-Haul? And to where are we moving this entire country, Texas?”
“Sure they have room,” joked Maher. “I guess we could put the Wailing Wall on the border and kill two birds with one stone. Or we could just get serious.”
It’s interesting that Maher should mention the border.
Border security is, along with Israel, a subject on which more and more high-profile progressives are willing to disagree with Democratic Party leadership, including openly defying the Biden Administration.
“‘I’m not a progressive’: Fetterman breaks with the left, showing a maverick side,” revealed Sahil Kapur for NBC News last week. “Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has drawn fire from progressives over his fierce support for Israel and broken with immigration advocates with his support for curtailing migration.”
“I’m not a progressive,” Sen. Fetterman said during an interview with NBC News. “I just think I’m a Democrat that is very committed to choice and other things. But with Israel, I’m going to be on the right side of that. And immigration is something near and dear to me, and I think we do have to effectively address it as well.”
“It’s a reasonable conversation — until somebody can say there’s an explanation on what we can do when 270,000 people are being encountered on the border, not including the ones, of course, that we don’t know about,” Fetterman pointed out. “To put that in reference, that is essentially the size of Pittsburgh, the second-largest city in Pennsylvania.”
Sen. Fetterman is far from the only Democrat complaining about Biden’s border crisis.
“Democrat Katie Hobbs sends Arizona National Guard to the border, bashing Biden’s refusal,” wrote Anna Giaritelli for the Washington Examiner over the weekend. “Hobbs signed an executive order Friday afternoon that blamed President Joe Biden for the ‘unmitigated humanitarian crisis’ across the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border and further attacked him for refusing to redirect federally assigned troops to a part of Arizona where thousands of immigrants per day have entered the country illegally for weeks.”
“For far too long, Arizona has borne the burden of federal inaction in managing the State’s southern border,” according to Gov. Hobbs. “The federal government’s recent decision to close the Lukeville Port of Entry has led to an unmitigated humanitarian crisis in the area and has put Arizona’s safety and commerce at risk.”
Fetterman and Hobbs are joining a growing contingent of Democratic Party lawmakers willing to break rank with party leadership on the subject of out-of-control immigration at the U.S. southern border.
Last month, NYC Mayor Eric Adams was on his way to Washington, D.C. to discuss the immigration crisis with President Biden before FBI agents raided the office of Adams’ principal fundraisers.
Mayor Adams was forced to cut his trip short and no meeting took place. Even after over a month, few things are clear about the investigation into Eric Adams.
One thing is clear, however.
More and more elected officials and analysts in the Democratic Party are proving willing to thwart Democratic Party leadership on issues like Israel, crime, and border security.
This increasingly vocal contingent may soon start to redefine what it means to be a progressive in 2023.
(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)