New Rule: Identity Crisis | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) -And finally, New Rule. Now, that we're all recovered from St. Patrick's Day. Let's make it the last one. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) You know, I never understood Irish pride or any pride in anything, other than what you've actually accomplished. And as holidays go, St. Paddy's is kind of malarkey. You don't get presents like Christmas, or candy like Easter, or joyless appointment sex like Valentine's Day. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -(LAUGHS) You don't even get a Peanuts special. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) There's just a parade. And what rights are we marching for? The right to drink in the day? (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Do we still need to-- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Do we still need to take to the streets in a public expression of support for Irish migrants? I think now more than ever, we need to stop talking about the things that make Americans different from each other and start honoring the things that make us the same. So, let my people, the Irish, lead the way because again, the Irish think "I don't give a shit." (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -But-- -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) I do give a shit who wins the next election. And outdated racial pandering is one reason Democrats lose elections. When Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi put on Kente cloth, I don't think it earned them one vote for their powerful, emotional ties to Ghana. (AUDIENCE CHUCKLING) Here in California, we're now segregating kidnapping. Really. California doesn't just have Amber Alerts for missing children. We have Ebony Alerts for Black children. And Feather Alerts for Native American Kids. What is that? We look for them by listening on the ground? (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) (CHUCKLES) Look, even if you like identity politics, this kind of thing is antiquated. From 2010 to 2020, the number of people identifying as multiracial in America went up 276 percent. One in five newlyweds now are in an interracial marriage, and that number goes up to 100 percent in ads for Subaru. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) You couldn't do a remake of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner today, because almost 100 percent of Americans approve of interracial marriage. Especially with rich in-laws. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) And 95 percent of White women would leave their husbands and marry Idris Elba. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -Yes, that gotta be true. -Yes. -(BILL MAHER CHUCKLING) -(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY) (CHUCKLES) That'll be one of us. -Yes. -Idris Elba, who says, "As humans we are obsessed with race. And that obsession can really hinder people's aspirations." Actress Raven Simone agrees. She told Oprah, "I'm tired of being labeled. I'm not an African-American, I'm an American." -She-- -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) She says, "I don't know what country in Africa I'm from. My roots are in Louisiana." (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) And you don't have to agree with that. But it's a point of view a lot of people have. It should be respected. Morgan Freeman says, "The way to finish off racism is stop talking about it. I'm going to stop calling you a White man, and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a Black man." There's even a movement now to ban racial questions on the census, and many of its leaders are people of color. Like Professor Sheena Mason, who says, "To undo racism we have to undo our belief in race." The liberal group moveon.org, formed in 1998, to urge Republicans to move on from the Clinton impeachment. Today's Democrats should move on from identity politics. It's not working. (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) It's not working for them or for us. Democrats are hemorrhaging the very voters they think they're pandering to. The Financial Times writes, "Democrats are going backwards faster with voters of color than any other demographic." And suggests the reason is that, "A less racially divided America is an America where people vote more based on their beliefs than their identity." Exactly, far-left Liberals are living in an old paradigm. Americans don't fit into neat little boxes anymore. Who has the number one country song right now? -Beyoncé. -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Lil Nas X won a country music award, and he's Black and gay. (AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING) And a brand ambassador for the Waspiest purse in America, Coach. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) The biggest new star in country is Jelly Roll, who was a drug dealer, then a prisoner, then a rapper, and then a face-tatted, country music star. Not to mention, a giant middle finger to the idea of staying in your own lane. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -No. In America now, you're allowed to be many things all at once. And that's a good thing, even when it's really stupid. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) Look, we're all Jelly Roll now. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) We're sloppy, complicated, and contradictory. Two-thirds of Republican voters support weed legalization. -And 40-- Yeah. -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) And 41 percent of Democrats own or live with someone who owns a gun. Ms. Marvel is Pakistani, and the winner of the last two NBA dunk contests is White. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) (CHUCKLES) The new Captain America is Black, and Spider-Man is Black and Puerto Rican. Just like AI George Washington. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) Latinos make up half of the Border Patrol. And the name of the coolest Black dude on the planet is Lenny Kravitz. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) Ru-- RuPaul has a ranch in Wyoming, that does fracking. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -Really. And has a fortified compound with a bunker to die for. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) And somehow, the leader of the Village People was straight. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -Really. He just went to the YMCA to workout. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) And the leader of the Proud Boys isn't an old White guy, he's Enrique Tarrio, an Afri-- Afro-Cuban. He burns crosses on his own lawn. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) Caitlyn Jenner is a pro-Trump transwoman, who supports a ban on trans athletes, competing in women's sports. And there's even an LGBTQ organization called "Gays for Trump." And why wouldn't there be? Gays love drag queens. (AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING) Our Black President was half White, and our Black Vice President is half Asian. And Tiger Woods is-- Oh, we don't even have the time. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) My point is... (CHUCKLES) -Look-- -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) You're still building your politics around slicing and dicing people into these fixed categories. Democrats need to get the memo that you can't win elections anymore by automatically assuming you're going to get every voter who's not these guys. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) The more you obsess over identity, the more you ignore the bread-and-butter issues that win and lose elections. The real issue is class not race, and the real gap is the diploma divide. And the real future of the party, and maybe democracy, depends on Democrats figuring that out.