I like Maher more than I ever have before. His attitudes towards wokeness are a big reason why. I don’t think the Va race turned on what Maher and his guest had to say. I didn’t like her observation about McAuliffe because she just seemed to object to his being a “retread”, and thought they needed a more progressive candidate, who I think would have fared worse. In that sense, I think she was inconsistent and made no sense.

Maher rails against wokeness because he thinks it’s the dems shooting themselves in the foot, and rolling out the red carpet for Trump’s triumphant return. He often says “when you support something that sounds like an Onion headline, STOP!” And then produces examples of such things.

Yeah, I have the opposite view. I don’t think wokesters can be chastised harshly or frequently enough. These are big deals. Socialism is a real thing, and people who don’t favor the govt taking over all means of production should not call themselves socialists. Defund the police is wokeness run amok. These things cost dems down ballot (IMO) in Nov 2020, are not helping dem candidates in places like NJ and Va this year, and IMO may have cost Biden at least one state (FL) that might have put him far enough over the top to short-circuit all this election fraud bullshit.

IMO, wokeness is the dems’ chief enemy right now, and the repubs chief ally. It plays right into their culture war sensibilities, and tends to drown out everything else.