Reply #12: Maher is no progressive. He's a libertarian. [View All]

[Warpy]

There is a difference. He's for the end to the nanny state that forbids things like drugs, prostitution, access to safe abortion, and all the other things the Christian soldiers think are lovely. On economic issues he still believes the fairy stories about an invisible hand controlling an absolutely free marketplace.

Progressives always feel horribly betrayed when he shows his libertarian side on economics and foreign policy matters.

Plus, he seems to be making an effort to get more GOPers into his audience. It's doomed to failure, of course, since righties are always so far behind the intellectual curve. For instance, liberals have been shut out of power since 1968, but they still blame liberals for every ill in this country that the far right has actually caused.

I'm sure that betrayed progressives will avoid his paid appearances. I'm equally sure that the right wingers he's courting still think he's the Antichrist and will continue to do so and avoid his paid appearances.

Whether or not this will have any effect on his politics is anyone's guess.