From this Friday evening's New Rules segment, Bill Maher had some suggestions for "super-rich" liberals about what to do to combat the likes of the "Koch brother from another mother" who has turned North Carolina into wingnut land, Art Pope.
MAHER: New Rule, it's time for America to get off the sidelines and support a proud people in a region where religious freedom, women's rights and democracy itself hang in the balance. I'm talking of course about North Carolina. […]
Take every crazy, angry idea your drunk right-wing uncle mumbles at Thanksgiving, turn it into a law and that's North Carolina today. We're talking about a state in the American south mind you, passing a strict ban against the adoption of Sharia law. Yeah, because the Muslim brotherhood was just about to take over Greenville.
North Carolina now allows concealed guns in both bars, what I call the “What could go wrong?” law and playgrounds. Which is great, because now if your toddler gets knocked down in a sandbox, he can stand his ground. And abortion, oh my god, let's just say in North Carolina, if you say, I'm getting rid of my baby, you'd better mean you're selling your truck.
Now, people want to know, how did this happen? How did a state where Democrats well outnumber Republicans, a state that was trending blue, where Obama won in 2008, go completely insane? It looked like the knuckle draggers had been defeated and were dying off and being replaced by the kind of educated young, urban professional that John Edwards hits on at TGI Fridays.
What happened to North Carolina? Well, his name is Art Pope. That's what happened. And he's kind of a Koch brother from another mother. He's super rich, super anti-union, anti-tax, anti-big government, thinks government should have absolutely no roll in helping the less fortunate, who should earn their money the same way he did, by inheriting it from his dad.
Maher went on to remind the audience about the damage that Citizens United has done, where it's allowed someone like Pope to buy an entire state and told the audience what he thinks should be done about it.
MAHER: In the post-Citizens United world, it's no longer our ideas vs. their ideas or even our base vs. their base. It's our super-rich vs. their super-rich and theirs are winning. Which means ours have got to get in the game.
After asking “who on our team” has the money to buy a state Maher asked rich liberals to “pony up” and had a few suggestions for which states some of them could buy.
