Bill Maher blasts Dems for treating patriotism as ‘something vaguely embarrassing’

Bill Maher used his closing monologue on Friday’s episode of HBO’s “Real Time” to argue that Democrats have surrendered the flag to Republicans — and that only honest patriotism, not tactical displays, can win it back.

The comedian and host told his audience that Americans across the political spectrum should be more enthusiastic heading into the nation’s 250th birthday. Rejecting the idea that celebrating the country amounts to endorsing President Trump, Mr. Maher warned against blurring the distinction between the president and the republic itself.

“That’s what wannabe authoritarians do,” he said. “Don’t be an accomplice.”

Mr. Maher acknowledged concerns about threats to democratic norms — including what he called “creeping authoritarianism” and the politicization of law enforcement — but argued those concerns do not justify abandoning pride in the country’s founding ideals. He pointed specifically to the American system of checks and balances as something worth celebrating this Fourth of July, even if that system is “taking on water.”

The host drew a contrast with his own youth during the 1976 bicentennial, recalling that he wore a patriotic T-shirt that whole summer and that nobody interpreted it as an endorsement of Richard Nixon. Liberals at the time, he argued, did not concede patriotism to the right. He invoked Abbie Hoffman, the 1960s radical who appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in an American flag shirt, as an example of the defiant patriotism he believes the left has abandoned. The most threatening message to authoritarians, Mr. Maher said, is not that America is broken, but that it belongs to everyone.

His sharpest criticism was reserved for what he described as Democrats’ habit of reviving patriotic rhetoric only when it is electorally useful. He said the party seems to recall the flag for roughly an hour every election cycle at its convention — citing Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 speech as an example — before reverting to treating patriotism as an embarrassment.

“You can’t take back the flag in an hour if the rest of the time you treat patriotism as something vaguely embarrassing,” Mr. Maher said.

The remarks continued a theme Mr. Maher has pressed with increasing urgency. Last year, he warned that Democrats face a “serious problem” on patriotism after polling from the Harvard Kennedy School found that fewer than one in four Democrats under 30 said they were proud to be American, compared with three in four young Republicans.

Friday’s episode also featured a one-on-one interview with Sam Levinson, creator of HBO’s “Euphoria,” and a panel discussion with Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, and Jonathan Martin, senior political columnist for Politico.