HBO host Bill Maher argues that Washington has a gerontocracy on camera, but ideologically extreme, perpetually online Congressional staffers running the show behind the scenes. “The kids are not alright,” Maher said. “At least not the ones in this job, and not on either side. Because who gets these staff jobs? Young, ideologically extreme weirdos who live online and spend their days either accusing people of settler colonialism or posting AI memes of Trump riding a lion. These are not the kind of people who have an eye on the art of compromise or delivering for the American people. Arriving at solutions, grand bargains, please.” “They grew up on social media,” Maher continued. “They’re about getting a sick burn to go viral. Trolling, owning, destroying, sh*tposting, rage baiting, that stuff.”

BILL MAHER: New Rule, if you’re looking to find out why our government is so dysfunctional and why the sensible middle never seems to win elections, stop. I’m going to tell you. And as they say in the world of clickbait, the answer may surprise you. Because while we’ve all been obsessing over the gerontocracy in Washington and how Congress looks a lot like the 4 p.m. dinner hour in Boca Raton, we’re missing something important. And the people who actually run the country aren’t old. They’re probably too young. Yes, the public face of the government may be an 82-year-old almost dead person. But the person who’s really puppeteering this lunatocracy of ours, that’s this guy, a 26-year-old congressional staffer with the Twitter handle Tactical Amphibian. Or something like that. Congressional staffers, that’s who writes the material. The politicians just perform it. Did you see the Canadian senator who recently did this? BILL OLIVER, MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY: Citizens often develop expectations that exceed the powers actually granted to those offices. Here’s a more natural flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points. MAHER: Yes, that’s right. He read out loud the part where the chatbot tells him how not to sound like a chatbot. A lot of people these days are asking, where’s Mitch McConnell? Oh, I know where he is. In Hades, arguing with Odysseus about whether it’s better down there or up here. But his body is still a senator. And someone’s using it to vote. The Secretary of Education is Lyndon McMahon, who’s 77, and who recently referred to AI as A1. Now she may think the internet is powered by steak sauce, but her staff of 20-somethings knows better, and they’re the ones who will be writing the legislation about it. Which would be okay if the kids were all right, but the kids are not alright. At least not the ones in this job, and not on either side. Because who gets these staff jobs? Young, ideologically extreme weirdos who live online and spend their days either accusing people of settler colonialism or posting AI memes of Trump riding a lion. These are not the kind of people who have an eye on the art of compromise or delivering for the American people. Arriving at solutions, grand bargains, please. They grew up on social media. They’re about getting a sick burn to go viral. Trolling, owning, destroying, sh*tposting, rage baiting, that stuff. On the right, Republican leaders in New York state voted to disband the entire young Republican club because their chats to each other were so full of truly vile rhetoric, it embarrassed even them. It’s not surprising, considering that the conservative estimate of how many young Republican staffers are fans of Nick Fuentes is 40 percent. It could be as high as 75. And Nick says things like, Hitler is awesome, and I’m not living around blacks, and a lot of women want to be raped, and having sex with women is gay. I mean, wait, sex with women is gay? Okay, I’m lost. And I know that’s the point. But when you post about how much you love Hitler, and then you say you’re kidding, but then keep posting it, is it still a joke? And if I can’t tell if you’re joking or not, I don’t want you anywhere near Congress, because Congress is enough of a joke already. You know, enthusiastic young conservatives used to look like this. Now they look like this. Yeah. And ladies, he’s single. Yeah, that’s Preston Parra. He’s 24, a former staffer for Republican Senate candidate Mike Collins of Georgia. And Preston got into a little trouble this week, because he recently shared images of his ex-account of a swastika, and this one in Klan robes. You know, a former generation of Republicans looked to William F. Buckley for their philosophy. This one found it in Kanye. Always being deliberately offensive, nihilistic, never caught being sincere, only ironic. Oh, you’re Deadpool. No, you’re a shock jock on whatthef*ck.com. They call it being an edgelord. Normal people call it being an asshole. And sadly, the fact that so many people can’t tell the difference is not even a new phenomenon. You know, I once did a show called Politically Incorrect. And people would always be asking me, what does that mean, politically incorrect? And I’d say, it just means the opposite of being political, which is being full of sh*t. It means radical honesty. What it doesn’t mean is just saying the unsayable to get a reaction. But so many people started doing that back then, we actually had to have a contest called Politically Incorrect or Just Stupid. Today, I don’t think politically incorrect would even stand a chance. It’s all just stupid. On the right, Nazis, racism, rape, ha ha ha, all good. And on the left, just abolish anything that isn’t working perfectly. Police, prisons, borders, shoplifting laws, the Senate, the Supreme Court, globalize the Intifada, tampons in the boys’ room. You know, someone is coming up with this crazy. And it’s not Dick Durbin, age 80. It’s the, it’s the staffers, the perpetually online fatwa-curious social justice suicide squad. Hey, memo to Democrats, the call is coming from inside the tent. Democrats never really reckoned with, why didn’t Joe Biden actually give us the return to normal he promised? Biden ran in 2020 as a single-issue candidate, eliminating malarkey. He wasn’t obsessing about intersectional queer theory. When Joe heard the word trans, he thought Pontiac. But his administration, that is, the kids he was too feeble to fight with, they made gender identity the federal government’s day-one top concern. They’re the ones who told Kamala Harris that the answer to, do your support tax-funded sex changes for people in prison was, f*ck yeah, instead of, you’re f*cking kidding. Those are the Democrats’ edgelords. And like the ones on the right, they’re low-key running the country now. So yes, by all means, let’s elect some younger politicians. But maybe the problem isn’t just the old farts. Maybe it’s also the new little sh*ts.

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