The comedian and host of “Real Time with Bill Maher” accused Democrats on Friday of placing diversity above meritocracy, warning it could hurt ultimately the party.
Maher began his monologue by tearing into nepotism.
“Show business is full of nepotism babies, politics is full of nepo babies, even modeling … has fallen to nepotism. But in sports, there are no nepo babies,” he said. “There are the sons and daughters of former players, but it’s not why they play. Laila Ali didn’t knock out 21 opponents by smacking them with a birth certificate.”
“So enjoy the good life, nepos. Just don’t say you didn’t have a big advantage, or it didn’t matter that much who your parents were, or ‘It just got my foot in the door.’ This is fucking show business, getting your foot in the door is 80% of it.”
“Sports is the last place where it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from, just what you do,” Maher said, adding he trusts that “the 450 players in the NBA” are the best players in the game more than he trusts that judges, those in media, the government and more are the best for the role.
Maher then turned his attention to rip an alleged lack of meritocracy in institutions such as American schools.
“Forty-two percent of private colleges admit applicants based almost entirely on the fact that their parents are alumni. You get in if you work hard and your dad bought a building. These are called legacy admissions,” he said. (RELATED: VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Destroying Meritocracy Is Deadly)
“The concept of merit itself is now under attack everywhere but in sports,” he continued, arguing schools are lessening the academic requirements such as honors classes and admissions tests rather than helping students reach their potential.
“This is a bad issue for Democrats, because most Americans seems to agree, if they’re on an airplane, they want a cockpit that looks like America, but they’d also like someone up there who knows how to fly the plane.”
Parents of a prestigious Virginia high school have been shaming educators after a report showed administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology failed to notify students, mostly Asian, that they had received merit scholarships, a high honor often used on college applications to help achieve scholarships.
In another institution, Republican Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher demanded to know why, in 2021, a top Navy admiral suggested photo applications should be reinstated in military branches to better “consider diversity.”