Bill Maher And Dr. Phil Don't Agree Trump Is Worse Than Biden, But Should Agree on Cultural Threat

Dr. Phil McGraw guested on Bill Maher' Club Random podcast this week. During the exchange, the two clashed over a debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

Dr. Phil informed Maher he plans to launch a project about his “concerns” that have the country “headed for a cliff" upon the conclusion of his syndicated talk show later this year.

McGraw says the past two presidents are partly to blame for said trajectory:

"I stayed non-political because I think there’s idiocy on both sides… I’m not a big fan of our president or the last one, but I respect the office of the president.”

After a brief pause, Maher raised an issue with McGraw including Biden "in the same breath" as Trump.

Per Maher:

“And one of them is much more of a threat to the republic that would be the 45th, would you not agree?”
"C’mon, a threat to the republic Joe Biden? No. Joe Biden is a return to normalcy yet a Democrat who is yes, too much ensorcelled by his fringe left. He will not ever tell them to sit down and shut up. But I will take that bargain, much as I don’t like it, and it’s bitter, I will take that bargain over Trump. Come on.” 

McGraw did not concede, adding "I’m concerned about both sides. And I’m particularly concerned about this woke agenda that’s being pushed."

The following back-and-forth ensued:

Maher: “Trump- you gotta, like, be on the page that he’s worse than Joe Biden. He’s very different than Joe Biden. Come on, doc."

McGraw: “It’s not politics that determine the outcome of society, it’s culture, I don’t care about politics. You go back to the beginning… Democrats and Republicans have been in control about 50-50. They’ve had control of the House and Senate while they were in control the presidency about 50-50, they’ve had it not in control 50-50. And look where we are. They both come up about the same place. I don’t care about that. I care about our culture.” 

Maher: “Okay, I’m disappointed that I can’t get you to just out and say that Trump is a completely different animal than the politics on the left and the right that we both agree is very lacking on both sides,” Maher said. “He is a completely different elements and much more dangerous. I mean, we’re talking about some sort of unnatural predator that was introduced into this wild which was a jungle in the first place.

"But this is a different element. Nobody else has ever tried to not concede an election in this country, tried to overturn an election we all-even the people in his own party understood was lost. That is a Rubicon that we have crossed. That makes him completely unique, a unicorn if a unicorn was a big fat a–h—. If I can’t have your faith on that, it’s very hard for me to understand where you’re coming from on any issue.”

McGraw: I’m telling you-” McGraw said.

Maher: “Doc, you can’t do it."

Got all that?

Forget Trump vs. Biden. The highlight of the exchange is Dr. Phill declaring "It's not politics but culture that determine society."

Well said, that is.

Woke-ism, as Dr. Phil cites, originated in American culture. It then morphed into a political strategy. As the late Andrew Breitbart famously argued, politics is downstream from culture.

Thereby it's through culture that woke-ism must be countered. We discuss how in a recent column:

The culture war, if you will, is not a right-wing distraction. It's where the focus and fight out to be, for the reasons to which Dr. Phil alluded.

Bill Maher and Dr. Phil do not agree on if Trump was markedly worse than Biden. So be it. But they most certainly agree on the consequences of a broken culture.

Other than Trump, the woke have become Maher's most frequent target of ridicule.

Unfortunately, Trump vs. Biden will never bring common sense folks together. But disdain for the woke can.