Bill Maher on the difference between Republicans and Democrats

This week, Bill Maher has taken President Obama to task for not standing up for gay and lesbian rights.

"Now that a Cheney, a McCain and a Bush have come out to support gay marriage, it's your turn, Obama.  53% of people support it, which means that 47% of Americans are assholes."

"But still, this is remarkable progress considering that it wasn't that long ago that just saying the words gay marriage made most Americans throw up in their Cornflakes. So, tonight, I'd like to congratulate the leadership of the Democratic party who really stood up for what was right. I'd like to, but I can't. Because other than Gavin Newsom, Dennis Kucinich and that Governor of New Jersey who went all Brokeback Mountain with his bodyguard, no Democrat would touch this issue with a ten inch pole."

Television is responsible for changing opinion, "which in the last five years has gotten gayer than the British navy.   If there's one thing I know about Americans is that if they see something on tv it makes it ok."

"Unlike the Democrats, when Republicans believe in things that the public doesn't, their response is 'fuck it, we'll make them believe.' Like attacking Iraq... to avenge 9/11. Convincing a country that badly wanted healthcare reform that they actually didn't want it... Like turning global warming into a hoax. That's what conservatives do. Relentlessly push until the unthinkable becomes the consensus. The idea of blaming teachers for our financial crisis, which would have seemed completely lunatic a year ago, becomes the conventional wisdom. Republicans don't run from unpopular stances and they stand by their convictions. Stupid, ignorant, world-destroying convictions based on disproven economic fantasies, and ancient books filled with primitive morality and magic people, but convictions nonetheless."