Does anyone else feel slightly suspicious of Jimmy Kimmel? I enjoy the fact that he’s become more politically active, and I’m completely fine with people referring to his many late-night political speeches as “Cronkite moments.” But I also feel an undercurrent of suspicion, like Kimmel is being promoted – through no fault of his own – as some kind of “spokesperson for the people,” and “our new woke ally.” And he just isn’t that guy. He’s still going to say and do stupid things, I’m positive. He’s still going to “disappoint” people, I’m sure. I guess that saying I’m “suspicious” is probably the wrong word to use. It’s more like… I’m just tired and no one is perfect, so stop trying to convince me that everything Kimmel says is the most brilliant political commentary out there. Kimmel knows that too – he’s not out here, claiming to be the new political savant. Kimmel sat down for a lengthy interview with InStyle, which you can read here. He talks a lot about the hype he’s gotten during the Trump presidency, and more. Some highlights:
Why he took a week off: “There’s a fresh new batch of horrors every single day. I don’t want to start the show with Donald Trump every night. Sometimes I’m just giving myself a break, but I do think it’s a relief for people to be reminded that life continues despite his presence.”
Liberals eat their own: “There’s no one worse than liberals. Conservatives stick together. Liberals will eat their own. They’re like an aquarium full of piranhas.”
He’s not here to be weaponized: “I would love if one day my point of view could be taken as my point of view rather than some kind of political weapon. Because that’s not what I am, and that’s not ever what I intended.”
His work on health care: “I never in my life thought my name would be invoked on the floor of Congress. Unless I committed some kind of horrible crime. I’m not looking to be a leader. I’m compelled to speak, and people shouldn’t read any more into it than that. I hear people saying smart, meaningful things every day. I just happen to have a television show.”
Whether ABC ever gives him notes or asks him to tone it down: “Sometimes a little bit. For the most part, I never listen. They can pressure me all they want, but I still say what I want to say. I still do what I want to do.”
On the death threats he & his family receive: “I don’t give it much energy. Sometimes it’ll upset my wife, but I know those people are cowards.”
He loves funny women: “I’ve really had three relationships. My first wife, Gina, who’s very funny. Next was Sarah Silverman, who’s very funny. And my wife. All the women in my family are funny, so I think that’s probably the reason I’m attracted to funny women.”
On the current political situation: “It’s like there are wild animals loose in the house, and they’re breaking everything. We just need to open all the windows and force them out. I hope and I trust that we will get past this and we’ll go back to the old way, where we could just talk about dumb things.”
“It’s like there are wild animals loose in the house, and they’re breaking everything. We just need to open all the windows and force them out.” It’s true. It’s like the Trump presidency has just been an unfolding natural disaster of cataclysmic proportions and we spent too much time, as a society, debating about whether we should actually call them “wild animals” when we should have been focusing on how to force them out. As for this: “There’s no one worse than liberals. Conservatives stick together. Liberals will eat their own. They’re like an aquarium full of piranhas.” Ugh. I mean, I get it, the Democratic Party will never “fall in lockstep” like the Republicans. But really, who can look at Paul Ryan, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell and say “well at least they’re on the same page, that’s a plus.”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
That’s a stupid thing to say. Conservatives stick together only if you’re EXACTLY like them. If you’re the wrong race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, whatever – then, to conservatives, you’re basically not human.
And with THAT…he OFFICIALLY goes on the “Complicit List” for me…REALLY with that stance?!?! I mean…REALLY?!?!
You are literally making his point. I’m a die hard liberal and I can’t stand that if one liberal says something other liberals disagree with, they are somehow awful or complicit. This purity test nonsense will make Trump a 2 term president. Hope all you “pure” liberals feel good about that.
@Melly Co-sign! I hear what he’s saying, and I agree.
Phil Ochs was right, check out the long Love Me, I’m A Liberal (it’s a classic folk song).
Melly: Quite true about liberals. But I hope to hell this fact (somehow) does not lead to 45’s second term. It CAN’T…
@Decca Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll check it out now!
@Catarina It can totally happen. Republicans rally together and liberal fight amongst ourselves. In times like these we need to march in lockstep. We need a candidate that can WIN – this candidate doesn’t need to be perfect. But come the election, watch liberal tear each other to pieces and fight over who is more “pure”. Watch a 3rd party (likely green party) candidate chip away at the liberal vote. Liberals are f’ing infuriating the way we self-sabotage.
Yes! We have to be able to disagree! I feel like liberal and conservative don’t mean anything anymore
I’ll be honest, I’ve been saying the same thing for ages. It was child’s play to get the progressives to treat Clinton like she was the same or worse than Trump. Liberal’s will call out our own for doing crap (as we should) whereas the GOP lives by the IOKIYAR mantra. Democrats are way too willing to eat their own – which is why third party candidates lead to even heinously unthinkable GOP presidents
Liberals eat their own: “There’s no one worse than liberals. Conservatives stick together. Liberals will eat their own. They’re like an aquarium full of piranhas.”
NO LIES DETECTED.
I’ve said this for years – conservatives may be great at throwing each other under the bus during a campaign, but when it comes down to it, they will band together to get their horrible agendas passed and nothing proved that like this election. Even worse, liberals still can’t figure that shiz out because too many of us are STILL more focused on purity tests and self righteousness.
YUP. He’s telling the truth.
We demand purity tests. If you don’t vote our way on 100% of the things, then you’re useless to us. When it comes to campaigns both sides are ugly like you say, but when it comes down to it – Rs always band together against Democrats. Its one of the reasons many Republican politicians LOVE Hillary in their way – because it gives them an “enemy” against whom they can band together and rally their base. There’s a reason Trump brings her up all the time.
100 percent correct. He’s right. When it comes down to it, Republicans band together over their common enemy. Which is why almost all of them are not speaking out against the traitor in the house (along with many of them agreeing with his backward s**t). They are truly party power first.
People are so upset about what he said buy all one has to do it point to the 2016 election to prove his point. I am a progressive ans I voted for Bernie in the primary. But in the general I whole heartedly voted for Hillary. The same cant be said about a lot of liberal who feel like if a candidate isnt 100% aligned with all their ideals they cant vote for them. We are are too concerned with purity tests and being idealists. Trump would never have happened if those who stayed home and voted third party has stepped up to the plate.
Well said, and it’s important.
Voting is crucial, even if you aren’t 100% on the candidate, you have to vote for the least damaging one.
He is right about that. Seriously look at ca and the senate race. Some dems want to replace Dianne Feinstein. She didn’t even get dem endorsement ffs! What they don’t get is she’s the senior ranking dem in the judiciary committee. Yes she has a lot of clout. They want to replace her with some young guy who will not have any power at all
How is that a good idea. Sorry it’s because of Dianne we got a look at Gps’ transcript. And the gop couldn’t do anything to her for doing that because of her seniority. Try that with a young guy. They’d eat him alive.
He is so right. Liberals need to be proper and politically correct and say and do the “right” thing 24/7 is so detrimental to them. At the end of the day, Republican ALWAYS support each, no how heinous the situation is while liberals go out of their way to cancel each other over the smallest little things.
Yes. I agree completely with his sentiment. Our liberal purity tests are so damaging, not just to the Democratic party but to the entire country, because while we’re busy constructing purity tests and tearing one another to shreds on Twitter and writing “Superman” on ballots instead of voting for a flawed candidate, Republicans are working together in an organized way to gut the social safety net and take away things like abortion rights and environmental protections.
This has absolutely been my experience. I can’t speak for conservative social-media circles, but I am part of an activist group on FB that has lately devolved into liberals slinging the “neoliberal democrat” label at anyone who is one inch to the right of them (as they defend their choice to abstain from voting, no less, though I don’t want to get into that issue here). It’s no wonder we can’t take one step forward without then stepping 50 years back.
Re: Jimmy Kimmel, I mean – let’s not forget he was on The Man Show.
Where are the lies in this??? Agree 💯
He’s not wrong at all. Republicans will always look out party over all else. Democrats will eat each other alive in search of the precious, mythical “perfect candidate.” Look at the last presidential election. When I saw that people were writing in “Batman” and “Harambe” over voting Hillary when the opponent was Trump, I will never stop being angry about it
It’s true. Liberals need a wake up call.
Another shitty think liberals do is pander to conservatives and make people like Comey and Mccain the faces of their “resistance”. blech
Obama said it in his speech last week – “You can’t opt out because you don’t feel sufficiently inspired by this or that particular candidate. This is not a rock concert. This is not Coachella. We don’t need a messiah. All we need are decent, honest, hard-working people who are accountable and who have America’s best interests at heart”
I know several who voted for Jill Stein because they didn’t “like” Hillary and I argued and argued with one of them saying that if it had been George W Bush versus Trump i would have been out CAMPAIGNING for W… Trump was clearly that bad. He still voted Stein. Ugh.
Trump was born to be The Greater of Two Evils no matter who ran against him.
Just the 3rd Party voters could have thwarted Trump by voting for The Lesser of Two Evils (any Democrat running against Trump).
Binary system, people. I don’t like it either, but that’s what we got in the Presidential campaign. The winner will be either Republican or Democrat. Deal with it. And when the Republican is someone like Donald Trump – you just have to vote for the candidate who has a chance of keeping Trump out of the White House, and that ain’t Stein or the Libertarian stoner or Bullwinkle or Superman or whoever you want to write-in on your ballot.
HE’s RIGHT THO. All one has to do to understand that is look at yhe Democratic party. We have lost literally thousands of political seats dating back to 2012. And instead of really bunkering down ans bansinf together Dems like to split hairs and point fingers. No one is saying Repubs are BETTER. They’re not. But the reason why they have been so successful in taking over the political arena is that they STICK TOGETHER. No matter what. Meanwhile we have the Bernie Bros, Dem establishment and the Dem socialists all fighting over who is right rather than understanding that we ALL want to get to the same place and that we don’t have to be a monolith of ideas in order to do so.
If a Liberal is out here…”Eating their own”…they have SUCCINCTLY shown that they are NOT A LIBERAL…and the past election and the current state of politics has proven that… and if I see you’re a “Fake Liberal” I’m going to let EVERYBODY and their Mama know it…
So I take complete and UTTER UMBRAGE with that statement….
Come on. Take a real hard HONEST look at the Dem party and tell me he’s wrong. Take a good hard look at what happened in 2016. Or what happened with yhe DCC in Texas or what is happening in NY in their Governor’s race. You can be a liberal and be critical of the way Dems and liberals deal with each other. I am a registered Dem. But I would be dishonest if I didn’t acknowledge that. I suggest listening to the podcast The Wilderness which talks about ghe history of the Dem party, where we are now, how we got here and how to find our way back. Jimmy isnt dissing liberals. He’s speaking the plain truth about how even when we are on the same path we often get in each other’s way because we are too concerned with political purity.
Amen. As an Independent out here in Near Libertariansville, Libs are a hot freaking mess. Corrupt as the day is long, as the last election showed with stunning clarity. That blessed high road they claim to worship is the road to ruin. There is no Perfect Candidate and they certainly won’t bribe their way into finding one. It didn’t work with Hillary and it won’t work if they try it again. At least the GOP bans together to protect its own. They’re scum but they’re loyal scum.
If you REALLY think about, he’s right. Democrats/liberals are constantly frothing at the mouth to cancel each other. They can’t rally behind anyone because they expect their candidates and people in general to be perfect from birth, God forbid one did or said the smallest thing that was not woke 30 years ago. It’s impossible to be all thing to all people 24/7 and people are human. I think liberals need to get down from their high horse if they want to bring America back from this pit of hell.
And with that statement, you proved him right. You’re going to “eat your own” because they are not in 100% agreement with you and because you consider them “fake.”
But he’s right!
The Republicans ALWAYS fall in line, like good little fascists, and vote for their candidate.
Unfortunately, a good number of Democrats NEVER got behind Hillary because of their purity tests.
Liberals will eat their own? Thanks for cancelling yourself asshole
I think you just proved his point.
I can easily see President stable-genius winning again, if this continues. I agree with Kimmel 100%.
@NOTus…the OP is just practicing one of liberals favorite sports: cancelling their fellow liberals. And proving Jimmy’s point as you said.
Al Franken, anyone?
He popped into my mind reading this, also.
Part of the problem with the Democratic party is that it’s lost sight of a very firm and well-directed message, but some of that is a natural result of shifting cultural institutions and demographics. There’s more controversy because there’s more diversity in the party. This being said, there’s a certain strain of ~progressive purism~ that really needs to be thrown out the door because it’s going to screw us all in the long run. (If it hasn’t already with the Supreme Court turnover.) You can’t pretend politicians are supermen waiting to save you that will be perfect and pleasing with every action they take. You need to learn how to work constructively with a system to promote change rather than rally around an idealized figure who will inevitably disappoint you because they are human.
This being said, I don’t trust him either. Rich white men are inherently threatening to me in this day and age simply because they’re so detached from the consequences of the reality around them.
Exactly on all points.
As for not trusting Jimmy. Eh – I dont trust famous people that I don’t actually know. They are not infallible and being famous doesnt make you a good person. One thing 2018 should teach us all is that fame and money aren’t virtues. Celebs can be awful people too.
Whispers, he’s not wrong though. In MD, there is a democrat who lost her primary to a more progressive democrat. Did she accept defeat gracefully? throw her support behind the nominee? No, she’s running as independent. She will not win, but she will peel of votes. Corker and Flake hate Trump…but they’ll vote their party line til there gone. There are dems who voted for Gorsuch and will vote for Kavanaugh. Again, he is not wrong.
I don’t like the way he said it but if the last election taught us anything it’s that the old adage that “Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line” still holds true
Liberals – or at least the SJW and regressive left part of the group – absolutely eat their own. You have to be in lockstep with them on Every. Single. Issue. or they will hound and harass and turn on you faster than a weather vane in a Category 5 hurricane.
Republicans are gross in a lot of things but I expect that from them – to be unreasonable, to stick to their views no matter how many times you show them it’s misguided, and on and on – very much a Republican pattern.
True liberals been blindsided by the regressive left’s virtue-signalling, purity testing, and overall unrealistic levels of idealism too many times to count.
In SJW-land, it’s pretty much “toe the official virtue-signal of the day, or get thrown out and labelled some-sort-of-ist”. They’re all about Feelings over Facts.
Most true liberals are growing more disgusted at the situation, hence the #WalkAway.
Nice try, but #walkaway isn’t a real thing.
It isn’t some huge political exodus rather a shift in ideology for those who realize the current leftist platform isn’t what they signed up for. Still liberal but floundering and can’t see the way forward yet.
Also, only a few are vocal about their disillusionment on social media.
I’m at the point where neither side really appeals, and the only reason I’m still leaning left is owing to the shadow of ws that looms on the right.
Grown people using terms like SJW in 2018 and not in a sarcastic manner…smh.
I stand corrected. It was wrong to use the outdated term sjw, when, in reality, they a bunch of random irrational kids venting on social media.
The extreme right have their “deplorables” and now the extreme left have their “unreasonables”.
Balance is restored to this dying universe.
I think there are honest democrats in office, like Kamala Harris, and ingenuous democrats like Jerry Brown (who has spent his ENTIRE career as a politician. And honestly, I think the “right” helps elect these phonie “dems” to do their dirty work on the otherside of the isle, a seemingly successful way to infiltrate and undermine people who get into politics because they want to help the common people.
No, the difference between true Dems and conservatives is the fact that the right is held together by white supremacy and the left is held together by compassion for humanity.
He ain’t lyin’. *sips coffee*
He’s not lying, though. You only have to watch the Governor’s race in NY to see what he’s saying in action. First Teachout in 2010, now Nixon. Yet he leads by 30 points.
It’s true. Just be socialists! It’s what y’all want anyway. I am mailing myself to Nepal.
isn’t democracy about speaking up and not just ‘falling in line’ agreeing with everyone else? i’d rather have a politician who does that than one who, once elected, is just a sheep following the herd
Hmmm…there’s some truth to it, but what I find more is that liberal politicians have no balls. Republicans band together and get their horrible agenda done. Liberals talk a big game, but end up conceding to republicans in the end. Gun control…universal healthcare…etc. Democrats let republicans get their way too often.
His words are accurate in the sense that Republicans will stop at nothing to push through an agenda and they’re often better at getting on the same page. Their agenda is simple: work for the rich. Of course this is easier than multi-lateral social and economic programs. Republicans think that legislating is about doing nothing. I mean literally passing fewer bills and cutting taxes. Democrats, being more educated, thoughtful and worldly, tend to see issues as more nuanced and layered, with more concern for long-range and unintended consequences. Naturally, this makes it more difficult to come to an agreement about the best way forward. That said, it’s puzzling that dems can’t win elections. Is it fair to blame them for that?
All political parties and politicians are the same. They only care about those that support them. They don’t work for the people. They’re all corrupt!
Jimmy Kimmel is now being presented as a fella who knows about politics?
Holy crapola! I still think of him as the guy who wasn’t Ben Stein on “Win Ben Steins Money” on Comedy Central.
He can say whatever he likes, just his opinion.
I long for the day when voters actually paid attention to the policy the candidates were spouting, not just vote straight party lines because “My Daddy, and his Daddy voted Rep. So I will too.”
At this point, 2 years into The Trump Fiasco, my opinion is Anyone BUT Trump.
So to the poster who talked about white men. What you are describing is not just white men. Black men, Asian men, Indian men all hold the same qualities when it comes to power and control and to pretend that only white men enjoy power is not progressive. If the government were all black or Indian men the same problems would exist. We see it in Central America, India and many countries in Africa. Agree that libs want purity. Take abortion there may be many libs that want healthcare for all, minimum wage increase, etc. But if they don’t agree on abortion they are treated horribly by other libs. Libs put people up on pedestals and worship them (Obama) they fall in love and are passionate. Republicans on the other hand have an agenda they could not care less if they if love the person – no hero worship. They do not care if you are for or against abortion just vote.
If Trump et al are in lockstep and that lockstep has resulted in them winning elections and having virtually unrestricted political power, then yes, that is nothing but a plus. This is something democrats need to learn.
There’s no point being pure and noble and unsullied when you are giving your country away to the other team. Get your side in power first–even if you have to vote for someone who only aligns with 60% of your views–and then fight over the nitty gritty. Otherwise you’re looking at a second term of someone who aligns with 0% of your views.
The last election showed that to get your candidate elected the party has to stand United even if they dont necessarily like the person up there. If they are divided, and do not shore up the base, the party cannot win. This happened to Republicans with Ross Perot and now it happend with Hillary and Bernie. Republicans figured out that ultimately after the nomination occured it was put up or shut up time. I “think” whomever is nominated needs to hit hard on jobs to win back the states they lost. Just say jobs over and over until people are sick of hearing it. Talk about how they can bring back jobs, how people can keep jobs, how people can create more jobs. All of that. Shore up the base who are not extreme Democrats and just want better pay and job opportunities and get back the states that were lost.