Perhaps it was election fatigue or perhaps, amid the cacophony of sexual assault allegations, hacked emails, and ghosts of Clinton accusers past, the American people just needed a good ol’ fashioned pick-me-up. For whatever reason, the public made Ken Bone, an unassuming (and undecided) sweater-loving fella from the Midwest, a national folk hero.
He got the meme treatment, did the talk show rounds, and even inspired his own sexy Halloween costume. But the internet giveth, and the internet taketh away.
In the early hours Friday morning, Reddit sleuths happened upon Bone’s decidedly unwholesome posting history—including ogling the hacked nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence, copping to felony insurance fraud, and arguing that the death of Trayvon Martin was mere justifiable homicide. And like that, he was no longer the new, portlier Ned Flanders, but just another man struggling to choose between a sexual predator and one of the most qualified candidates in U.S. history for the highest office in the land.
On Friday night’s edition of Real Time, host Bill Maher first addressed the cowardly Republicans who’ve chosen to stick by their Cosby-esque candidate on the basis of political expediency.
“Most of them are sticking with Donald Trump. Why?” asked Maher. “Because the voters are sticking with Donald Trump. To the Republican base out there, this is not a deal-breaker. GOP now stands for ‘Grab Our Pussies.’”
Later on in the HBO program, after Andrew Sullivan and Maher tussled over religion (of course) and a soul-crushed Bernie Sanders tried his best to look animated whilst talking about his party’s establishment candidate, the comedian went after Ken Bone and all the other people who are somehow undecided this election.
“New Rule: Somebody has to tell me why America just made this guy so famous. This is Ken Bone, one of the undecided voters who asked a question at last Sunday’s debate and since then has become a folk hero. Why? Why? Because after 15 months of this campaign he’s still too stupid to pick Hillary over President Pussy-Grabber?” said Maher. “For me, the great sadness of this election is knowing that even if Trump doesn’t become president, we live in a country where half the people think he should be,” he continued. “Now, I would really like to ask Mr. Ken Bone—or any undecided voter—as this last 15 months rolled along, there was no breaking point for you? Trump saying he would kill the children of terrorists with drone strikes? Physically throwing out 12 million Mexicans? Banning all Muslims? Giving Saudi Arabia nukes? Running a scam ‘university?’ Cheating veterans out of charity money? Not paying taxes? Picking Putin as his favorite leader? Not being able to let go of a feud for a whole week with a beauty queen? The impressions of the handicapped? Nothing?!” Maher was, understandably, beside himself—not surprising, given that the political satirist has spent the better part of his career lampooning the stupidity of the average American, as well as the country’s seemingly never-ending Christianity fetish. If Maher is to be believed, our hypocrisy knows no bounds.
“Florida is a climate-ravaged state full of old people and they elected as governor a climate change denier who, when he was a businessman, oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in history,” offered Maher. “And it’s not just Republicans. Five percent of Bernie supporters have switched allegiance to a ventriloquist dummy named Gary Johnson whose policy positions are almost uniformly the exact opposite of Bernie’s, and who, when pressed to name a foreign country, said ‘Brangelina.’” “Folks, blowing up the world is something that could actually happen,” he added, alluding to the cataclysmic potential of a Trump presidency. “If you don’t think so, you haven’t seen enough movies.”