Is Bill Maher Getting Politically Incorrect at Long Last?

Conservatives will always have a bone or three to pick with Bill Maher.

The Real Time with Bill Maher host has been attacking and insulting the GOP for years, often in the cruelest ways possible. And his “jokes” against Sarah Palin’s family were beyond the pale. Period.

But Maher’s rhetoric and views may be evolving. Consider his strong denunciation of not just radical Islam but Islamic countries where basic freedoms are often ignored. Maher’s dustup with actor/director/Batman Ben Affleck last year turned into a social media sensation. Lost in the cyber-noise: Maher’s willingness to depart from the liberal playbook against one Hollywood’s biggest stars.

Recently, Maher savaged those all too eager to get radio titan Rush Limbaugh off the air.

[I]f you are one of the people with a website devoted to making him go away, you are part of the problem.

On the last Real Time episode, Maher attacked his fellow liberals once more, at times sounding more like Breitbart News’ own Ben Shapiro than HBO’s most reliably left-of-center star.

Liberals hate bullying, all right. But they’re not opposed to using it. When they casually throw out words like “bigot” and “racist,” it does cow people into avoiding this debate. And if you’re doing that, you don’t get to wear the #JeSuisCharlie button. The button you should wear says #JeSuisPartOfTheProblem.

Maher cuts to the heart of a tactic too many liberals use with alacrity. He acknowledges the power of playing the race card, explaining how it’s used to clamp down on free speech, not simply call out racist behavior. Will Maher connect the obvious dots from here, like how President Barack Obama’s defenders routinely call his critics racists for merely opposing certain White House policies?

Maher’s mini-evolution began when Maher’s Islamic criticisms during his verbal slugfest with Affleck convinced activists to protest his UC Berkeley speaking appearance late last year. That protest failed, but it gave Maher a personal look at the bullying tactics employed by his fellow liberals.

He didn’t like what he saw, apparently.

Is this new, seemingly improved Maher the real deal? Maybe. Not only does it make his HBO show more interesting in the short term, it hearkens back to the promise of his original ABC show, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.