Everybody knows that Bill O’Reilly has been thinking it for all of these years, it’s just hard to believe that he actually stuck his white foot in his old mouth on a major network. In a monologue on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, Bill went on a minor rant to explain his opinion on abolishing the Electoral College. We’ve had these discussions on Trigtent before, but O’Reilly takes it to another level completely. “The left wants power taken away from the white establishment, and they want a profound change in the way America is run,” he said. I wonder if the producers of the show were cringing while the piece was being filmed.
The monologue started off a bit edgy, with Bill saying that ever since Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the US presidential election but lost the electors, “the left is demanding that the Electoral College system be scrapped.” He excites his 65+ year-old viewers by carrying on to say that there is a “hidden” and seemingly mysterious reason behind all of this. He goes on to say what many already believe: That the left would favor abolishing the Electoral College, because the minorities that heavily populate urban areas would have much larger voting power, and that’s who the Democrats pander to the most.
In our last article on the Electoral College, we explained how the system works, its benefits for smaller state representation, and how the system is imperfect. We also covered the fact that killing the Electoral College system in America would create “super-voters” in larger cities, effectively destroying the need for any campaigner to step foot in the rural US – it wouldn’t be necessary, because their tiny vote count would pale in comparison to the most densely populated cities in the nation.
Bill believes that this is simply “all about race,” as he put it. “The left sees white privilege in America as an oppressive force, that must be done away with. Therefore, white working-class voters must be marginalized. What better way to do that, than to center the voting power in the cities?”
Albeit controversial and a difficult thing to say on national cable television, it’s hard to argue with O’Reilly up until this point. Supporters of the popular vote would by definition have to be liberal – the cities are where their voting base lies. Major cities would be disproportionately powerful, were the current system to be scrapped in favor of a popular vote. It is also true that rural demographics are largely white, so in essence, removing the current system would disenfranchise many white voters. Carry on Bill! Your tirade is starting to get entertaining.
“Very few commentators will tell you that the heart of liberalism in America is based on race. It permeates almost every issue: That white men have set up a system of oppression, and that system must be destroyed. Bernie Sanders peddled that, and to some extent Clinton did, and the liberal media tries to sell that.”
Alright Bill, you’re starting to go off of the rails here a bit. While some may agree with you, this is not something you should be saying to millions of people. Does he even realize the type of bad publicity he’s going to receive by stating his opinion?
Besides, a sweet old man like Bernie Sanders would never do that, right? Wrong! During the Democratic National Primary, Sanders went toe-to-toe with the cerebral, cyborg body of Hillary Clinton, and dropped a bombshell (via CNN) – white people don’t know what it’s like to be poor, so please shut your privileged, racist mouths and vote for me! Alright, you got me. He didn’t add that list bit, I did. I was just trying to hype and race-bait it up in Bill O’Reilly fashion.
"When you’re white, you don’t know what it’s like to be living in a ghetto. You don’t know what it’s like to be poor. You don’t know what it’s like to be hassled when you walk down the street or you get dragged out of a car," Sanders said.
It’s hard to believe that an Independent is agreeing with O’Reilly to some extent, but I believe he’s right on the point that the liberal agenda in modern history has heavily pandered to minorities to secure their vote.
When I first heard the above comment by Sanders during the primaries, I was offended – and that’s a hard thing to do to a straight, white male in America. What about me, Bernie? I grew up in shitty apartments, raised by a hard-working single mother, within city limits. We didn’t have much, but we certainly didn’t complain. Do I not know what it’s like to be poor? Is living in the city of Detroit not ghetto enough for you? I can’t argue the point about the cops – I’ll admit that being white does give me the benefit of the doubt, in that regard.
O’Reilly sums up his monologue by saying that the left wants power taken away from the white establishment – possibly the poorest choice word usage possible, when discussing such a touchy subject. Saying “white establishment” implies that Bill is talking about “the man.” You know, the fat, rich, white men who run the nation and disenfranchise blacks, women, and foreigners.
O’Reilly needs a better editor. In my opinion, he would have been better off replacing “white establishment” with “white people.” While the piece would have still been without a doubt controversial, at least “people” better represents his talking points. Trust me, good ol’ Billy-Bob from rural Kansas certainly doesn’t feel like a member of any establishment.
You can watch the entire monologue here, courtesy of Fox News. I wonder if Bill got through his entire bit in one take. It may have been more entertaining if he just said: “fuck it, we'll do it live!”
