"They don’t hate us, they want to be us," coastal state comedian Bill Maher claims about the so-called "flyover" heartland states. (Reuters)
In his closing remarks Friday night, HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher had a message for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos after his company’s decision to pull out of a deal to bring jobs to New York City.
Maher began by arguing that if notorious mobster Bugsy Siegel “could invent” Las Vegas in the middle of a desert, then Amazon could turn Nebraska “into the next Silicon Valley” and that a tech company can finally prove that it can “actually do good.”
He then addressed “spatial geographic inequality,” which he described as “the most affluent and educated people are clustered in just a few cities,” and pointed to Hillary Clinton’s remarks about how she “won the places that represent two-thirds of America’s gross domestic product.”
FLORIDA SEN. RICK SCOTT SLAMS OCASIO-CORTEZ, ENCOURAGES AMAZON TO MOVE TO FLORIDA
“The blue parts of America are having a prosperity party while that big sea of red feels like their invitation got lost in the mail,” Maher said. “The flyover states have become the passed-over states. That’s why red state voters are so pissed off. They don’t hate us, they want to be us. They want to go to the party.”
“The flyover states have become the passed-over states. That’s why red state voters are so pissed off. They don’t hate us, they want to be us. They want to go to the party.”
The HBO star invoked the 238 cities that had submitted proposals to Amazon, saying they were “desperate for jobs” that don’t involve “guarding prisons or murdering chickens” and that, instead, Amazon picked two cities -- New York and metro Washington -- where “prosperity already was.”
“Bezos, you’re worth $130 billion. Take one for the team! Stop playing cities off against one another and help a dying one come back to life,” Maher exclaimed. “If liberals are serious about winning elections, they have to start re-colonizing the parts of the country they’ve abandoned. Mississippi is the poorest state in the country. Amazon could buy the whole state and rename it ‘Amazippi.’”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“If we keep leaving the red states behind, they’re going to keep getting angrier and crazier, because if you’re not invited to the party, the next best thing is to throw a turd in the punch bowl,” Maher continued.
“If we keep leaving the red states behind, they’re going to keep getting angrier and crazier, because if you’re not invited to the party, the next best thing is to throw a turd in the punch bowl.”
Amazon backed out of its plan to build a headquarters in New York City after a protest movement led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., gave the company second thoughts about locating offices there.
Trending
Who's making headlines in television, music, movies and more from Hollywood to the Heartland.