Editor’s Note: From the Back Forty is Liberty Nation’s longest running and most popular weekly column.
Heartlanders were collectively gob-smacked and more determined to change administrations in 2025 as the division of alliances within the second family came to light. Most folks in flyover states wondered why we are talking about Bootgate when the world is coming apart at the seams. And somehow, one political comedian is speaking the cold hard truth—and even liberals like it.
Second Family Friendly Fire
The vice president’s husband, Doug Emhoff, has been tagged to lead the White House strategy on antisemitism. But is he all in, or just filling a space at the conference table? Emhoff most recently stated: “Our President and Vice President are making sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself. We are grateful for their leadership and support for Israel at this exceptionally difficult time.” Funny, he did not mention the new Speaker of the House repurposing IRS funds to send aid to Israel.
In Whitmore Lake, MI, Gary Johnson thinks it’s a matter of sitting on an eggless nest for show: “I’m sure he’s getting well paid for doing nothing, and if liberals weren’t hypocrites, they would be nothing.”
But here is the wrinkle: Doug’s daughter, Ella Emhoff, a progressive artist and self-proclaimed fashion model, is raising money for Gaza. It appears there’s a slight conflict, no? Using her Instagram page as a fundraising tool, Ella asks for aid donations to Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF). To date, the group has raised nearly $8 million for “urgent relief for Gaza’s children.” Who knows if the kids really benefit from the funds, as even the PCRF admits it is difficult for relief dollars to get to those who need them.
It was an unprovoked, coordinated attack by Hamas on October 7 that killed over 1,400 people in Israel, wounded over 5,400 more, while 240 people were taken hostage. Hamas later accidentally misfired a missile into a hospital in Gaza where the wounded and refugees were sheltering. Israel responded, and now the US finds itself picking sides on who belongs in the Holy Land.
“Someone didn’t teach their child history,” commented Karen Fawbush of Ogden, UT. One man in Tennessee simply linked to a Wiki page that listed Ella’s great accomplishments: “She has gained attention from the BBC and the New York Times for having tattoos and refusing to shave her armpit hair.” So there’s that.
Bootgate
Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis, was the week’s hot topic in far too many circles. The presidential hopeful was rumored to have worn boots with lifts to appear taller and more leader-like. The Daily Show guest host, Charlamagne tha God, asked another GOP candidate, former Ambassador Nikki Haley, “Are you wearing higher heels than Ron DeSantis on the debate stage so you can look taller than him on the stage?”
Haley went a full-on version of a mean-girl Trump and replied: “I don’t know. We will have to figure that out. I can tell you I have always talked about my high heels. I have never hid them from anybody. I have always said don’t wear high heels if you can’t run in them. We will see if he can run in them.”
The Trump tactic felt flatfooted with Heartlanders. “Almost in WW 3, and we are discussing shoe wear of our Presidential candidates,” observed Linda Robbins Geers. The Cincinnati gal continued: “No wonder the world is laughing at us.”
“A comment I hoped was beneath her,” Texan Michael Sisson advised. “Stick to real issues, Nikki. This just plays into stereotypes about catty women.”
Sharon Hoffman in Kentucky went on a long rant that would have made E. E. Cummings proud: “We are a nation in decline. crime is exploding, crackheads selling out America to the highest bidder with the help of Pops..complete breakdown of society energy independence gone, economy destroyed, inflation skyrocketing, weaponized government against their political enemies, cocaine, and topless dancers at the WH.” That was the short version, but one could see where she was headed.
And at the Foxhole pub in Warren County, IN, Randy Stine ended the discussion: “I take it that his hand size is sufficiently large since they’re not harping on that.”
Why Is Bill Maher the Voice of Reason?
Comedian and TV host Bill Maher has always been a centrist. In the 1990s, he spoke with Rolling Stone and said this:
“I’m a libertarian. The line I’ve always used is, I would be a Republican if they would, which means that I like the Barry Goldwater Republican Party, even the Reagan Republican Party. I want a mean old man to watch my money. I don’t want a Republican to be funny. I don’t want him to be charming. Because government is a sieve that takes as much money as it can and gives it away, usually needlessly.”
So, he didn’t like President Trump. He is not politically correct and sometimes has liberals near seizure with his straight-from-the-Tree-of-Liberty language. Three decades later, as American college students are rallying to bring back the stone age, Maher made sense again:
“For all the progressives and academics who refer to Israel as an outpost of Western Civilization like it’s a bad thing, please note, Western Civilization is what gave the world pretty much every **** liberal precept that liberals are supposed to adore: individual liberty, scientific inquiry, rule of law, religious freedom, women’s rights, human rights, democracy, trial by jury, freedom of speech, please, somebody stop us before we enlighten again. Why is it that every other culture gets a pass, but the West is exclusively the sum of the worst things it’s ever done? You think only white people colonized?”
Patriot Roger Dlgleish offered his sage advice: “Bill Maher is a liberal, but he doesn’t carry water for the democrat party. If most liberals were like him, we would have a lot less problems.”
