Clark County Today Editor Ken Vance looks back at 2025 through the lens of a recent incident and the common sense comments from a liberal television host
Ken Vance, editor
Clark County Today
As 2025 was coming to a close, I spent several days resonating with everything that took place over the past year in an attempt to decide what I wanted to reflect on regarding those eventful 12 months. On New Year’s Eve, an incident that I was involved in gave my mind a considerable amount of clarity on what I want to share.
I was in a group of five in Las Vegas, where I was blessed to spend the holidays visiting my son and other friends and family. A conversation was taking place at the other end of the table. I’m not sure exactly how it got started, but I think it began with a relatively innocuous question from a member in the group to the employee of the establishment about where they were from, etc. The employee was talking about how long he had lived in Vegas, how much he enjoyed living in the city, and how he planned to live there the rest of his life. I wasn’t surprised by that. My son tells me the same thing all the time.
However, the reason this employee gave for why he felt that way was dramatically different from the reasons why my son likes living there. The reason this man gave as to why he loves Las Vegas is because it was wide-open to squatters. He bragged about how he had spent considerable time in recent years squatting in homes and properties that he didn’t own and how easy it was to do in that city. He even went on to say that he had educated others on how to successfully live rent free in homes and properties they don’t own and that he was available to do so for anyone who was interested.
The conversation didn’t last long, but for most of its duration I sat quietly at the other end of the table and did not participate. I don’t normally look for a debate when I’m out in public, especially with someone I don’t know. It never leads to anything good. But at some point, I just couldn’t hold my tongue any longer.
“Are you proud of that?’’ I asked the employee, who aggressively responded to me by saying emphatically that he absolutely was proud of his actions and opinions before continuing with a rant against the establishment empire, home and property owners, and those who are “privileged.” He believed there is a need for wealth and opportunities to be distributed to those who have been disenfranchised or victimized. He was entitled. (For the record, everyone involved in this incident has the same skin color so this wasn’t about race as far as I can tell.)
“I think that’s disgusting,’’ I told the guy before announcing to the table that I felt it was my time to leave. My pending departure wasn’t enough to stop the employee from continuing to lecture us about his liberal, progressive ideology. My comments only made him louder and more aggressive.
Thankfully, the manager witnessed the entire incident and he immediately shouted for the employee to stop his behavior. I thanked the manager, and we had a few cordial moments together before I left. (Note: I did return a short time later to reiterate to the manager that I was sorry for my role in the incident. He was filling out a disciplinary form of the employee’s behavior. I did not see the employee, and I do not know what disciplinary action was taken.)
My personal litmus test
In the hours since this incident took place, my reflection has led me to focus on two things. First, my life has been much better over the past year than it was in the previous four years. We can debate about the economy, fixing the border crisis, and many other things that could support that claim. I’m confident most scorecards of the past 12 months would indicate we are better off than we were a year ago. But, right or wrong, my litmus test is my dramatically reduced level of frustration over the nonsense of the previous four years.
The best illustration I have of that comes from something I came across last fall. It was a rant by liberal television personality Bill Maher. He was so disgusted by his fellow Democrats and liberal brethren that he argued parts of the modern political left had embraced ideas that, in his view, contradict common sense and scientific reasoning, including sex and gender. He cited debates over separating sports by biological sex as an example, saying he was unable to get prominent scientists to plainly acknowledge what he considers obvious realities such as we don’t need tampons in boy’s/men’s restrooms and biological males can’t get pregnant or give birth.
Maher contended that conservatives react to these ideas by refusing to accept what they see as the forced reinvention of society, even at the cost of Democratic norms. He listed a range of policies and cultural positions he believes the left has adopted without sufficient debate, including views on gender identity, treatment of minors, immigration and asylum standards, homelessness, natural immunity, race, prisons, and political slogans. He frames these as changes conservatives categorically reject.
Maher concludes that if the country is to return to a more stable political order, Democrats must stop proposing what he characterizes as radical and poorly thought-out ideas, and must allow open debate rather than labeling dissenters as immoral or ignorant. Maher likens this dynamic to demanding acceptance of something that is demonstrably false while insisting it is self-evident truth.
“If we are ever going to get back to the old America, that’s got to be the Democrats’ part of the bargain,’’ Maher said. “Stop coming up with radically new and often terrible ideas. And then in the next breath insist there be no debate about any of it. That if you don’t see it right away and go along, you’re bad, stupid and deplorable.’’
In my opinion, feeling you’re entitled to “squat’’ in property you don’t own is nonsense. Allowing biological males to invade women’s sports, locker rooms or bathrooms is nonsense. Not enforcing our immigration laws is nonsense. Standing by and allowing Antifa and others to make our cities war zones is nonsense. Treating homelessness as a lifestyle is nonsense.
“And when conservatives see it, they say, I’m sorry, we’re just not going to go along with reinventing society, often pointlessly, even if we have to cancel Democracy to do it,’’ Maher said.
Maher is correct. Those of us on the right aren’t going along with the nonsense any longer and we finally have folks in Washington D.C. and the White House who have our backs.
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Clark County Today Editor Ken Vance reflects on a New Year’s Eve encounter and a Bill Maher commentary to assess what he sees as cultural and political changes from the past year.
