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Actress Justine Bateman and comedian Bill Maher compared far-left policies — specifically, the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) goals — to “The Purge” in real life on Monday, questioning why critics of those policies are expected to “bow down.”
“What’s the endgame?” Bateman asked of the socialist policies of the DSA during an appearance on Maher’s “Club Random” podcast. “Let’s say you get everything you wanted. Let’s say everything on that list. You get the whole thing. The whole thing. I mean, first of all, I can tell you for sure, anybody could tell you, you haven’t thought this through.”
Maher called it “cloud cuckoo land” as Bateman began comparing the proposals to the movie “The Purge.”
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“You’ve got ‘The Purge’ in real life because you have no jails and no – everybody better have a gun. Don’t touch the Second Amendment. Everybody needs a gun if you’re going to have that,” she said.
Bill Maher agreed that some far-left policies could be like real life versions of ‘The Purge.’ (Lionel Hahn/Getty Images)
“I’ve said the same exact thing. It’s ‘The Purge.’ It’s ‘The Purge.’”
“The Purge” is a movie about a government-sanctioned, 12-hour annual event where all crime, including murder, is completely legal.
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“But again, as I said at the beginning, it’s like you expect me to bow down to just one side of it, the left side of it. I’m the bad person because I’m questioning things,” Maher said during the discussion with Bateman. “We’re going to abolish the police, that everything is going to be free. I mean, their website literally says, ‘Imagine this world where you don’t have to worry about rent. You don’t have to worry about transportation.”
He continued, “But you’re the good people. You’re the smart people. You’re the people who shouldn’t be questioned.”
The DSA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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The DSA’s policies drew scrutiny earlier this year after DSA co-chair Megan Romer discussed the organization’s positions during an interview in July. Those positions included proposals to abolishing the Senate, police, and prisons.
Romer affirmed the organization’s support for replacing the presidency and Supreme Court, abolishing ICE, eventually eliminating national borders while granting amnesty to people living in the country illegally, defunding the Pentagon, phasing out prisons and shifting most large corporations to public ownership during the interview.
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“This is not about politics. This is about – and I was saying to the guys earlier, like to me, being an American is, I am free to pursue the kind of life I want and to do whatever I want so long as what I’m doing doesn’t impinge on somebody else’s ability to do the same. Now, the stuff they’re talking about impinges on my ability. And this is not conducive to an American society,” Bateman said.
Maher said he agreed and noted that he had told Vice President JD Vance in June that his vote was in play for Republicans if Democrats continued down this path.
“That’s why I told the vice president, ‘My vote is in play.’ And then, of course, within 24 hours they wrote, ‘Bill Maher is a Republican now.’ I never said that. I’m not. I said my vote is in play,” Maher said.
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Author, psychotherapist and cultural commentator Jonathan Alpert told Fox News Digital, “Here’s a guy who’s been a liberal his entire life, and now he’s talking about voting Republican. That should tell Democrats something. He’s not the one who’s changed his politics dramatically. He’s questioning how far some people on the left want to go.”
Justine Bateman spoke with Bill Maher during his “Club Random” podcast on Oct. 26, 2026. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images; Alex WROBLEWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)
“Bateman makes a good point,” Alpert added. “What exactly happens if you get rid of police and prisons? Are we supposed to naively believe violent criminals will suddenly behave themselves? It’s absurd to think you can just get rid of the institutions you don’t like and somehow everything will work out. Human nature doesn’t change because you pass a law. Maher and Bateman aren’t asking anything outrageous. They’re simply asking people to think through the consequences of what they’re proposing. If you want to abolish prisons and police, you should be able to explain how you’re going to keep people safe. That’s not an unreasonable expectation.”
