Maher and Bateman Liken DSA Platform to ‘The Purge,’ Question Lack of Answers on Policing

Comedian Bill Maher and actress Justine Bateman spent part of Monday’s episode of Maher’s “Club Random” podcast comparing the policy agenda of the Democratic Socialists of America to the movie “The Purge,” arguing that proposals to eliminate jails and policing leave basic questions about public safety unanswered.

“What’s the endgame?” Bateman asked, referring to the DSA’s full list of goals. “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 described the proposals as “cloud cuckoo land” before Bateman drew the comparison to the film, in which the government legalizes all crime, including murder, for one 12-hour period each year.

“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,” Bateman said. “I’ve said the same exact thing. It’s ‘The Purge.’ It’s ‘The Purge.'”

Maher said he objects to being cast as the unreasonable party in the conversation. “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,” he said. “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 added, “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 a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

What the DSA has proposed

Scrutiny of the organization’s platform intensified after DSA co-chair Megan Romer laid out its positions in a July interview. Romer affirmed the group’s support for abolishing the Senate, replacing the presidency and Supreme Court, abolishing ICE, eventually eliminating national borders while granting amnesty to people in the country illegally, defunding the Pentagon, phasing out prisons, and shifting most large corporations to public ownership.

Bateman tied the debate to a broader argument about individual liberty. “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,” she said.

Maher agreed, and mentioned he had told Vice President JD Vance in June that Republicans could win his vote if Democrats kept moving in this direction. “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,” he said.

Author, psychotherapist and cultural commentator Jonathan Alpert argued Maher’s shift in tone is itself notable. “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,” Alpert told Fox News Digital.

“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.”