By SUZANNE DOWNING
Aug. 1, 2026 – Liberal comedian Bill Maher has spent decades ridiculing former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. But on Friday, he used Palin to draw his clearest line yet against the socialist movement gaining power inside the Democratic Party.
“I would vote for Sarah Palin before this shit!” Maher declared during the closing “New Rule” segment of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
For Alaskans, the comparison was unmistakable. Maher was saying that even Palin, who has been one of his favorite political targets for nearly two decades, would be preferable to candidates emerging from the Democratic Socialists of America and the Democratic party’s increasingly radical progressive wing.
Maher criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom for describing the Democratic Party as a “big tent” capable of accommodating democratic socialists.
“You know what else you find in a tent? Clowns,” Maher said.
Bill Maher’s audience audibly gasps when he reads what the Democratic Socialists of America are actually saying out loud:
MAHER: “Trump has told 1 trillion lies, but when he says the DSA are actually COMMUNISTS, that’s not one of them.”
“And it’s not hard to prove it just by… pic.twitter.com/HXcJ0T1Jyv
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) August 1, 2026
Maher also mocked liberals who become outraged whenever President Donald Trump adds gold ornamentation to the Oval Office because it alters something “historic,” while showing far less concern for political movements seeking to remake the country’s constitutional and economic foundations.
“And the separation of powers isn’t?” Maher asked. “Get your head out of your ass.”
Maher argued that the Democratic Party is being “colonized” by activists whose policies and rhetoric increasingly resemble communism, even when presented under the more marketable label of democratic socialism.
He warned that his vote in 2028 is now “in play” and said he would not support a candidate who believes “the wrong side won the Cold War” or treats the intifada like a sporting event.
Maher is not alone in sounding the alarm.
Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville delivered a similarly contemptuous assessment of the progressive left during a Thursday appearance on CNN. Discussing Michigan Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Carville acknowledged that El-Sayed is “highly competent” but warned that he is “way left.”
“These people are too hard-headed to know that they’re not popular,” Carville said. “People don’t like ’em.”
Carville warned that an unusually ideological primary electorate could nominate candidates who then lose races Democrats otherwise should win.
CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan observed that Carville appeared to speak about the progressive left with contempt.
“Yes,” Carville replied. “You’re very wise. And I hope the camera was able to pick up the contempt.”
The exchange was consistent with Carville’s increasingly open hostility toward democratic socialists. He has accused far-left activists of defeating established Democrats while doing little to defeat Republicans, and he has warned that their positions could damage Democratic candidates across the country.
Both Maher and Carville are longtime Democrats. Neither is suddenly embracing conservative politics. Their warning is more significant for precisely that reason: They believe the socialist wing is making their own party unrecognizable and unelectable.
That warning has an Alaska dimension.
Democratic Rep. Zack Fields and Sen. Löki Tobin represent the same kind of deeply progressive politics that Maher and Carville say is pushing traditional liberals away from the party. They favor expansive government programs, greater union power, aggressive spending and a cultural agenda far to the left of most Alaska voters.
Tobin’s arrival in the Senate also says something about former Sen. Tom Begich, now a leading Democratic candidate for governor.
Power play? Tom Begich proudly touts endorsement from radical protégé Sen. Löki Tobin
Begich waited until the June 1, 2022, filing deadline to announce that he would not seek reelection to the Anchorage Senate seat he had held since 2017. His policy director, Tobin, filed for the seat instead. The coordinated timing left other potential candidates little opportunity to respond and allowed Tom Begich’s chosen successor to step directly into the race. Essentialy, Tom Begich installed a radical in the Senate.
Tobin won the seat and became one of the Senate’s most radical members. Alaskans would be hard-pressed to find someone to her left. Her official legislative biography says she met Tom Begich years earlier, developed a long friendship with him and eventually joined his legislative staff. Tom Begich did not merely work alongside Tobin; he mentored her and helped clear the political path for her succession.
Now Tom Begich is asking Alaskans to make him governor.
His campaign presents him as an experienced and reassuring Democrat, and several polls have shown him leading the crowded field. But voters should may wish to examine the political leaders he cultivated and advanced. Tobin offers a revealing example of what a Tom Begich administration would look like.
That is the question Maher and Carville are raising nationally: When voters choose a seemingly familiar Democrat, what larger ideological movement are they empowering?
Tom Begich touts ‘sh*t-poster’ account claiming blue wave in Alaska governor’s race
Maher’s reference to Palin carried particular force because of their long and bitter history. He has mocked her intelligence, politics and public persona since she became John McCain’s running mate in 2008. Palin may be one of the last Republicans anyone expected Maher to cite as an acceptable alternative.
Yet the Democratic Party’s socialist turn has pushed him there.
If Bill Maher would choose Sarah Palin over the new Democratic left, Alaska voters may want to take a closer look at Tom Begich — and at the political wreckage he left behind in the state Senate.
From candidate drop out to surrogate: Matt Schultz invokes the cloth in endorsement of Tom Begich
Two megadonors fuel Tom Begich’s million-dollar campaign for governor. One is Robin Brena.
Tom Begich’s outrage over Vic Fischer veto leaves out two awkward details
Suzanne Downing: Tom Begich’s promise of equal everything doesn’t survive contact with reality
Suzanne Downing: IBEW wants to queue up Tom Begich and Click Bishop for the general election
3 thoughts on “Bill Maher: ‘I would vote for Sarah Palin’ before socialists taking over Democratic Party”
Until the GenXers, Millennials, and some GenZers get older when they will find out the truth, they been caught up in the Socialism tide to think Socialism not capitalism is the way to greater prosperity.
Can’t be surprise Democrat state parties is changing this way while GenXers, Millennials because of they finally reached an age and social level they are holding key party positions to influence its direction.
Socialism takes root when generations grown up to believe their help comes from the government. GenXers, Millennials, and GenZers have grown up with “if you need help, then go to the government and fill out a piece of paper, it has money or the employment to give you”
Now it’s harder to tell people they don’t need government or try to live without it. Like try telling someone to life without childcare assistance, or so what your Snap got cut now you have to get a more steady job or work longer hours, or your housing vouchers aren’t covering as much rent and now you need a job, or do you really need to work for a job that your paycheck comes from the government why don’t you quit your job dependent on taxpayers and go into the private sector that’ll pay you less?
One example someone was complaining about the pay from a private assisted care living facility not paying CNA’s enough because it’s not as much as she was earning thru a hospital. I told her it what they are giving you is More than enough, you just got used to the other employer who received hundreds of millions of taxpayer money while your new employer doesn’t and depends on their patients paying out of pocket. Reminding her one day our government won’t have anything to give out, and all those government dependents will be flooding to the private sector and the few employments and jobs that were not government dependent to find a job after they lost their government funding in their last job.
Like all governments that was under socialism/communism there always comes a collapse coming.
Palin gave us Mary Peltola . Frank Murkowski gave us Sarah Palin…….and … ……Lisa Murkowski. .
Mary, Sarah and Lisa. A trio of completely screwed-up women. The King didn’t want a Prince. Just a bunch of wacko, lefty, messed-up Princesses running our state into the ground.