Bill Maher, the outspoken host of "Real Time," dropped a stark warning to Democrats during his latest panel discussion: fix the party’s issues or face a fate similar to the long-defunct Whigs. His concern? A stubborn refusal to embrace deregulation and address the nation’s shifting political landscape.

Maher pointed to a grim statistic from a recent NBC poll showing Democrats with a dismal 27% approval rating—an all-time low. "I've never seen one this bad," Maher remarked, sounding genuinely alarmed. That’s not your run-of-the-mill bad poll; that's "red-alert" bad.

The conversation turned to the American Redistricting Project, which forecasts that Democrats will lose congressional seats in states like California, New York, and Illinois by 2030, while Republicans are set to gain ground in Texas, Florida, and Idaho. Maher didn’t mince words, calling this trend "game over" unless Democrats wake up to the reasons behind it.

"People are voting with their feet," Maher said, citing high taxes and overregulation as driving forces. "We're taxed more than any other state. People are leaving these kinds of states for places where they don't feel the heavy breath of government on them." He also shared a personal anecdote about his three-year battle to get solar panels hooked up in California, highlighting the state’s notorious bureaucratic red tape.

Ezra Klein, a New York Times columnist and co-author of "Abundance," agreed that cost of living is a major factor driving people out of blue states. Klein went on to warn that if the 2030 redistricting projections hold, Republicans could secure presidential victories without relying on traditionally blue states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Now that’s a chilling thought for the Democratic Party.

Klein also highlighted how states like Texas, with their friendly policies toward home and energy development, are thriving. Interestingly, despite the Texas GOP’s aversion to clean energy, deregulation has allowed renewable energy to flourish in the Lone Star State. Imagine that: clean energy booming in oil country. The irony is almost poetic.

Maher chimed in with a call for a left-leaning equivalent of Elon Musk—someone bold enough to cut through California’s 400,000 regulations and finally deliver on long-promised projects like high-speed rail. "If you cannot build a high-speed rail that started in 2008, you need somebody to come in here," he said. "Who is this person on the left?"

Substack writer Andrew Sullivan added that Democrats lack the instinct to deregulate, something Maher believes they need to overcome quickly. "They're gonna have to get over it, or they're gonna be the Whigs," Maher concluded, referencing the 19th-century political party that collapsed under its own irrelevance.

Maher’s message was clear: adapt or risk becoming a historical footnote. It’s not every day you see the Whigs invoked in political discourse, but hey, desperate times call for desperate analogies.

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Bill Maher Warns Democrats Could Become the 'Whigs' If They Ignore This Major Issue