Bill Maher hits Democrats with sobering reality check on why that promised 'blue wave' never happened

Democrats predicted that a "blue wave" would sweep over the nation in this month's elections, with Democrats winning the White House, Congress, and state legislatures nationwide.

But the blue tsunami never materialized, as Republicans made significant gains in the House, in state legislatures, and will likely retain their majority in the Senate. Plus, data show that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party made significant gains with all demographic groups — with the exception of white men.

Will Democrats learn from their mistakes? That remains to be seen. But on HBO's "Real Time" last week, host Bill Maher gave Democrats a sobering reality check, explaining why that blue wave never happened.

What did Maher say?

"Democrats were supposed to flip the Senate and didn't, supposed to flip state legislatures — not a one. And they lost seats in the House in a year," Maher explained. "Their share of minority votes went down. The message to Democrats from so much of the country seems to be we don't like Trump, but we still can't bring ourselves to vote for you."

He continued, "Liberals can either write off half the country as irredeemable or they can ask, 'What is it about a "D" next to a candidate's name that makes it so toxic?' Let's ask Ruben Gallego. He's a congressman from Arizona. He was asked how his Democrats could do a better job connecting to Latinos. He said first start by not using the term Latinx, which the vast majority of Latinos have never heard of, and when they do, don't like it. Who likes it? Pandering white politicians who mistake Twitter for real people."

Maher went on to point out that Democratic policies, in particular far-left policies, are hurting them in elections.

Virginia Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger said after the election, if we are classifying Tuesday as a success, we will get f***ing torn apart in 2022. That's a congresswoman. She was urging members not to talk about defunding the police. James Clyburn agreed. "Defund the police is killing our party," he said. Pennsylvania Democrat Conor Lamb says "Democratic rhetoric needs to be dialed back, it needs to be rooted in common sense." Thank you. Thank you.

There, in my opinion, is the crux of the problem, Democrats too often don't come across as having common sense to a huge swath of Americans.

Later, Maher dismantled Democrats' inability to understand why Americans supported Trump, explaining their redefinition of reality is losing Americans at the ballot box.

"Democrats kept saying in the campaign, 'You can't possibly think Trump is preferable to what we're selling,' and many voters keep saying, 'Yes, we can. In fact, our primary reason voting for him is to create a bulwark against you because your side thinks silence is violence and looting is not. Because you're the party of chasing speakers off college campuses and making everyone walk on eggshells and replacing let's not see color with, let's see it always and everywhere, formerly the position of the Ku Klux Klan,'" Maher explained.

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Editor's note: This story originally misquoted Maher's quote of Rep. Spanberger. The Virginia congresswoman was, in fact, referring to the 2022 midterm elections, not the 2020 election. We regret the error.