Bill Maher thinks the Democrats need to up their game if they want a chance of winning midterms, and the answer lies in one word: phrasing. See, Republicans are very good at the phrasing game, as Maher explained, taking things like “estate tax” and “poor people” and changing them into the more politically-friendly “death tax” and “takers.” So Maher said the Democrats need to embrace the same tactic, like renaming food stamps “Christ coupons” or an abortion as a “natal do-over.”

Maher joked the GOP is so obsessed with selling ideas like the rich shouldn’t pay taxes and black people shouldn’t vote that eventually they’ll just rename slavery as a way of fighting back against “race-based freedom quotas.”

He credited the right for being unified on almost everything, because once the “feces throwers on hate radio” start saying something, everyone in the GOP starts listening. So Maher gave the Democrats some suggestions, including pot legalization being touted as “creating green jobs” and branding solar energy as a way for America to “invade the sun and take its oil!”

Watch the video below, via HBO:

[photo via screengrab]

— —

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com