Barbara Lee: Defund the Pentagon budget.

[melman]

Link to tweet

[marybourg]

1. Defund tRump.

[murielm99]

2. Seriously?

How foolish.

[JonLP24]

3. Not really

A lot of people support cutting our bloated Pentagon budget & use that money to invest in things like healthcare.

[brooklynite]

16. ...which is not "defunding"

[JonLP24]

17. What do you think Barbara Lee means?

She is popular in her district. I'm sure her constituents support her and this policy.

[brooklynite]

18. I don't CARE what she "means".

A lot of people yelling "Defund the Police" didn't MEAN it, but it became a mantra that Trump latched on to as an attack and Biden publicly disavowed. feel good slogans don't advance policy.

[JonLP24]

20. Defund the police is a local issue and several cities are following suit

San Francisco police to stop responding to noncriminal calls

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-12/san-francisco-police-reforms-stop-response-noncriminal-calls

Lawmakers vote to cut $15 million from DC police department's budget

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/lawmakers-vote-to-cut-15-million-from-dc-police-departments-budget

Trump is losing to Biden by double digits and trailing him in swing states including Texas so I'm losing interest in the concern trolling over the issue.

[brooklynite]

21. Which is not "defunding".

[melman]

24. "I don't CARE what she "means"."

Shocking.


"A lot of people yelling "Defund the Police" didn't MEAN it,"

Says you.

[brooklynite]

33. So you think Biden should advocate a losing policy?

[melman]

34. Loaded question

lol

[melman]

7. Yes

Seriously.

[OnDoutside]

4. Any candidate trading in the word "Defund" needs to be De-selected. It's an incredibly inappropriate

and potentially emotive use of the word, which only gives an opening to your opponent to give you a well deserved kicking, for being so silly.

[JonLP24]

5. Barbara Lee is great

The only Representative to be against both the Iraq & Afghanistan wars.

[OnDoutside]

13. Gabbard ?

[JonLP24]

14. I don't think Gabbard was in office for the votes

Last edited Fri Jun 26, 2020, 06:46 AM - Edit history (1)

Barbara Lee

AUMF opposition Edit
Lee gained national attention in 2001 as the only member of congress to vote "No" on the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF), stating that she voted no not because she opposed military action but because she believed the AUMF, as written, granted overly-broad powers to wage war to the president at a time when the facts regarding the situation were not yet clear. She "warned her colleagues to be 'careful not to embark on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target'".[12]

Lee explained,

"It was a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the September 11 events—anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation's long-term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and without time limit. In granting these overly broad powers, the Congress failed its responsibility to understand the dimensions of its declaration. I could not support such a grant of war-making authority to the president; I believe it would put more innocent lives at risk. The president has the constitutional authority to protect the nation from further attack, and he has mobilized the armed forces to do just that. The Congress should have waited for the facts to be presented and then acted with fuller knowledge of the consequences of our action".[13]

This vote made nationwide news reports and brought about a large and extremely polarized response, with the volume of calls gridlocking the switchboard of her Capitol Hill office. Although it appears to have reflected the beliefs of the majority of her constituents, the majority of responses from elsewhere in the nation were angry and hostile, some referring to her as "communist" and "traitor". Many of the responses included death threats against her or her family to the point that the Capitol Police provided round-the-clock plainclothes bodyguards.[13] She was also criticized by politicians and in editorial pages of conservative-leaning newspapers, e.g. John Fund's column in The Wall Street Journal.[14] She was awarded the Seán MacBride Peace Prize by the International Peace Bureau in 2002 for that vote.

In her speech, she quoted the Rev. Nathan D. Baxter, dean of National Cathedral: "As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore."[15]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Lee

She obviously isn't scared of Republican ads. She has been through a lot worse.

[melman]

6. It's actually good and right

[OnDoutside]

12. For Republican ads perhaps, otherwise self inflicted stupidity, but

hey, ideology over winning.

[melman]

23. Uh

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017589140

[OnDoutside]

25. You should be thankful they're on our side this time, one can only

imagine what they'd do with such an open goal. Reconstruct, Reform or even Reorganize the Police would be far better than the brains trust who came up with Defund. Actually Wilson's book has a subtitle of And Save The Democrats From Themselves. This nonsense should be exhibit A.

[melman]

29. They're not on our side

And I'll take Barbara Lee over Rick fucking Wilson any day of the week.

[OnDoutside]

30. They want Joe Biden as President, and want the Democrats to win the Senate as well

as the House. I'm on that side too. Thanks for letting us know what side you're on.

[melman]

31. Rick Wilson's greatest hits

"Goddamn America" Obama ad

Max Cleland ad

--

bonus content:

George Conway helped give us the Clinton impeachment.

Steve Schmidt gave us Sarah Palin which helped pave the way for Dump.

--


Yeah these guys are really fucking terrific.

[OnDoutside]

32. They're nasty feckers, but are taking it to Trump & Republicans EVERY single day. The best the far

left of the Democratic Party (and beyond) are doing, is to provide an open goal for the Republicans with errant nonsense like "Defund the police". Seriously, I have to wonder if they want Trump to win, so that they can continue to practice the politics of grievance ? The working class need the Democrats to win in November, and win big, but ideologues don't seem to give a rat's arse about them, as long as they stay ideologically pure.

[George II]

22. trump and the republicans are already using this as a campaign issue. Most of us have started....

....using alternate words to "defund". It gives a bad impression and isn't really what even those using it intends.

[OnDoutside]

38. Exactly. You have to wonder sometimes whether those who think

up this stuff care more about making a name for themselves, than caring for the people they represent. And in this election of all elections, that's unforgivable.

[mopinko]

35. the core mistake that politicians make, imho, is worrying how their words

will fall on the ears of fools.
see- hillary clinton.

no, defund is the perfect word. the people are leading. the leaders need to follow.

[OnDoutside]

36. No, words matter, and the connotation of defund is less money for

Policing, not restructuring of the budget. That's an open goal for Republicans to kick Democrats in key states, with fear mongering ads that they are soft on law and order. The vast majority of the American voters aren't clued in like you, to understand the nuances of what you mean by Defund, and when Democratic candidates are on Clean up on Aisle 4, they're losing when they're explaining.

It's easy for Barbara Lee to not care about her words, when she's in a safe 90-10 district, but it's completely selfish and short sighted when the Democratic Party are fighting hard to win over the many swing districts. The Democrats won't be able to change the many wrongs in society because of Barbara Lee's vote alone, but hey, at least you were able to hit them with provocative words and slogans. Super.

[mopinko]

39. they are picking up the people's words. that always wins.

when the people lead, and the leaders follow, those leaders get re-elected.
they cant care how people are going to twist it. they have to just keep speaking it clearly. because the proof of it is all over the streets. you cant reform your way out of shit like this. you have to start slashing.

again, hillary lost more votes by walking back 'deplorables' than she would have by calling them out, saying why, calling them haters to their faces. the deplorables and the rest were never going to vote for her. more on the left would have come out for her if she had showed the courage of her convictions.

i have worked on a lot of campaigns. the only losing candidates i backed were in gerrymandered districts they could not win. both of those were moral victories. 1 made henry hyde retire.
i have knocked many, many doors. mamby pamby does not bring people out. clear truth brings people out. and speaking to problems w a sense of the scale necessary to address the problem bring people out.

[OnDoutside]

40. That's activists words, not "people's" words. The people spoke in March when they gave a resounding

win to Biden, not Sanders, because what matters to them is beating Trump. They know that this is a referendum on Trump, beat him, and win the Senate, then you can make things happen. The polls and the energy backs that. Thankfully Biden and his campaign jumped on this immediately and shot it down.

As for "Deplorables", Republicans used that to say Clinton was calling all Republican voters (including moderates), Deplorable. More of the Left would have come out for her....sure, yeah, right.

[scarletwoman]

8. YES!!!! The Pentagon budget is one of the biggest reasons we can't have nice things. (nt)

[Bettie]

27. There's always money for bombs

and things that kill...but if it benefits human beings? Nope. No money.

[smirkymonkey]

9. It could definitely use some "fat trimming".

A lot, in fact.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

10. Incredibly poor timing on Ms. Lee's part, IMO.

We need to save this sort of innuendo such as "defund the police" until after Nov. 3.

Most Americans interpret "defund" to mean totally shut down that function and to them, eliminating all police and all military would make them fearful and insecure. This is not a good time in our history to induce even the slightest bit of fear into the public's hearts and minds.

I think most of us agree that the military budget is hugely bloated and needs a complete audit and massive trimming and that most police departments need to be completely reformed, but little of that can be done during this pandemic.

Let's avoid giving the GOP more ammunition for the upcoming political ad blitz......

[JonLP24]

11. Blame it on the cops who killed George Floyd

The movement to defund the police has been supported by activists for decades.[6] In June 2020, the "defund the police" slogan gained widespread popularity during the George Floyd protests.[7] Black Lives Matter, Movement for Black Lives, and other activists have used the phrase to call for police budget reductions and to delegate certain police responsibilities to other organizations.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] While the slogan became popularized in 2020, the movement to reduce police presence in communities has been supported by activists and intellectuals for decades.[6][14] In Black Reconstruction, first published in 1935, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote about "abolition-democracy", which advocated for the removal of institutions that were rooted in racist and repressive practices, including prisons, convict leasing, and white police forces. In the 1960s, activists such as Angela Davis advocated for the defunding or abolition of police departments. The End of Policing, written Alex S. Vitale, was published in 2017, and it has been called "... a manual of sorts for the defund movement."[15][16][17][18][self-published source]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defund_the_police

[murielm99]

15. Excellent reasoning.

Ms. Lee should have figured that out for herself.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. +1

Say we should review the defense budget because we believe there is wasted money every year.
Defund makes a nice short tweet.
But, too triggering.
BTW: I agree with cutting it.

[OnDoutside]

37. Yep, don't say it, do it. You have to wonder about the motivations

Of whoever came up with using that slogan ?

[Bettie]

26. There is a lot of that budget that could be

better utilized in other non-military programs.

We spend about what the next SEVEN largest military budgets combined.

I think there's room to take it down several notches.

[SoonerPride]

28. We spend what the next 7 countries do COMBINED

Hell yes DEFUND THE PENATGON,

Cut it by 50% and we're still spending way more than any other country.

Use those fucking funds for universal healthcare and free universal college.