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In reply to the discussion: Just saw Kamau Bell on CNN still defending the phrase "defund the police". [View all]StarfishSaver
(18,486 posts)Last edited Sun May 2, 2021, 10:36 AM - Edit history (1)
But I also don't think that it is the cause of or signals the end of the Democratic Party.
Like many things today, it was latched onto by the right to try to turn Democrats into something scary and crazy. If they didn't have "Defund the Police," they would have used something else. It's what they do.
And what we always do is jump into their rabbit holes, beating ourselves up over terminology, fighting with each other about saying it, not saying, and whose fault it is that it supposedly caused us damage - all the while, completely over-estimating and over-reacting to any possible problem it caused us as if, absent that one phrase, it would have been all ponies, daisies and sunshine for us.
Remember the fights over the term "liberal"? And how liberals fell all over themselves trying to prove we're not REALLY liberal to the point that renamed ourselves progressives - all because Republicans convinced us that "liberal" is a bad word and would lose us votes and if we just stopped calling ourselves that, the elusive white working class would come flocking to us. Same thing.
And as we do this, we convince ourselves that if only no one had ever said "Defund the Police," white voters would have voted for Decmocrats in much larger numbers - all because some of them told pollsters that's the reason they didn't vote for Democrats - when you cannot convince me that anything more than handful of halfway sentient voters said, "I was going to vote for Jaime Harrison instead of Lindsay Graham, but then someone I never heard of who wasn't running for office and isn't in office in another state said 'Defund the Police,' so I decided there's no way I could vote for Jaime Harrison after that and I voted to reelect Lindsay Graham." I have no doubt that some people CLAIM that's why they didn't vote for Democrats, but most of these people were going to vote for Trump and his foot soldiers no matter what but they're using "Defund the Police" as an excuse - not only because it makes them seem like they have a reason for voting the way they did aside from being an idiot or a racist or both AND because it's so much fun watching Democrats scrap it out with each other about whose fault it is that something as obscure and meaningless as one slogan is somehow such a big deal.
And then the right wing laughs and laughs watching Democrats chasing our tails trying to lick off the Tabasco sauce they sprinkled on it.
So, no - I don't think "Defund the Police" is a great slogan. But I also don't think it's an "election loser" either. It's a distraction that Republicans created and, just like we usually do, we fell for it big time. And are still doing their work for them.