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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJim Clyburn, Cedric Richmond and others suggest that "defund the police" cost Democrats
seats
During the election Biden immediately made it clear that he did not support defunding the police, but that police reform, and cleaning out the systemic racism is what was needed
Who started the slogan "defund the police", and why was it associated with the Democratic party?
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)If we can find out if any Democrats actually did this, then we'd be closer to finding out the answer to your question of WHY it's associated with the Democratic party.
still_one
(91,947 posts)it didn't stick because I think Joe came out early what his position was
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)I've seen other self-serving politicians who do that. Tweet-tweet-tweet! It gets them notoriety and headlines... but nothing meaningful ever comes from it.
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)all democrats and it worked as it always does
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)It would have been much worse if ANY Democrat had tweeted anything in support of it.
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)unless you missed like 4 months of news out of Portland, the slogan went viral based from BLM and GOP immediately seized upon it. I know for a fact this contributed to massive democratic losses down ballot. We saw our Il-13 congress candidate who loss by 2500 votes in 2018, got slaughtered by more than 20,000 votes this time. The Big GOP Super Pacs flooded the airwaves with this nonsense to great success.
Why do the GOP win doing this? Easy. Take a fringe issue and tie it to ALL democrats
rockfordfile
(8,682 posts)Cameliano
(54 posts)Last edited Mon Nov 30, 2020, 09:47 AM - Edit history (1)
Let's use their winning strategy
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)on healthcare cost for having COVID was ENTIRELY MISSED as I never saw any type of national campaign saying this. The solution would have been a Mom and Dad sitting at the table discussing how to pay the $150,000 hospital bill for the stay in the Hospital for COVID treatment. A 30 second ad could have had impact
still_one
(91,947 posts)You used Portland as an example. I recall after the murder of George Floyd, the Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey came out to support the protesters, and was asked by one of the leaders of the protest if he supported "defunding the police", and he said he was for reform, not for defunding the police, and was rudely told to "get the f**k out of there"
"Defunding the police" was not the position of the Democratic party, or most Democrats, yet as you said, the republicans were successful in tying it to ALL Democrats.
Fortunately, Biden was able to overcome that label
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)bemoan it when they do.
still_one
(91,947 posts)beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)This all begins with the failed belief by democrats that we can win on presenting policy and issues with facts as an antidote to brig people over to "our side"
nycbos
(6,033 posts)still_one
(91,947 posts)nycbos
(6,033 posts)Cameliano
(54 posts)They voted to defund the police.
still_one
(91,947 posts)national level Democratic politician embracing it
kentuck
(110,950 posts)They chose to promote "defund the police" at the same time as the rioters were burning and looting in several cities. That was not a good picture.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)Whiskeytide
(4,459 posts)... said it or supported it from the Democratic side.
What mattered is that every Republican in the country came out in unison and loudly AGAINST it. They messaged on this issue better than we did. They were able to turn it into we favor keeping your family safe v they want to let marauding bands of anarchists murder you in your beds.
BlueTsunami2018
(3,461 posts)It was too easy. And dont think those protests and riots didnt cause strong opinions either. There werent forceful or fast enough denunciations from our people on those issues.
Ferryboat
(916 posts)The optics of riots along with a bumper sticker slogan was hard to argue against.
Despite trying to reframe the issue as less money for police, means more for social services. And later emphasizing demilitarization of police. It was too easy for rethugs to use against Democrats.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)It soon gained strength around the country and the world.
In reality, that slogan did cost Democrats some House and State Legislative seats. In conservative districts where Democrats were hanging by a thread, their opponents tied the candidates to that slogan and to people like Ilhan Omar and OAC. In some cases, as in at least one House race in Minnesota, that was enough to give the Republican a win.
As elsewhere, we had a couple of districts with Democratic legislators, but where Trump won handily in 2016. In those districts tying the Democratic incumbent with the "Defund the police" slogan over and over again in campaign ads was enough to change the outcome.
It didn't matter what the Democratic candidate said. The connection was enough to swing some votes and cause Democrats in conservative districts to lose.
So, to that extent, the claim is true.
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)I don't think it's true.
Maybe Dems don't like admitting that lots of Rs came out to vote Biden for president, then for Rs down ballot. Or perhaps, Dems don't understand that Trump's cult of personality is real and when he got the message out for them to vote, they did so, especially the non and infrequent voters. I heard these very words from a Trumper in line in front of me at the poll. This voter didn't vote every election, but felt they "had to vote" this time around. The Trumper behind me dragged their spouse, who apparently didn't vote because the other spouse asked if the voter had an ID (needed for first time or inactive voters), out to vote for Trump. TBH, I doubted there were more Trump voters to be had, but by force of his own personality, he outdid himself.
still_one
(91,947 posts)as Maine
but the fact that republicans used that in ads against us, I think makes the narrative plausible.
The problem I think may be is Democrats did not push back hard enough against that characterization.
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)got bad performance evaluations and even the occassional discipline. The employee was always given a plausible reason for whatever was done, but that was rarely the true reason. That's how I see this "defund the police" narrative.
Where I am, Trump and his allies ran lots of ads trying to scare people based on "defunding police". But really they weren't much different, if at all, from the kinds of ads Republican candidates/their allies/RNC, etc run every election. If it wasn't "defund the police", it would have been something else to fan the flames of the GOP's ongoing culture war.
I think Dems do themselves a disservice when they latch onto narratives like this and don't take a clear-eyed view of what actually happened. To me, the anecdotal evidence is that non/infrequent/unlikely voters showed up in droves for Trump. Underestimating Trump's cultlike hold on millions of Americans and on the GOP is and would be a gigantic mistake.
still_one
(91,947 posts)boaters spewed their nonsense about Kerry, with the help of our illustrious media, I think his campaign pretty much ignored it.
In contrast, when President Obama was attacked with Rev Wright, President Obama immediately pushed back
The results between what happened with Kerry and President Obama I believe speak for themselves
In other words, I think we hurt ourselves if when let republicans define us, and we ignore their characterizations
NewJeffCT
(56,827 posts)but, his push back & campaign push back got zero media coverage.
just like Dem pushback against Defund the Police got little media coverage. It was drowned out by 24/7 coverage of riots by Fox news and their allies.
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)You're right that Dems are often too timid to push back or fight fire with fire.
My point is that Dems can't delude themselves into thinking they lost a few seats because of some slogan.
Mariana
(14,849 posts)on how the Democratic Party can make protesters only use slogans that are helpful to Democratic candidates?
still_one
(91,947 posts)Democratic party, but we can and should NOT let the republicans, with the help of some in the media, define who we are, and that is where I think we need to push back
Mariana
(14,849 posts)Throughout Obama's entire presidency, the right-wing radio and Fox News show hosts ridiculed Obama and his supporters by calling him "The Messiah" because ONE PERSON used that word ONE TIME, clearly speaking figuratively, when he was talking about Obama. It was repeated hundreds of times a day for years on end, and huge numbers of voters were convinced that we worshiped Obama as a deity.
"Defund the police" was likewise repeated hundreds or thousands of times a day, and the listeners/viewers/readers told "this is what the Democrats want". They believed it. How do you prevent this kind of thing?
still_one
(91,947 posts)immediately, before it got any traction. Joe Biden did the same thing with the "defund the police", and in both cases it didn't stick
Just a few days ago they were trying to characterize Biden as Obama's third term, and Biden immediately pushed back on that, and gave specifics why it wasn't
Mariana
(14,849 posts)I believe ALL of the Democratic candidates who say they lost because of that slogan vigorously denied that they wanted to "defund the police". They still lost.
ismnotwasm
(41,919 posts)Not defund but take a look at need, use, and resource allocation
still_one
(91,947 posts)maxsolomon
(32,984 posts)You may want to revisit one of those OPs and the hundreds of comments that plowed this same ground.
Gothmog
(143,999 posts)I personally support reforms to the police. I worked hard and we got a good Democrat elected as District Attorney in my county two years ago and this cycle we got a good man elected as sheriff of my county. Our new DA has made a tremendous amount of difference in my county and I believe that the new Sheriff will also help. However, it is clear that we lost races that we should not have lost Defund the police was used very effectively by the GOP in down ballot races. A good number of races that Democrats should have won were lost due to this issue.
Link to tweet
Link to tweet
The GOP ran a ton of ads using this issue
Out of 31 broadcast TV ads that Trump and other allied campaign groups used to attack Biden and other Democrats for being soft on law and order, 11 spots ― that aired a total of 77,647 times ― explicitly mentioned defund the police, according to an analysis Kantar Media/CMAG conducted for HuffPost. And out of 216 Republican broadcast TV ads in congressional races blasting Democrats, 157 spots that aired 103,000 times used the phrase.
I was disappointed to seen Susan Collins re-elected. It seems that Collins was able to use the "defund the police" issue very effectively
budkin
(6,691 posts)NO ONE wanted to outright defund the police. Instead, it was about shifting departmental responsibilities for things like mental health.
uponit7771
(90,225 posts)Gothmog
(143,999 posts)I trust President Obama on this issue
Link to tweet
In an interview with Peter Hamby, who hosts the Snapchat political show Good Luck America, Obama said you [lose] a big audience the minute a slogan like defund the police is used, making it a lot less likely that youre actually going to get the changes you want done.
Defund the police refers to the reallocation or redirection of government funding from police departments to social services for minority communities. As Rashawn Ray of the Brookings Institution noted, defunding does not mean the abolishment of police departments but instead highlights fiscal responsibility and advocates for a market-driven approach to taxpayer money.....
Obama ― echoing other centrist Democrats whove similarly taken issue with defund the police and what theyve decried as radical messaging ― told Hamby that Democrats could benefit from adopting softer rhetoric when talking about police reform.
If you instead say, Hey, you know what? Lets reform the police department so that everybodys being treated fairly. And not just in policing, but in sentencing, how can we divert young people from getting into crime? he said.