What are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Flaws?

Given the sheer amount of attention 'Defund the police' has drawn so far, I'd say it's a pretty successful slogan on that basis alone.

"Strenuously finger-wag the police!"

that'll do it

From a focus group of people who "leaned Biden but flipped to Trump in the last two weeks of the election":

Only one participant here agrees we should "defund the police." One woman says "That is crazier than anything Trump has ever said." 50% of people here say they think Biden was privately sympathetic to the position.

— Danny Barefoot (@dannybarefoot) November 10, 2020

We ask if they support reducing police funding and reallocating it to social services and other agencies to reduce police presence in community conflict. 70% say they support that proposal.

— Danny Barefoot (@dannybarefoot) November 10, 2020

poor confused trump supporters, scared away by a 3 word phrase. what do they think of BLM

oh wow:

We are explaining the actual policies behind defund the police. One woman interrupts "that is not what defund the police means, I'm sorry. It means they want to defund the police."

— Danny Barefoot (@dannybarefoot) November 10, 2020

the people have spoken:

Okay closing with asking if anyone already regrets their vote for Trump. One woman says she wishes she wouldn't have voted. 2 say they would probably change their vote. One says she wouldn't but only because Biden won. Swing voters are really something y'all.

— Danny Barefoot (@dannybarefoot) November 10, 2020

There's an old saying "Love me, love my dog."

oh wow:

We are explaining the actual policies behind defund the police. One woman interrupts "that is not what defund the police means, I'm sorry. It means they want to defund the police."
— Danny Barefoot (@dannybarefoot) November 10, 2020
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, November 11, 2020 4:25 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean she’s not wrong...

You can't expect a populace who on the average is dumb enough to vote Trump to understand "defund the police". Liberals have a track record of not dumbing shit down enough. These stories and stats are exactly the same as those re: ACA.

I actually want to defund the police

I posted the wrong tweet:

One woman says "I love Lady Gaga but all of Hollywood supports Biden and Democrats." Another woman says "Lady Gaga is kind of crazy and I don't think we should listen to her talk about government. She wore a dress made of meat."

— Danny Barefoot (@dannybarefoot) November 10, 2020

From a focus group of people who "leaned Biden but flipped to Trump in the last two weeks of the election":

these people were always going to vote for trump. they are conservatives, fuck these people, leave them behind forever imo

I actually want to defund the police

― k3vin k., Wednesday, November 11, 2020 9:34 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

high five!

I assume all these people hear is 'libs don't care about our safety'. Getting through to them is no easy task.

I’m in favor of many crimes tbqh

Defund, disarm, downsize

Also, meat-bedecked Lady Gaga for president imo.

my hot take is that swing voters are a creation of statistical polling and they are not worth building or modifying platforms around because they are not human beings acting in good faith

but they dislike meant, so that's a plus

meat too

"these people were always going to vote for trump. they are conservatives, fuck these people, leave them behind forever imo"

Idk I think that 70% stat and similar ones you see when you slowly explain liberal policy proposals using words no longer than 6 letters indicate that many of these ppl are open to the ideas but the messaging has failed. When i hear about "defund the police" or whatever I, yknow, read up on it. THESE PEOPLE DO NOT READ. (Facebook doesn't count.)

The people who most love the policy of defunding the police, also love the slogan. if you point out the vulnerability of the slogan to distortion by your opponents, then you obviously hate the policy, or you don't sufficiently love the slogan, which we all must agree is excellent no matter what anyone says about it.

tbf, I think it is a powerful slogan for motivating a particular segment of the voting population who have an immediate, intrinsic understanding of what it means in terms of bettering their lives. so, it's great for organizing in over-policed communities. I think it is much less useful in wider general elections, where the decisive majority of voters do not suffer from over-policing. Those middle class communities would be more receptive to a message that they are over-funding the police for too little benefit in return. It's a small change in emphasis, but in the tiny confines of a slogan, every change of emphasis is huge.

"Shrink bloated police budgets" maybe? Then you immediately open the conversation on the subject of why the budgets are bloated and make the police defend their budgets against that charge.

wait until these people find out that "defund" *is* the compromise, and many people prefer abolition

j/k mostly

C -, for that xgau tweet

haha

when you start babies on solid food, you don't make them chew

I have previously shared on ILX the story of my husband working to sign people up for the ACA in a red county in California. The number of people who didn't realize they were participating in the ACA already or didn't realize that Obamacare and the ACA were the same thing was shocking to him.

While certainly evidence of the utter stupidity of our population, it is also evidence that conservatives branding the ACA as Obamacare did a great deal to dissuade people who might have otherwise used it because they were racist.

Many people think the police deserve less funding and money, and quite a few of these people might actually be conservative! But the right has done a great job of portraying a common sense policy initiative with the taint of Black Marxism, so to speak, and while I hesitate to engage with such shenanigans, rethinking the phrase might actually be a good idea if we want to see fewer murders at the hands of pigs in this country, as well as more resources going to services that need funding...

And I mean, I fucking hate cops. I really do think rethinking it is a good idea.

How about 'Terrorize the police'?

That's the quiet part you don't say loudly.

I feel like "demilitarize the police" is a good baby step on the path to abolition for those wishy washy folks

Trolling aside, 'Demilitarize the police' has a better ring to it imo.

xp

In tandem with 'Defund the military'.

To be honest, might be as simple as switching it to a more positive verb.

ppl certainly not acting in good faith when they pretend their objection is not only about the phrase more than the sentiment, but about *other people’s* potential response to the phrase, and certainly nothing to do with their own interests. serious case of pundit brain

Defund the police sounds like a whole lot of people losing their jobs.

good

demilitarize the police seems to not imply disarmament, which should also be one of the compromises, if we must continue to have police (imo we musn't)

Well I mean we don't need to imagine other people's "potential" reactions when we have their actual reactions to go on

but that’s not what it is!

ppl certainly not acting in good faith

Left, I'm certain that you are very certain about other ppl's bad faith.

Fund Our Future (with money taken from police budgets)

also police militarization seems like a relatively recent phenomenon. whereas police brutality is extremely not new

Seems like BLM and DTP are both slogans designed more to create an in-group than a coalition.

I disagree in the case of BLM.

DTP sounds radical. It IS radical. The Left continually swings for the fences and then wonders why they strike out. Start with smaller goals. Like table said, might result in fewer police murders if a temporary compromise is baked into the messaging.

People who are pro-abolition trying to figure out ways to get further toward the goal by switching messaging isn't bad faith. It's being fucking practical because people are dying and communities are suffering.

I have two ACAB tattoos, have been arrested numerous times, and fucking hate the police, and I think it's a good idea to try alternate approaches.

To be honest, might be as simple as switching it to a more positive verb.

Empower the Police! Remove domestic disputes, mental health calls, non-lethal confrontations, etc from their list of responsibilities so they can focus their training on detective work. (This involves reallocating their budgets to fund the agencies more suited to dealing with these tasks and removing those call responsibilities from the police, empowering them to focus on their core function)

obv needs workshopping but this is the general idea, cast taking money away from the police as a good thing for the police