Ruy Teixeira proposes that rather than ignoring or counter-attacking when attacked on “culture war” issues the Democrats the Democrats should take some “commonsense steps”. I am excerpting his steps.
Here’s common-sense proposition #1: Police misconduct and brutality against people of any race is wrong and we need to reform police conduct and recruitment. However, more and better policing is needed to get criminals off the streets and secure public safety. That cannot be provided by “defunding the policeâ€.
Here’s common-sense proposition #2: America benefits from the presence of immigrants and no immigrant, even if illegal, should be mistreated. But border security is hugely important, as is an enforceable system that fairly decides who can enter the country.
Common-sense proposition #3: Equality of opportunity is a fundamental American principle; equality of outcome is not.
Common-sense proposition #4: Racial achievement gaps are bad and we should seek to close them. However, they are not due just to racism and standards of high achievement should be maintained for people of all races.
Common-sense proposition #5: No one is completely without bias but calling all white people racists who benefit from white privilege and American society a white supremacist society is not right or fair.
Common-sense proposition #6: People who want to live as a gender different from their biological sex should have that right. However, biological sex is real and spaces limited to biological women in areas like sports and prisons should be preserved. Medical treatments like drugs and surgery are serious interventions that should not be available on demand, especially for children.
I agree with all of those and I suspect that the majority of people who vote Democratic do as well but I think there’s something Mr. Teixeira is missing. The sources that contribute to Democratic campaigns and people who work on campaigns don’t agree with those views.
We’re seeing that work out in the Chicago mayoral run-off right now. Both of the candidates are Democrats and have been all of their lives. One candidate receives almost all of his campaign contributions from labor unions; he has stated pretty unequivocally that he considers defunding the police a political goal (he’s trying to walk that back). He derives his support mostly from blacks (he’s black) and lakeshore liberals. He’s been endorsed by Toni Preckwinkle and Chuy Garcia among others. The other candidate is derives most of his contributions from individuals and is running on law and order. He derives most of his support from the Northwest Side which is primarily white but he’s receiving badly needed endorsements from key black leaders, e.g. Jesse White, Bobby Rush.
The election probably won’t tell us whether most Chicagoans are progressives but it will tell us whether safety is more important to black Chicago voters than having a black mayor.
Simple answers for simple people.
1) In action, essentially no one supports defunding the police. Few did it and all those that did since increased funding. However, part of police reform in some cases might mean using some money currently spent on police and used in other ways. Also, the controversy, mostly made up, means reform largely didnt happen.
2) Sure. That doesnt mean we should support stupid plans that cost a lot and wont achieve much.
3) Sure, but enduring inequalities in outcome often mean we dont really have equal opportunity. (Cant link it for some reason but a prof out of NC just did a really nice paper on military medicine showing that bias in favor of superior officers and against minorities. You have much more complete data on people in the military.)
4) Sure, but how do we measure those? The people benefitting the most from any system of measurement will defend that system.
5) Straw man, mostly.
6) They largely are not. The “whistleblower” stories are often not substantiated. It should be acknowledged that not treating (drugs) can also have very serious consequences. Laws are being passed that treat everyone the same and do not acknowledge those consequences. If we are honest the laws are being passed due to religious beliefs and/or the stuff is icky not due to concern for the children.
Shapiro in PA is, at least for now, trying to govern as a pro business, law and order governor who also doesn’t want to kill gay and trans people.
Steve
Except the mayor of Chicago and one of the present candidates for mayor. She actually reduced the CPD’s budget by $150 million while he thinks her primary error was in not reducing it enough.
“In action, essentially no one supports defunding the police.”
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/05/politics/defund-the-police-democrats/index.html
You discount the effects of the public posture of policymakers, steve. You ignore the redirection of resources. In addition, “defund the police” is an umbrella term that includes prosecutors’ unwillingness to prosecute people.
The results have been material and disastrous, particularly for poorer communities.
Put down the talking points, steve.
The media in Chicago think spending increased. As I said, when you go look few people made any cuts. Where cuts were made they have since increased spending. It was a strategic mistake of Dem politicians to not speak out against this like Biden did, its been a great talking point for the GOP, but it pretty much doesnt exist.
https://abc7chicago.com/where-police-departments-defunded-how-does-funding-impact-crime-defund-the-budgets/12324846/
““defund the police†is an umbrella term ”
That is how you guys do things now isn’t it. Just mentioning the name Rosa Parks is the same as CRT. Your experts on woke cant even define it but you are happy to call anything you dont like woke.
Steve
The problem is that important and powerful parts of the Democratic coalition do not agree with Teixeira, and political coalitions need some amount of consensus, so pissing them off isn’t a great strategy.
Ruy realizes that there is a tipping point and that the more radical positions are taken by the progressive wing of the party the closer that tipping point comes.
That’s why coalitional partisan politics is difficult now – the radicals are punching way above their weight.
“How have law enforcement agency budgets changed?
ABC OTV’s analysis of police budget data show police spending has been up in some of the very cities frequently cited by conservative politicians and pundits as places where Democrat leaders’ defunding fueled violent crime waves.
In Houston, where the homicide rate nearly doubled in 2020 and 2021 before starting to subside this year, local government officials have not cut police spending.
They increased it – by nearly 9% (almost $80 million) from 2019 to 2022.
Similarly, Chicago police spending is up 15% since 2019. That’s almost a quarter billion dollars in new police spending since 2019.”
There WAS a small loud group supporting defund the police. In practice it mostly didnt happen and at this point its not often discussed. It is true that many prominent Dems hesitated to publicly disagree though in practice they did.
Steve