The odds are that those ads are effective with some voters—there would have been testing.
It’s still a hard sell for most Americans, even if they don’t pay much attention to politics. Biden as Radical Fire-Breathing Leftist just doesn’t fit—there’s nothing in his history that could lend it credibility.
Yeh, the Willie Horton shit on Dukakis was ridiculous too. But it worked pretty well.
Yep.
The "defund the police’ idiots handed trump quite a few points.
Also, trumps son gave the signal to the faithful, by his “joke” that it is time to now start calling Biden a pedophile. I am seeing that on Facebook.
Sorry, but this is contradictory. First, the people trying to defund and reform the police are not idiots. The idiots are the people who think “defund” means “abolish.”
Second, your second sentence proves that Trump fans do not need any actual facts or evidence to just make ridiculous shit up about Biden. So they could have (and probably would have) said exactly the same stuff about Biden and policing even if nobody was calling to defund the police. Demonizing Democrats as “soft on crime” has been a main plank of Republican talking points for decades. Meanwhile, there are real gains being achieved across the country to demilitarize police and hold them accountable for killing innocent people. I’ll take real improvements on a serious issue over cowering away because Trump might say something bad about it every day.
“Defund” literally means abolish, unless you are talking a volunteer police force. Altho the idea of Reforming the police is a good one, the meme “Defund the Police” is a stupid one.
True, they can & do make shit up out of whole cloth, but why give them ammunition?
"Defund the Police’ literally means Abolish the Police. It is a extremely stupid meme that will help trump. And not, yes, there are far left people who do say “Defund” means abolish and they want to abolish all police.
I mean, what was wrong with “Reform the Police?”.
No, you are incorrect, that is not what it means. People who are opposed to police reform want to make it seem that that’s what it means, so they can cast reform efforts as radical and impractical. And sure, there are probably a few radical people who really do mean abolish, but that’s the fringe, to the best of my knowledge.
I am not in charge of slogans and I am completely guessing here, but I am guessing that people are rallying around “defund” because it is specific and action focused, whereas police “reform” is vague, has been around forever, and has accomplished little. But again, I am just guessing there, as I am not actively involved in leadership around defunding the police.
Because, as I said, these efforts are leading to real, actual changes in the country that are helping reduce police violence and increase police accountability. I imagine the people leading these efforts are focused on (real) police reform and less interested focus-group-testing their slogans to placate Biden’s (or anyone’s) campaign. Short version: it ain’t about Biden or Democrats in general.
Yes it does. "defund’ means, literally per the dictionary “prevent from continuing to receive funds.” which would abolish all but volunteer police forces.
Now, what do people mean when they say “defund the police”? Anything from abolish to reform to cutting the fat out of the budget to just cutting back on the military toys the police have gotten so many.
That is a interesting article, but it is ONE PERSONS OPINION what "defund the police means’ because it means many things to many people.
So, people made up a meme- which literally, on the face of it means “abolish”. And that it’s meaning changes from person to person. It is a fucking stupid meme, designed to hand trump the election.
Cut the fat from Police budgets! Reform the Police! or many other slogans could have occured. But you can’t say that a slogan whose literal dictionary definition means 'abolish" and whose “real” meaning changes from person to person is a good slogan. It isnt.
And if trump wins because of it- then it has done irreparable harm.
In short- stop defending that horrible slogan before it gets us another term for trump. Dump that crappy slogan.
[
www.washingtonpost.com › outlook › 2020/06/22 › de…
](https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/22/democrats-should-steer-clear-defunding-police/)
Jun 22, 2020 - Democrats should steer clear of 'defunding the police '. The phrase polls terribly, and it hands Republicans a weapon.
You’re being overly pedantic with this dictionary nonsense to try to make a point. Merriam-Webster defines defunding as “to withdraw funding from.” (Note: not “to withdraw all funding from.”) So there, my definition is right and yours is wrong, derp derp derp.
If you want to have a serious discussion, let me know. And if you don’t want Trump to win, maybe start by not amplifying Republican talking points.
PS. And just for shits and giggles, here is an article about defunding public schools that…wait for it… is not literally talking about removing all money from public schools and eliminating schools. I suspect I can find dozens and dozens more instances where this normal usage of “defund” is used, rather than your absolutist definition. So maybe let that go…
Jesus- it is a terrible slogan. Look, right there Wapo sez so. it is giving trump votes.
Stop defending that terrible slogan, unless you want trump to win.
Serious discussion? “So there, my definition is right and yours is wrong, derp derp derp.”
“first cast out the beam out of thine own eye”
I will happily stop defending the slogan once you stop mischaracterizing it 
Oh man, I just realized you are the person I argued with years and years ago here because you don’t wash your hands after you take a piss. I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere here.
Carry on!
^ 100% this.
Slogans that have to be explained are stupid and counter-productive. I have to say that I suspect anyone who defends the use of a pro-Trump slogan like “defund the police” of being, well, pro-Trump.
They will say they’re not pro-Trump.
But they actually are pro-Trump—possibly for “lefty” reasons (such as a claim that keeping Trump in power will be great because it will lead The People to Rise Up and bring the progressive revolution, etc. etc. etc.).
“Defund the police” supports Trump’s remaining in office. There’s no way to spin it otherwise.
No, it is you that is thinking you speak for everyone that sez “Defund the Police”- some do mean, and are quite vocal in saying- abolish the police.
Sigh, we dont like to dredge up old arguments here, but I never said that, in fact I said I do wash my hands:
Now sure, since handwashing is good, and since you’re already right there (often) with a sink and all, it’s likely a good idea to go ahead and wash since you don’t have to make a special trip,.
Sadly, you are all too right. Look, reforming the police- which often includes cutting bloated budgets- is a great idea. I am all for it. But that is the worst slogan I can think of, it damages and works against exactly what you want to get done. And will put trump back in the White House for 4 more years.
Counterpoint: Black Lives Matter was a slogan that had to be explained. It’s now got significant support and I feel the slogan was pretty productive even if some people had to have it explained (although maybe a good deal of them were feeling purposely obtuse)
I will vote Biden with a clothespin on my nose. All I can say is he’s much better than Trump. Maybe he only serves 1 term given his age. If he has a health issue he may not even last all 4 years.
Good thoughts on “defund” (and other important words and phrases of this moment) here, from linguist John McWhorter (who also happens to be black — uh, Black — and sometimes not as “progressive” as many would expect, though of course, like any decent/sane human being, he is anti-Trump).
Lorry Correia, the controversial author, has shared on Facebook a heavily edited and faked video of Joe hugging kids and stuff, trying to prove Biden is a pedophile. If anyone has a contact in Facebook, they should take that down and ban him.
But I think this is one big surge the trump campaign is going for, saying Joe is a pedo.
“Black Lives Matter” DOES have very significant support. But I’d contend that’s a function of how massive the problem of racism remains, rather than a function of the slogan itself being particularly clever.
Effective slogans should be brief and evocative, and BLM is both.
However, a slogan that can easily be misrepresented is not as good as a slogan that can’t easily be misrepresented. For example, if the slogan that caught on had been “Black Lives Matter Too,” the right would not have been able to pretend that the left was saying “ONLY Black Lives Matter.” Of course that’s precisely the recruiting tool the right has been using: the bad-faith pretense that they are opposing a movement that claims that ‘only black lives matter.’
If it had been “Black Lives Matter Too” that caught on, the right wouldn’t be able to pretend what they’re pretending now. They wouldn’t be able to misrepresent the movement the way they do, now.
Obviously no one is going to change the slogan, even though a change would thwart the racist right. I’m just saying that when coming up with a slogan, it’s worth taking a little time to consider the question: How will the opposition misrepresent this?
Why give them a slogan that it’s easy to misrepresent, when we could give them a slogan that would be much harder to misrepresent?
(Again, it’s academic at this point. The slogan won’t be changed. But future slogans could benefit from a little thought about thwarting the bad-faith misrepresentations of the right.)