Saying what it’s not doesn’t count.
…sure it does.
You asked in the OP:
Were you not wanting an answer to that question?
“Fund the police” was a deliberate, calculated, f$ck you to the people who supported Black Lives Matters, who marched in the streets and were beaten, shot at, injured (some permanently) and jailed. That had nothing to do with McConnell. Or Manchin/Sinema.
That was Biden not even trying. Are you seriously not understanding why he is underperforming with voters of color in some surveys, and approval rating has deteriorated with young people?
“Fund the police” is the platform. And that platform is part of the reason why some Democrats and some Independents are “down on him.” They don’t think that he is fighting for them any more.
Biden as never been an advocate of the ‘Defund The Police’ slogan/movement and in practice dismantling law enforcement entirely would be an obviously counterproductive strategy both politically and pragmatically even if you believe that US municipal law enforcement as it is currently constituted has created severe problems (which I think is also obvious). Without going on too far of a tangent, the problem isn’t that we have police that enforce laws but rather that we have a broad array of bad laws (e.g. drug prohibition, stop & frisk) and perverse incentives (asset forfeiture, federal government offering surplus military hardware) along with a lack of consequences for abusive and illegal behavior among line officers and supervisors and serious problems from leadership that covers up scandals and bad actors instead of rooting them out. Biden’s proposal is funding specifically for efforts to control illegal trade in firearms and community violence interventions rather than expanding the drug war or and funding anti-gang special units. How well or poorly that will work remains to be seen (even assuming a bill is passed) but it is an effort to address the rising urban crime rates about which voters are very concern and is something that the federal government otherwise has little control over.
Stranger
…the point is why some Democrats are down on Biden.
I don’t think anyone in the “defund” movement (and I use that term loosely, because what defund actually means to many activists has been distorted and diluted) thought that Biden was an “an advocate of ‘Defund The Police”.
But this isn’t about policy.
It’s about messaging.
And the point of “fund the police” was to send a message to the centrists that “I hear you loud and clear, and I’m here for you.”
But that also sent a message to much of the progressive base which was “I hear your concerns: and I reject them. Loudly. And explictly.”
This isn’t the only thing.
But it’s the clearest, most unambiguous example.
It should have been obvious that this was going to happen. I’m just kind of astounded that people all of a sudden are wondering why voters-of-colour and young people aren’t that enthused right now. What were you expecting?
Agreed. Biden was never a progressive (or really claimed to be), and I was honestly kind of shocked how much he integrated and promoted some progressive ideas, but even if he’d have free reign to pursue whatever agenda he preferred it would have stopped well short of anything that progressives would view as real change. Biden is very much a center-right candidate with some progressive leanings in narrowly specific areas, and willing to listen to experts when it came to issues such as public health and energy policy. But it is also clear that even setting aside the Fox News crowd, much of America doesn’t want progressive ideas pushed at them, and as much as Bernie fans were so sure that he could win if the Democrat leadership would just give him a shot at the title, the reality is that he would have been enormously polarizing in a general national election with whole swaths of the electorate turned off by just the words “Democratic Socialist”, notwithstanding a total inability if elected to actually enact any significant part of his ideology through legislation or executive order.
I return to default position that one of the significant problems of our system is that it is established as a de facto two party system (even if not explicitly constituted as such) which leaves no room for representing a true diversity of views and the kind of cross-party coalition- and consensus-building that allows for minority opinions to influence policy. Any compromises either occur within parties or at the fringes between them rather than across broad agreement (except when it comes to going to war, which almost everyone seems to be behind when tempers are hot), and in their current configurations it is only the Democrats who even have a significant diversity of views, with the GOP being essentially a totalitarian party even within its own structure with explicitly proto-fascist leadership.
Stranger
I really don’t agree with this. The most prominent progressive politicians have been dinging him for stopping the rent freeze and his student-loan forgiveness/interest policies.
Activists against police brutality and racism aren’t typically big Biden fans regardless but they aren’t focused as much on federal funding for multiple reasons. The movement has had more success on the local level anyway, and federal funding is something the movement is a bit split on due to a lot of federal funding being intended to reduce police brutality and similar issues. Not to mention the media has heavily picked up on stories about violence in cities that defunded the police or passed bail reform so there’s also a lot of focus on protecting their gains.
…this isn’t just about activists.
This is about voters of colour. And young people.
The people mentioned in the cite in the OP.
Do you know who else are against police brutality and racism?
Voters of colour. And young people. Do they not count?
What exactly are you disagreeing with here? “Fund the police” is a dog-whistle. It was a slogan, probably created after careful “focus-testing”, designed specifically to appeal to centrists, or what they perceive to be the “swing voter”. It wasn’t designed to appeal to voters of colour, or young people.
Yes, its also about stopping the rent freeze and his student-loan forgiveness/interest policies. It’s also about Covid policies that have centred “a return to normal.” Its about a lot of different things. There are a lot of different reasons why many Democrats are “down with Biden.”
Again: it’s the messaging that is important here, not the policy. That’s what this discussion is about. I provided an example. But it isn’t the only one.
I’m disagreeing with the fact that federal funding for police (or the related messaging) is a leading driver of Biden’s disapproval among any group. Among both Black and Latino people, defund the police isn’t popular and all indications is that they are less popular than they were in 2020. Among young people it’s essentially divided.
…I never argued that “federal funding for police (or the related messaging) is a leading driver of Biden’s disapproval among any group.” I’ve said over and over again that it was a single example. There are others.
Your cite shows that 61% of black people wanted funding to either stay about the same or be decreased. 63% of young people. That’s a solid majority against increased funding.
Yes, there are large groups that neither favor increasing or decreasing, so if you lump them in with one side it looks really big.
The cite says that:
Young people are 35% in favor of increasing, 32% for decreasing.
Black people are 38% in favor of increasing, 23% for decreasing.
…I’m not sure what your point is here.
A minority of black voters and a minority of young voters wanted more funds to the police. The majority either didn’t want more funding, or wanted a decrease in funding.
The police got more funds. The minority got their way.
Many of those black voters who didn’t want more funds for the police are not “down with that.” And for this, and many other reasons, Biden is under performing with some voters of colour in the polls.
What exactly are you disagreeing with here?
Classic no-win scenario.
Increase funding: a majority is against you.
Decrease funding: a majority is against you.
No change in funding: a majority is against you.
Not really because that assumes that this is a choice of 3 unrelated options with no larger context.
That poll doesn’t say what you think it does. It simply says that Affirmative action isn’t popular.
I was pleasantly surprised when Biden came out with big bills promising big progress, them watched them dwindle to empty promises. Was it Manchin’s fault? Yes, but I expected a guy with Biden’s political savvy to be able to bring a couple minor senators into line. Instead we watched Manchin call all the shots, watering down the infrastructure bill to triviality, with no apparent pushback, then making a complete fool of Biden on BBB. And two years later, it doesn’t appear that Democrats have done much for working class people. Yes, Biden has done a lot of important things, but two years later, corporations are still reaping record profits, and working people are going under faster.
He won’t win again. He needs to retire after 1 term. He only won in 2020 due to covid . He means well but is very boring like Carter. Dems need a Clinton / Obama type to win. My pick would be Cory Booker.
As someone from Booker’s state, I wouldn’t bet too heavily on him. He is no Obama. I hope there is someone better. I like Harris better myself.
How? Wave a magic wand?
Surely a guy who has been in politics for 47 years, and is the president for the next four years, has a few favors owed, or favors to offer, useful connections, etc that could be brought to bear.
Fox news: Biden, a supporter of alcoholism, and master of the undead was proven to be a witch according to trial by water today.
As to the OP, I think that many progressive voters look at Democratic majorities in the house and senate and blame the lack of progress on the moderate Democrats in office, of which Biden is the most representative. If only we got rid of all of the moderates and replaced them with progressives then we could get our agenda passed. Of course in many districts/states the choice isn’t between a moderate or progressive Democrat but between a moderate Democrat and a perhaps not so moderate Republican. In spite of all of the calls to replace Manchin, that we have someone who is willing to put a D by his name from a state that went to Trump by 39 points, is a miracle that is unlikely to repeat. And even though Manchin might be the worst Democrat he is still much more helpful to the progressive cause than the best Republican.