Wendell Wagner’s super-powered intellect is one of the top 10 brightest bulbs of the Dope. His contributions are, as a rule, well-informed and well-thought-out deep analyses. His careful use of language is unsurpassed. He’s practically the last person I’d expect to see in here. Anyway, in the current Neil Gaiman thread, he goes
If you “insist that law enforcement does a better job” you’re forcefully saying that it really does do its job better and everything is peachy keen.
If you mean that it needs improvement, say “insist that law enforcement do a better job.” The subjunctive mood. It means that what you’re talking about isn’t really happening. Very useful to avoid ambiguity and misreading.
Some want to get rid of the English subjunctive. I say that would be a very bad mistake.
Edited to add that Wendell’s argument about how crooks should be prosecuted instead of fined is all well and good, except that in the context of that thread it’s completely misdirected, and everybody else is puzzled that Wendell is taking that strange tack.