Dana Milbank is a regular columnist for the Washington Post and one of my favorites.
Read his latest column: “Even the Squad Is More Pro-Police than These Republicans”
Republican leaders have developed a new strategy for ousting Democrats from their majority in Congress: Blue Lies Matter.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) falsely tweeted Friday: “The ‘Defund the Police’ campaign — endorsed by Democrats — has decimated our law enforcement. … When Republicans are in the majority, we will FUND the police.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), who with McCarthy’s help ousted Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) as Republican Conference chair, falsely tweeted Monday: “Dems’ manta [sic] ‘Defund the Police’ was one of their top policy messaging points in 2020.… GOP has always supported increasing funding for police!”
The rank and file have followed their leaders down Mendacity Lane. Rep. Jim Banks (Ind.) said on “Fox News Sunday” that “Joe Biden is being held hostage in the White House by the Squad and the radicals in the Democrat [sic] Party who control their party, who have spent the last year stigmatizing one of the most honorable professions in America, in our law enforcement.”
By midday Tuesday, a dozen House Republicans had tweeted messages about Democrats defunding the police.
How, then, to explain the latest “legislative scorecard” from the National Association of Police Officers, a group claiming to represent a quarter-million officers who endorsed President Donald Trump’s reelection?
McCarthy, Stefanik and Banks all scored 57 percent, and some of the back-benchers piling on Tuesday — Reps. Ken Buck (Colo.), Jody Hice (Ga.), Mo Brooks (Ala.) — scored a paltry 43 percent on NAPO’s pro-police scorecard.
And the Squad? Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) all scored 86 percent. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) scored 71 percent. Where it really counts, all four members of the Squad are more pro-police than their Republican critics.
The pattern continues when looking at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California (80 percent) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland (86 percent), compared with Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana (50 percent). Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.), one of 21 House Republicans to vote against giving medals to the police heroes of Jan. 6, scored 33 percent.
Things are a bit more even in the Senate, although Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont (80 percent) bests Republican Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Ted Cruz of Texas (both 60 percent) and Rand Paul of Kentucky (a perfect zero).
The reason is simple. Democrats, at least at the federal level, have been the ones funding the police. The 2019-2021 scorecard is based on votes on health care, pensions, covid-19 relief, bulletproof vests, victim compensation and policing reform. There’s not yet a scorecard of votes in the new Congress, but police groups favored the American Rescue Plan covid-relief legislation, which Republicans uniformly opposed, and President Biden wants to pump $300 million more into the COPS community policing program, which Republicans have long opposed.
Few Democratic voters support defunding the police. Seventy-two percent of likely Democratic voters in New York City’s mayoral primary agreed that there should be more police officers on the street, an online poll last month by NY1 with Ipsos found. Only 20 percent disagreed.
Biden himself rejected “defund” calls during the presidential campaign. Arguing for the $350 billion in aid to states and municipalities contained in the covid relief legislation this year, he warned on at least three occasions that such funds were needed because police officers were at risk of losing their jobs.
Contrast that with McCarthy, who, well before opposing this year’s relief bill, voted against funding for the COPS program in 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011 (twice) and 2009.
Or contrast it with Banks, who was challenged on “Fox News Sunday” by host Chris Wallace: “You voted against that package, against that $350 billion, just like every other Republican in the House and Senate. So can’t you make the argument that it’s you and the Republicans who are defunding the police?” Banks tried to change the subject.
Or contrast it with Stefanik, who opposed the legislation that is now funding cops in her district. The Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times reports that the city is using funds from the American Rescue Plan to reinstate four police positions that had been cut because of a budget squeeze.
Certainly, there has been a serious spike in violent crime over the past year. Undoubtedly, the justified demands from the left for policing reform, and the popular backlash since the murder of George Floyd, have taken a toll on police morale. But for every Tlaib rashly demanding “no more policing,” there’s a Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) refusing to shake hands with the Jan. 6 police hero who was beaten unconscious and suffered a concussion and heart attack.
Democrats ought to be saying, as Biden aide Cedric Richmond did on “Fox News Sunday,” “Republicans are very good at staying on talking points of who says defund the police, but the truth is, they defunded the police.” Unlike GOP leadership, the numbers don’t lie.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is a fun talking point, but most police funding happens at the state and local levels, not federal.
Republicans made it a talking point and it turns out that they are the ones who vote for defunding the police. So I think it’s sad and worrisome — not “fun” – to point out that the Republicans have no shame and will gladly sacrifice endless police lives as long as they think they get some political advantage to it. That’s why the Republicans thought that there was nothing wrong with their acolytes storming the Capitol and violently attacking police officers – including causing the death of one — because they don’t care about police lives — they care about keeping power and any police that don’t serve their fascist desires are not just expendable, but they don’t WANT to protect them.
Not fun. Scary.
With each day I get less interested in participating in point-scoring arguments about how “Republicans” or “Democrats” suck, are hypocrites, etc.
Every day I get less interested in “both sides suck, are hypocrites” arguments. But since there are some people who actually seem to believe that a flawed party that believes in democracy is no different than a neofascist party that will say and do anything to hold power, I have no choice.
It’s dangerous. When we normalize what the current Republican Party is doing, we are complicit.
You do you, NYCPP.
“You do you”
Is that the kind of “fun talking point” that meets with your approval? I wish I could promise to make all of my future comments as worthy as “you do you” so you won’t attack me, but I just can’t do it. You’ll have to find another person to share such interesting conversation.
“You do you”
“I’ll do me”
“No you do you”
“But I don’t want to do me”
I think we’ve discussed this before, but to reiterate, you’re not required to respond to my comments.
“Required”?
No one is “required” to make any comments. But if you make any comment — especially an intentionally provocative comment — on a board that is discussing an issue, you should not be surprised if someone replies to it. It is beyond arrogant to post something on a discussion blog and then act offended because someone responds. Talk about cancel culture.
You aren’t “required” to respond to this comment, FLERP!
What do you think about AOC?
“What do you think about AOC?”
I think AOC’s responses when media hacks ask her about “defunding the police” are brilliant. I wish she would teach all Democrats how to reply to hacks who use those talking points.
Glad we are back to discussing the subject of the post!
FLERP, I had that reaction too– that states and municipalities are the entities funding police. In fact the McCarthy et al tweets were probably directed at cities like Portland, SF, Minneapolis & Austin which have reorganized budgets to replace some law-enforcement functions with social aid. There are a number of bigger cities which have cut policing budgets too, but many of those because of covid economic hit– and a couple of dozen others increased police budget, so it’s a mixed bag. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-defund-police-transferring-money-community
However – tweets don’t have room for details, & these were tweets from DC lawmakers, so why not tweet back to point out that they (& their whole party) fought the RESCUE plan’s $350billion aid to states & municipalities. And the NAPO poll rankings are just as good: these are scores on who voted for nat’l association of police org’s 7 top priority congressional bills – you can peruse the list at the link in the WaPo article to see the federal funding that makes its way into state/local police depts.
And right now, infections and hospitalizations due to the Delta variant of Covid-19 is soaring in unvaccinated counties in the United States–ones who voted for Donny Dumbo, Superspreader. His ignorance and stupidity are the gifts that keep on giving.
Yikes. Cx: are soaring
Yikes again. cx: ones where people voted for Donnie Dumbo
One would be tempted to say, hey, you know, Darwin Award, except that these people not only expose themselves but also innocents, including kids. Yep, you read that right. Kids are catching this variant. Not good.
On the dangers to children of the Delta variant of Covd-19, see 11:00 in this video:
https://www.universityhealthsystem.com/blog/dr-bowling-delta-variant-and-kids
https://www.universityhealthsystem.com/blog/dr-bowling-delta-variant-and-kids
cx: One would be tempted to say, hey, you know, Darwin Award, except that these people expose not only themselves but also innocents, including kids.
While this is not surprising information, how will the Democrats use these facts to gain support from the members of the police in the midterms and beyond? The reality is that Democrats also tend to support veterans and their benefits more than the conservatives that cut benefits for veterans. The difference is that the Republican messaging makes these folks believe that conservatives are behind them. Democrats need to do a much better job in their messaging to groups that tend to vote conservative.
Democrats need more work on their strategy and messaging. They must continue to reach out to blue collar voters in the rust belt. Democrats lost a number of blue collar voters in 2016 because the party ignored them for so long and helped outsource their jobs. Current Democratic strategists need to figure out how they lost a large number of votes in the lower Rio Grande valley in a population that is largely Latino. Democrats need to focus on grassroots outreach and not take certain groups of voters for granted. If Democrats want to win, they need to keep their promises, get more done and work on their inability to promote their own accomplishments.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/07/how-democrats-latino-voters-texas-border-towns
“Democrats lost a number of blue collar voters in 2016 because the party ignored them for so long and helped outsource their jobs.”
I never understand why Republicans can outsource those voters’ jobs — and defund their schools and ruin their environment and take away their healthcare and destroy their unions and raid their pensions” and blue collar voters still support Republicans, but if some Democrats “help” Republicans outsource their jobs, those blue-collar voters entirely blame the Democrats and still vote for Republicans.
The big difference, in my opinion, is that Republicans’ message to them is to scapegoat the “other” — people who aren’t white — and tell white folks that the Democrats only care about the other, not the good hardworking white folks like them. And since the Democrats are never going to be able to counter the racist undertones of the Republican message, I’m not sure there is a solution except to get people who aren’t racist to vote.
And of course, the Republicans would not be working overtime to disenfranchise those voters if the problem was that the Democrats aren’t doing anything for those voters. If the Republicans believed that, they would simply let those people vote instead of being terrified to let them vote.
I do think the border issue is more complicated. Should Democrats abandon abortion rights to appeal to voters who believe the life of a day old embryo always trumps a woman’s control of her body?
In some of the cultural issues, Democrats are going to be attacked either way, if they run away from supporting issues important to women, or LBGTQ.
I wish AOC had total control of messaging. She never lets the media get away with using the far right framing of all issues. I notice that Jen Psaki, Biden’s press secretary is also quite good at that. I wish those 2 would take over the messaging.
NYC public school parent
The reason Republicans can get away with their anti worker anti union policies is because Democrats fail to deliver. Leading to the claim that both parties are the same. A worker who lost his job to trade policy does not care that the vast majority of the Democrats voted against Fast track /TPP and the vast majority of Republicans supported Fast track/ TPP. All he saw was Obama promising to ram TPP down the throats of American workers and the other 1200 mostly progressive organizations. This after Clinton signed NAFTA.
I agree with you that what motivates a Trumpanzee is not economic nor economic anxiety. But are Democrats giving these or more correctly other workers something to vote for. So take a worker on a pipeline project. If you stop the project you lose his vote (if you ever had it) . However if you stop the project and replace it with even more Clean Energy Jobs you probably do not lose his vote. What happens when you promise a Green New Deal and then don’t deliver. Or the House Democrats pass the PRO Act or a $15 minimum wage and it dies in the Senate . Do you think he cares that it was Republicans and Joe Manchin who blocked it. All he knows is a promise was not kept AGAIN. And both parties are the same. The average Blue Collar worker is not Noam Chomsky who appreciates the need for lesser evil voting.
So how do you bring voters out when you fail to deliver. The Republicans have a much simpler message. That Brown man over there is stealing your slice of the pie. He is taking the Jobs that “Americans don’t want” except you. A high paid construction worker in NYC replaced by a low paid immigrant . He is collecting social benefits and he is committing crime . That it was a Republican anti union Employer / Developer who replaced your job abusing that immigrant don’t matter. What did Democrats do about it . That undocumented immigrants are not eligible for welfare was even news to my uninformed accountant. Who has to put a Social Security # down on every document , A Social Security number needed to qualify for welfare. And try convincing them that undocumented commit crime in lower numbers!!!
Which brings us to de-funding the Police .Since NYC opened up in late May. The 28 day murder rate in NYC is 21.4% below 2020 levels. I believe summer is the peak murder season. Don’t expect to hear that in the Media .
“The 28 day murder rate in NYC is 21.4% below 2020 levels. I believe summer is the peak murder season. Don’t expect to hear that in the Media.” Of course I won’t — although I do expect that if a media-approved Kathryn Garcia is Mayor, the media won’t stop reporting on the low murder rate and give her credit, just like they did with Bloomberg.
You just described a no-win situation for the Dems — they can’t get enough votes to pass anything that will ever be viewed as good enough for those blue collar workers, and the Republicans can never do anything bad enough to make those blue collar workers turn against them as long as they keep giving them handy scapegoats. I don’t blame the CRT folks, because if it wasn’t CRT it would be something else that no one has ever heard of that will be the next great enemy of the people. If it wasn’t “don’t let those trans children play on sports teams” it would be something else we can’t even imagine. Like Dr. Seuss. Their desire to find scapegoats is endless.
But despite the power of the Republican amplification of white victimhood, the Republicans are clearly still terrified of democracy. They don’t trust their messaging, which is why they keep looking for ways to disenfranchise more voters. Despite their inherent Senate advantage and electoral vote advantage, Republicans seem to be a lot more worried about the Democrats appealing to voters despite their bad messaging.
I just noticed that Jen Psaki responded to the latest manufactured outrage — Gwendolyn Berry on the podium at the Olympic Trials — exactly the way I want the Biden campaign to respond. The Republicans want Americans to be upset and want Biden’s White House to play along. But Jen Psaki wouldn’t do it. From ABC News: “Asked on Monday whether President Joe Biden believed Berry’s action were appropriate for an athlete representing the U.S. at the Olympics, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she hadn’t spoken to Biden about Berry specifically but knew he’d defend the athlete’s actions.
“I know [Biden] is incredibly proud to be an American and has great respect for the anthem and all that it represents,” Psaki said. “He would also say that part of that pride in our country means recognizing there are moments where we, as a country, haven’t lived up to our highest ideals, and means respecting the right of people granted in the Constitution to peacefully protest.”
Stay strong, Biden. Don’t play into the far right’s manufactured outrage and give it legitimacy by “condemning” Americans.
I think the Democrats can win against manufactured outrage if they stay strong and stop legitimizing it. And I think Republicans know that, too, or they wouldn’t be so desperate to pass laws to disenfranchise voters and steal an election they can’t win with a fair vote.
NYC public school parent
The Republican agenda is certainly easier to achieve . If you are inherently against the Governments ability to tax and regulate than a Government that fails to deliver for the American people is a win win. The object being to reduce it to the size of a pin head. They realized long ago that the alternate to legislation was control of the courts.
If you are a Democrat who fundamentally believes unlike Bubba Clinton that there is a fundamental role for Government in improving the lives of people. Then Government has to deliver . Sadly when the choice is fascism or the perpetual failure of Democrats to deliver on their promises there is no alternative to lesser evil voting.
The one thing you have to give Republicans credit for is their willingness to double down regardless of consequence. They drove Nelson Rockefeller out of the Party in the 60s and Never looked back . .
Under other circumstances the Democrats could take the lesson.
Well said! All are good explanations for why it is difficult for Democrats to move forward, but they must move forward before the midterms.
There is something seriously messed up when Democrats are bragging about supporting and funding police while Republicans are doing much-needed refunding. The Democrats have become the pro-war, “law and order”, pro-police state and y’all are not only okay with it, you’re cheering it on. Hint: this might not have the electoral results you are hoping for, especially among Black and Native populations.
“…while Republicans are doing much-needed refunding…”
LOLOLOL
“Hint: this might not have the electoral results you are hoping for, especially among Black and Native populations.”
What do you mean by “this” — do you mean the Republican led movement in states they control to make it as hard as possible for people who traditionally vote Republican to vote?
Those who support Republicans and what they believe is Republicans’ admirable “much needed refunding” of police also believe that the “voter integrity” laws passed are great, and no doubt you will get exactly the electoral results you are hoping for.
^^^correction:
“What do you mean by “this” — do you mean the Republican led movement in states they control to make it as hard as possible for people who traditionally vote DEMOCRAT [not Republican] to vote?
Oh, for pity’s sake, here we go again with blanket accusations from you know who (dee seventy-seven). “y’all” Please, make a comment but stop with the “y’all”, “you people” or the finger wagging nonsense. This is a brilliant blog, the creation of Diane Ravitch with some very accomplished, educated and creative (in the good sense) commenters. We may have our disagreements but I think we are all united in our support of the real public schools and their teachers.
FLERP, I had that reaction too– that states and municipalities are the entities funding police. In fact the McCarthy et al tweets were probably directed at cities like Portland, SF, Minneapolis & Austin which have reorganized budgets to replace some law-enforcement functions with social aid. There are a number of bigger cities which have cut policing budgets too, but many of those because of covid economic hit– and a couple of dozen others increased police budget, so it’s a mixed bag. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-defund-police-transferring-money-community
However – tweets don’t have room for details, & these were tweets from DC lawmakers, so why not tweet back to point out that they (& their whole party) fought the RESCUE plan’s $350billion aid to states & municipalities. And the NAPO poll rankings are just as good: these are scores on who voted for nat’l association of police org’s 7 top priority congressional bills – you can peruse the list at the link in the WaPo article to see the federal funding that makes its way into state/local police depts.
sorry for double post, hit wrong button
So, Donald Rumsfeld just passed. My grandmother used to say, “If you can’t say anything good about the departed, don’t say anything at all.” So, about Mr. Dumbsfeld:
We know where Donald Rumsfeld is headed:To the area around Hell and and east, west, south and north somewhat.
And that’s a known known.
🙂
Oh my Lord, SomeDAM. Funny! Into the unknown unknown!
“I am not going to give you a number for it because it’s not my business to do intelligent work.”
–Donald Rumsfeld
In a just world, he and a lot of others in that maladministration would have ended their lives in prison after having been tried for war crimes in the International Criminal Court.
Suggested for tombstone:
Donald Rumsfeld, War Criminal
I sometimes wonder whether the architects of war ever have their sleep disturbed by the souls of thousands and thousands who died because of their decisions. As I wonder about the Sackler, sitting in an ornate dining room with gold tableware and many servants, surrounded by the 200,000 souls who died because of their heroine addiction.
While the numbers reported in this article make an important point, they’ll be rejected by the people who most need to acknowledge them, due to the source (WaPo, viewed among much of the right[/Republicans/whatever you want to call it] as the “lying liberal press”).
The larger issue around this, which concerns me even more, is that millions of people in this group get their information from separate “news” sources that report as fact statements provable to be outright lies that their viewers take as absolute truth. Any conflicting reports from sources proven by long records to be accurate is dismissed as “fake news.” The left-leaning editorial orientation of many of these sources doesn’t help the credibility of their news reporting with the right.
In the past, opposing ideologies had different opinions about priorities & approaches, but those opinions were all based on a common, acknowledged set of facts. We now have opposing sides disagreeing not about how to deal with a given set of circumstances, but on the very nature of the circumstances to be addressed, differing not just in details, but frequently — as with this story — diametrically opposed descriptions of the most basic facts.
Before any issues can be addressed constructively, we need to agree at least on what the underlying facts are. Right now, it’s like having a debate on “The Earth is Round” vs. “Vanilla is Better than Chocolate.”
True. Trying to get the poles of America to agree on factual information places the nation in a threatened state.
When did facts become free of those who were narrating the story. Did we just re invent American history . I am not referring to the “woke ” history Zinn or the 1619 project tell. But rather the dominant narrative taught for 100s of years. So although facts may be immutable truths , there is no denying that getting to that truth can be difficult. The Q believing knuckle-dragger’s and the News outlets that feed their delusion are easy to ridicule. The problem comes in when one has to question a dominant narrative that is portrayed as fact . One has to have the tools to question what first Laswell and then Chomsky would call propaganda or manufactured consent.
Sometimes as Lofgren points out the narrative transcends party lines. To what Lofgren the original never Trumper who left the cult in 2011, called the Deep State. The bureaucratic structure that runs Government. What Mills described in the “Power Elite ,” the military industrial complex where regardless of party little changes.. As we have seen endless wars and defense budgets explode even after the fall of the Soviet Union.
As we witness a new cold war being ignited with China. The absence of proof of the origins of the Virus is portrayed as proof of something nefarious . Carried in Right and “Respectable” media in what rivals the WMD claims that entangled us in Iraq. Some how we know that 3 researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology went to the Hospital with Covid Symptoms in December yet we don’t know their names . When they showed up with Flu like symptoms, symptoms that were miss-diagnosed in NY 4 months later. ( with full knowledge of the virus ) were these nameless persons wearing signs that said Wuhan Institute of Virology. We are told that a second grader wearing his fathers underwear as a face mask is safe sitting 3 feet away from another second grader. . Yet a researcher in a moon suit who gets showered in formaldehyde gas somehow got infected or worse.
Blaming Democrats for what Republicans do is not a new trick. They’ve been doing this for decades.
Traitor Trump may have come up with the Biggest Lie of all but the GOP has hundreds if not thousands of lies littering their path to hold on to power any way they can.
Do elected Democrats lie, sure, about 1 out of every 6 lies to voters comes from Democrats, the rest are owned by the Republicans;
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/donald-trump-covid-19-vaccines-children?itm_content=footer-recirc
The title of this piece from Vanity Fair:
Donald Trump, Human Parasite, Is Now Telling People Not to Vaccinate Their Kids Against Coronavirus
Just want to toss an idea in here because I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. How about defanging the police? How about we hire more officers, and make sure the officers have unions and pensions and benefits because they are good middle class jobs, but we disarm them? How about taking away their military grade weapons for starters? How about taking away all their firearms eventually? It’s not enough to take away choke holds and funding. We need gun control, and gun control must start with controlling the guns of the police. They do plenty of shooting. Disarm them. No more “cracking skulls” when people protest. No more shooting unarmed Black people because they were nervous when they got pulled over. When there are serious problems like terrorism, states should have, you know, well regulated militias instead of local police to handle it. Defang the police.
Not gonna happen in a country where there are more guns in private hands than there are people with private hands.
Here’s an analysis of this issue from someone who actually knows what he is talking about. (ad hominem attacks starting in 3,2,1…)
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/06/who-really-wants-to-defund-the-police-democrats-thats-who/
The National Review is a rightwing publication and not a reliable or independent source.
“from someone who actually knows what he is talking about.”
You mean the author of “Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.”
I agree that for people who want to reject the “failed ideas” of democracy and embrace the admirable government of Putin or other authoritarians, this author knows what he’s talking about.
Who wants to be like Sweden when we can all be like Russia? Or maybe like Iran or Saudi Arabia, where religion is more important than democracy.
Axios poll results – CRT question to college students
“Should state legislatures be able to limit how public schools or universities teach history?”
No- Dems, 82%
Independents, 76%
Republicans 60%
That poll indicates how many people support free speech and academic freedom. I can’t think of anything more pernicious than having state legislatures determine what should be taught in history class. Horace Mann wrote about the dangers of partisan control of the schools and their curriculum.
We’re witnessing the desperation of the entitled to hold on to their privilege, to exercise their capricious use of power and, to continue their abuse of the vulnerable.
The simple solution to this is to pass a separate police funding bill and see which side supports it; you might be surprised when both actually do. Any genuinely thinking individual would understand that the current version of this bill is clearly laden with so many other funding initiatives that are contrary to basic opposing party platforms. Yet one party gleefully attempts to bludgeon them over the head and calling them traitors for not backing the police in this clear form of extortion, when they are simply adhering to their principles and you know it. You guys need to get out from this echo chamber; I believe much better things for you than this.