“Defund the police” was most frequently used in the mass protests following the murder of George Floyd, and this is what happened to public support for the Black Lives Matter movement during the same period.

The gains have been reversed somewhat in the months since, particularly as liberals have made the slogan a favorite bogeyman, but again, just look at this huge shift of public opinion when the slogan was at its high point of usage.

Almost unprecedented in US politics to have public opinion change so rapidly and dramatically. That’s what happens when you have a vocal movement that’s speaking the truth about political reality. Liberal politicians are the ones who fucked this up.

I am so fucking sick of people lying about the effect this slogan had. There is NO evidence that it played any part in Democrats losing seats in the House. They tend to do a fine job of losing on their own.

Given that Republicans were always going to paint the Democrats as communists, it’s their fault for not supporting defunding the police, which they could’ve done without additional blowback. They just love cops and white supremacy, that’s why they have to find an excuse now.

It has nothing to do with optics. They don’t support the slogan because they don’t support the policy. That cowardice has more explanatory power than anything else when it comes to their pathetic election results in a referendum election on a hugely unpopular president.