“Defund“ activists aren’t running for president. They’re not crafting poll-tested slogans to win a national campaign. It’s flawed logic to assume best practices for winning presidential races or passing legislation in Congress are the same as pushing city-level budget priorities

Big difference I noticed running for local office vs. volunteering on presidential campaigns is how little room there is at the local level for vague sloganeering. You’d have a hard time winning a race for local office in Seattle for example with your main slogan as “Hope”

At the local level, people ask you granular policy questions. They want to know what’s the revenue source, what’s the line item in the budget, how does it affect my bus hours, etc. I’d prob get laughed at if I knocked on a door during my campaign and led with “Hope” as my slogan

Does that mean I would finger-wag at a presidential candidate for using Hope as their slogan? Of course not. That’s a brilliant presidential slogan because it’s optimistic, catchy, and vague enough that it appeals to (or at least won’t offend) voters anywhere in a giant country.

Your strategy varies with the level of government and what role you play in making change (e.g., president versus activist). What works to build coalitions for Obamacare isn’t necessarily what’s needed to put pressure on a specific municipality to change its budget.