Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was onto something when he said of Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, “I’m understanding she’s not that active with her bills or in committee. She’s more active on Twitter than anything else.”
He is not wrong. Ocasio-Cortez is omnipresent on the popular social media platform, scoring hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets with snotty comebacks and glib one-liners. Her ability to excite the Twitter faithful is likely one of the reasons why she believes her positions are favored and that she wields actual political power. They aren’t, and she doesn’t.
But don’t take my word for it. Former President Barack Obama himself said as much this week with his none-too-flattering assessment of the “defund the police” movement, which is championed by the ultra-liberal wing of the Democratic Party. That ultra-liberal wing, by the way, is represented by Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow colleagues on the “Squad,” including Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. There are other left-wing politicians and activists who support dismantling police departments, but those congresswomen are among the most notable.
The “defund the police” movement, said Obama during a Good Luck America interview that aired Wednesday, may play well with certain corners of the Democratic base. But it has the exact opposite effect of winning over allies. It certainly won’t win the support necessary to enact meaningful criminal justice reforms, he added.
Obama’s remarks came after host Peter Hamby asked the former president specifically for his take on the anti-police initiative, which a number of veteran Democratic lawmakers, including Majority Whip James Clyburn, blame for the party’s poor showing in the 2020 elections.
Hamby said, “When you were a community organizer, a lot of the folks in the community you were dealing with really just kind of wanted modest change. They wanted to do better for their families.”
“If you’re a young activist today,” the host added, “and you believe really passionately in a slogan like ‘Defund the Police,’ what is your advice to that activist, also knowing that a lot of politicians won’t go near that phrase?”
Obama responded, saying, “It’s interesting, we take for granted that if you want people to buy your sneakers, then you’re going to market it to an audience. If a musician drops a record, they’re going to try to reach certain audiences, speaking to folks where they are. It’s no different in terms of ideas.”
“If you believe, as I do, that we should be able to reform the criminal justice system so that it’s not biased and treats everybody fairly,” the former commander in chief continued, “I guess you can use a snappy slogan like ‘Defund the Police,’ but you know you’ve lost a big audience the minute you say it. Which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done.”
Obama’s advice may come as a surprise to the left-wing activists who appear to be laboring under the delusion that likes and retweets equal real-world popular support.
He continued: “But if you instead say, ‘Let’s reform the police department so that everybody’s being treated fairly, divert young people from getting into crime, and if there’s a homeless guy, maybe we send a mental health worker there instead of an armed unit that could end up resulting in a tragedy.’”
“Suddenly,” he concluded, “a whole bunch of folks who might not otherwise listen to you are listening to you. So, the key is deciding do you want to actually get something done, or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with? And if you want to get something done, in a democracy, in a country as big and diverse as ours, you’ve got to be able to meet people where they are and play a game of addition and not subtraction.”
Obama is not the only prominent Democrat to say “defund the police” is a nonstarter. President-elect Joe Biden has said as much. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is himself not exactly a “moderate” politician, likewise dismissed the movement in June of this year.
It is funny because it is true, the bit about how catchy slogans don’t necessarily lead to meaningful change. But try telling that the “defund” supporters, many of whom spend most of their days trawling for approval social media. Maybe one day, when they are all grown up, they will learn that politics is about more than sick owns, online fights, and whipping up the base with ill-conceived political crusades. They could learn a thing or two from Manchin, one of the few remaining Democratic senators in a deep, deep-red state.
