Democrats Aren’t Getting a Mulligan on Defunding the Police

The defund the police movement has become synonymous with the social-justice-mongering Democratic Party—and with good reason. In the wake of the death of George Floyd in the spring of 2020, the Democratic Party married itself to the defund-the-police movement, thinking it was a political winner for them as they virtue signal their “anti-racism” bona fides.

But now… they’re desperately seeking a divorce.

“We should all agree the answer is not to defund the police,” Joe Biden declared in his State of the Union Dumpster Fire address earlier this month. “It’s to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them. Fund them with the resources and training — resources and training they need to protect our communities.”

It was a blatantly transparent effort on Biden’s part to undo the damage done by his party’s efforts nationwide to brand police officers as universally racist and to defund police departments. Some Democrat-run cities even succeeded in doing so… with disastrous results. But nothing has prompted this flip-flop by the Democrats more than polling. Last year, a USA Today/Ipsos poll found that only 18 percent support the “defund the police” movement.

Ouch.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, the public isn’t falling for their recently revised talking points.

According to the latest Winston Group poll, voters still believe Democrats want to defund the police by a 48%-34% margin.

“In terms of what is the position of the Democratic Party, voters tend to believe that Democrats want to defund the police, ” pollsters David Winston and Myra Miller explain. “Among groups outside the Democratic Party, Hispanics believe this is what Democrats want (49%-32%), as do suburban voters (45%-36%). Independents believe this slightly at 41%-33%, but especially conservative independents (61%-20%).”

Despite the efforts to distance themselves from the movement, some in the Democratic Party still openly support defunding the police, which means that the public will continue to believe Democrats still embrace the radical Black Lives Matter. movement, not police.

Winston and Miller warn that “Without consensus about their party’s position, ‘defunding the police’ will continue to haunt Democrats, especially in the context of escalating crime.”

The Democrats’ support of the defund-the-police movement was always stupid, and they deserve to pay the price for their callous rhetoric against police.