On The Left Side of Things

Every election we hear that America is growing more and more polarized politically and that this is a huge problem dividing the American people. "People used to be able to agree." "Even if you disagreed with each other, you were still Americans." According to these people, now American political polarization has gotten so bad that nobody can agree on anything, and the solution proposed is bipartisanship and moderate centrism that makes everyone gets along. Unity is the most important thing. Now, part of the claim is true. In some sense, America is  more politically polarized. But this polarization isn't something that is simultaneously happening at both ends, with Democrats moving drastically left and Republicans drastically right, it's something that is happening at only one end. The Republican party and Republican voters have been moving further to the right, while Democrats have mostly stayed exactly the same, save a few members of government that the est...

Recently, high-profile Democrats have come out against the slogan of "Defund the Police". Obama recently said that it's a bad slogan because it caused the Democrats to lose support and it's "divisive". I've been seeing a lot of Democrats complaining that the slogan is somehow "unclear" or could easily be misconstrued. I've seen other slogans be floated, most commonly "Reform the Police". The idea is that a slogan like that is more honest, more easily attainable, and less divisive. However, the criticisms from prominent liberals aren't backed by anything of value.  First off, Obama doesn't like "Defund the Police", not because he's worried about it being divisive, but because he is against the idea. Barack Obama, and the Democrats as a whole, are pro-police. They are pro-cop and they are pro giving the cops more money. Biden even ran on increasing  police budgets, showing that it isn't an issue of messagin...