Originally Posted by
JasonEvans
Several folks have asked, so here is the ad I saw.
I do not want us to discuss our personal opinions on this ad. That would be inappropriate. What we can discuss is the campaign strategy behind this and whether we think it will be effective.
Biden has said he does not support "Defund the police." He supports reforms and other stuff but not slashing police budgets in a huge way. There's a reason the Trump ad above merely says "Joe Biden's supporters want to defund the police." If the Trump campaign could get away with putting those words actually in Joe's mouth, they would be jumping for joy. But, the best they can do is pin it on some of his supporters.
I know... kinda weak sauce, but I think Trump has decided this needs to be a major conversation in the election.
As for what that phrase even means, I think different people see it in different ways. I could be wrong, but my understanding is that the most mainstream meaning of "defund the police" is to take some monies budgeted for policing and shift them into different programs that involve counseling, community watch, revitalization, education and other stuff like that. The idea is to both create situations where police are not needed and also not have the police be the default phone call when something is going wrong in your community.