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I do think "defund the police" and other lefty slogans prob hurt candidates in conservative districts and states, but I think candidates need to be bolder about saying, "If AOC's constituents in NYC want to defund police, that's their business. But I answer to my constituents."
The far left and far right have created the narrative that you either support defunding police or you support killing Black people, but there are a lot of smart ways to talk about police reform. Kamala Harris was really great at it back in 2004 when she spoke of "smart policing."
We have a lot of facts that everyone can agree on. Policing is unfair to Black people, other POC, poor people. There isn't enough accountability for police officers. We need to stop policing poverty, mental illness, homelessness. We need to reform people rather than discard them.
Personally, I think what someone like AOC should consider is how her rhetoric affects her own constituency. Are her constituents' lives better today than they were in 2018 when she was elected? What bills has she passed for her constituents?
Here in Portland, it seems like we are seeing a swing toward more conservative candidates. I think that is both because of the rhetoric being too extreme for a lot of voters, and the lefty purity silliness leading to things like unrealistic write-in campaigns or not voting.
I guess my conclusion is this: Examine your rhetoric and its results. If there are measurable results, then keep doing that. If you're seeing no results or bad results, reassess. And you have to own your own campaign message and rhetoric. You can't control others' messages.
