I think opinions on which aspect weighed heavier on the outcome is a place where reasonable people can differ.
I think what I will call the racial justice and police reform movement probably did cost Dems some votes, but not nearly as many as repudiating it would have cost. It may have been decisive in a few swing districts staying or flipping R but it was also likely as decisive in a few states staying or flipping D for the White House and Senate.
Policing and racial injustice issues must be addressed. It doesn’t look like we’ve arrived at the Frankenstein policy that moves the nation forward on these issues yet, the kind that typically arises from a legislative wrangle within an ideological argument, resulting in a policy where both sides can point to partial victories and trade offs they are more or less happy with.
The 94’ push, which never stopped, led to the ACA 15 years later, and with any luck will yield us a public option before 15 more years have passed. If that does the job, we’ll stop there. If not, the push will continue.
The ERA push has given us Title IX, women on the front lines in combat zones, woman Secretaries of State, woman AGs, and now a woman VP and Treasury Secretary. It’s a start. We keep pushing. The ERA will have its day.
Defining what modern policing will entail and how it will be accomplished will likely follow a similar path.
In the meantime there is no downside in maximizing Democrats’ base turnout in every election, at least until there is a party to oppose them that isn’t clearly a criminal organization amassing power at the expense of the health and economy of the nation.
I’m happy to debate policy with a consistent libertarian or a principled free trader, or someone with a coherent conservative point of view.
The problem going forward on police reform, racial justice, the environment, worker’s rights and a whole host of issues is that there is no point debating a republican. The have exhaustively listed their best arguments supporting everything they believe in their 2020 national governing platform.
Here it is, word for word,
...
Impressed?
Neither am I.
Poll
5 (45.5%)