I had trouble with the parts I could read. My head starts to explode somewhere around the paragraph beginning, “More troubling is the subtle implication that…” This paragraph follows one where Abdelbaki seems to argue that Black communities couldn’t possibly NOT want defunding because Black women started the movement (and presumably the slogan). I don’t see why both statements can’t be true.
Other passages are certainly rousing, e.g.,
But it is the response from certain pockets of the Left — encapsulated in this segment of an unfortunate launch episode of a new Jacobin series — that has emerged as one of the most reactionary [pockets?], entirely cowering to the same facile liberal denigrations launched by the Democratic establishment that many of us so deeply despise.
I listened to the Jacobin video, especially here: and I need Abdelbaki to explain to dense people like me just how it is so reactionary and cowering, etc.
In the video Vivek Chibber says that a slogan that has to be explained is a poor one.
Yet Abdelbaki goes ahead and explains it:
Although many might find the phrase “defunding the police” jarring, this sense of unease emerges when the choice put forth — as mainstream media, Conservative, and most Democrats have done — is “only police” or “no police.” But no one is actually making this argument.
Just as a linguist might analyze a sentence like “John saw Karen and spoke to her” by replacing the pronoun with “Karen”, it’s easy to substitute “Defund the police” back in place of “this argument”. Guess what do you get?
Abdelbaki alliterates that …
…it is difficult to imagine any engaged Leftist would harbor confusion about the demands put forth by abolitionists in this moment of cacophonous crises.
Are “engaged Leftists” the only people we need to talk to? And do “engaged Leftists” really NOT mean “defund”?
I dislike articles like this if for no other reason that I find them poorly argued and confusing. (Many of them sound really good, I do admit.)
But what really troubles me is the constant arguments I see among “left” groups. Leftists trashing Obama in the most derisive terms. Leftists trashing people who think that “Defund the police” is harmful and was harmful our last election? (I wish I had more evidence about that, but I think it’s very hard to find.) Why not direct your energy against the rightwing of our country? Is Abdelbaki a Russian?
GOP Slogans (not posted to FB because it isn’t quite right)
I’ve been reading analyses saying that progressive politicians did not fare as well as hoped in the 2020 election in part because of the language they used. The phrase that seems to have actually frightened people is “Defund the police.” I have the impression that the slogan is sometimes not intended to be taken literally, and that “BLM” doesn’t mean that other lives do not matter in spite of the fact that it can be heard to mean that. And when big signs in Miami say that the GOP opposes “socialism”, it’s clearly not a word that’s very conducive to winning.
But that’s not why I’m posting. I need help imagining what an even bolder, more fascist GOP would say that they support. They talk of freedom and liberty (as we Dems should also), a strong military, tax relief, family, etc. But they seem to be very clever at finding effective slogans against good policies (“Green New Deal” sounds good to me but they’ve managed to make it sound bad.) (Even our use of the word “Progressive” proves that the GOP has beaten the word “liberal”.)
Think ahead to 2024 when a bunch of mouth-breathing Trump wannabees compete with each other for the base’s love (assuming that Trump is in jail or Moscow and not running). What slogans would they use, slogans that would sound good to them and as scary to decent Americans as some of the progressive slogans apparently are?
I somehow doubt that we’ll be able to come up with much. Even “forced birther”, while very effective, is negative and unlikely to be parroted with approval by Tom Cotton. Is there a more positive way to say it?
These are notes that I made during a Zoom meeting.
Saying that Cal Cunningham was a weak candidate seems to assume that we could have found a stronger one. I doubt that that woman (Smith?) would have been stronger.
Rebecca - we got a big FU from establishment Dems. Really?
The Clintons and Obama and David Price have become our enemies? Faisal Khan even said that David Price called ICE the “gestapo”. What does Price have to do to win PDOC approval or at least respect? Price hatred feels like group think, but then I don’t know the history.
Questions for Faisal Khan
Khan spoke at length, saying, for example, that he will no longer vote for anyone with whom he doesn’t agree 100%.
He proposed that PDOC and allies should have a press conference.
He wants to have one-on-one deep outreach with voters. His enthusiasm seems to stem from a video of Bernie Sanders successfully convincing someone of Medicare for All in a five minute talk.
What if we talk, and you don’t convince me that Medicare for All is what I want? Do I become an enemy?
Khan stated that Pelosi won’t talk about progressive policies. How does he know?
At least you seem to think that saying “Defund the police” is not the best way to talk to people.
At least you seem to realize that David Price has called ICE the gestapo.
Need to have unity in Dems in NC.
Bring Omar to NC to unite people?
Policies I agree on
immediate direct cash relief (temporary)
universal basic income
universal health care
reduction of corporate subsidies
adjustment of the tax code so that corporations and the very rich pay their fair share
wealth tax
transition away from fossil fuels
ban dangerous pesticides and chemical additives
end racial disparity in criminal sentencing
improve police training and practices
cancellation of college loan debts
a moral foreign policy
reparations for slavery
I suggest not saying
“neo-liberal”
“establishment”
I don’t really understand intuitively the term neo-liberal. Could we say instead, unregulated capitalism? That seems to fit the definition.
Maple Osterbrink
It’s about language
Rebecca Cerese
Cunningham refused to meet with Medicare for All (that’s bad all right)
Unformed
A policy idea
Us versus Them
Maureen Kurtz
“White people are our enemy.”
Holy shit!
We can at least keep on assuming patronizingly that they are simply misled.
I donated to the campaign of Jamie Harrison, hoping that he could rid us of Lindsey Graham, Senator from South Carolina.
Harrison raised a record amount of money and I swear he used most of it to send me email requests for donations!
I’m posting this because I’m genuinely impressed at the creativity of the person writing his email messages. I’ve tried to collect some of the different names he uses (they are all from info@jamieharison.com):
I was most impressed with this email:
Notice that they’ve made the name field look as if there are two conversations, the first one from me to Harrison: me, Jaime (2). This successfully tricked me into wondering, “Did I send email to Jaime Harrison? Let me go look.”
Very, very clever trick. You can see a similar trick highlighted in the first image above. Granted, I’m not U.S. (sorry for the pun).
