"...a party that cannot name injustice in plain language eventually loses the authority to confront it at all."
"... a party that cannot name injustice in plain language eventually loses the authority to confront it at all.
Exactly! As Bill Kristol pointed out in The Bulwark today, trump has handed the Democrats three issues where clarity and a message that's easy to grasp will go along way: tariffs, ICE, and Epstein. Three issues; three messages:
* Tariffs are a tax on you and your family.
* Abolish ICE.
* Release all of the Epstein files. Now!
One of the reasons Democrats poll so low is that their own party members are fed up with them and their cowardice. At 66, I'm a lifelong Democrat and, if some pollster asked me if I had a favorable opinion of them, I'd say no. Why? Because they don't seem to stand for much of anything.
"Abolish ICE" should be a no-brainer. People can see with their own eyes that it's become a terrorist organization. trump isn't sending his ICE goons into blue state cities to enforce immigration law. Enforcement doesn't require brigades of heavily armed, poorly trained masked thugs. They're there to scare the population into complying with the regime. Democrats need to make clear that you cannot reform a terrorist organization that will only grow stronger as more money, arms, and personnel is poured into it.
That Black people and other minorities have historically been subjected to the kind of "law enforcement" practices ICE practices is, as you point out, an important part of the story that's usually left untold. A just remaking of our law enforcement institutions requires reckoning with that history.
There is a concern that "abolish ICE" is counter productive and has the same baggage, that scares middle America, as "defund the police". I don't buy it though. The suggestion is to reform ICE, but you can't reform a racist, fascist organization. All ICE Agents need to be fired, then hire qualified people that can do the job as it was done before Trump. Armed thugs are not needed.
The frog has been boiled, virtually all Federal departments have their own armed agents, we are already living in a police state. Even the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General special agents carry firearms to investigate fraud and other crimes against the department's programs.
"...a party that cannot name injustice in plain language eventually loses the authority to confront it at all."
"... a party that cannot name injustice in plain language eventually loses the authority to confront it at all.
Exactly! As Bill Kristol pointed out in The Bulwark today, trump has handed the Democrats three issues where clarity and a message that's easy to grasp will go along way: tariffs, ICE, and Epstein. Three issues; three messages:
* Tariffs are a tax on you and your family.
* Abolish ICE.
* Release all of the Epstein files. Now!
One of the reasons Democrats poll so low is that their own party members are fed up with them and their cowardice. At 66, I'm a lifelong Democrat and, if some pollster asked me if I had a favorable opinion of them, I'd say no. Why? Because they don't seem to stand for much of anything.
"Abolish ICE" should be a no-brainer. People can see with their own eyes that it's become a terrorist organization. trump isn't sending his ICE goons into blue state cities to enforce immigration law. Enforcement doesn't require brigades of heavily armed, poorly trained masked thugs. They're there to scare the population into complying with the regime. Democrats need to make clear that you cannot reform a terrorist organization that will only grow stronger as more money, arms, and personnel is poured into it.
That Black people and other minorities have historically been subjected to the kind of "law enforcement" practices ICE practices is, as you point out, an important part of the story that's usually left untold. A just remaking of our law enforcement institutions requires reckoning with that history.
There is a concern that "abolish ICE" is counter productive and has the same baggage, that scares middle America, as "defund the police". I don't buy it though. The suggestion is to reform ICE, but you can't reform a racist, fascist organization. All ICE Agents need to be fired, then hire qualified people that can do the job as it was done before Trump. Armed thugs are not needed.
The frog has been boiled, virtually all Federal departments have their own armed agents, we are already living in a police state. Even the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General special agents carry firearms to investigate fraud and other crimes against the department's programs.