Former President Barack Obama has certainly made the rounds doing several interviews following the release of his memoir, A Promised Land. From 60 Minutes to The Breakfast Club, the former President has been more visible than ever. Thus far, many of the headlines produced from these interviews have been fairly positive, but that changed this morning.
Obama is facing backlash after coming down on the "Defund The Police" movement. During his interview with Axios, he said that supporters of the movement "lose people" with "snappy" slogans such as that.
"You lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you're actually going to get the changes you want done," he said.
"The key is deciding, do you want to actually get something done, or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with?"
The former President's comments align with those of Democratic leaders such as Rep. Jim Clyburn and Rep. Abigail Spanberger. Immediately after the election, a group of Democrats clashed during a conference call that touched on "liberal" rhetoric leading into the Georgia Senate runoff races.
“No one should say ‘defund the police’ ever again. Nobody should be talking about socialism. We will get f------ torn apart," Rep. Spanberger said.
"[If] we are going to run on Medicare for All, defund the police, socialized medicine, we're not going to win," House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn added.
Despite comments raised from Obama, Clyburn and others, there is little evidence to support the idea that "Defund The Police" or other progressive ideologies have hurt the party or lost support. The country's two largest cities, New York and Los Angeles, have passed legislature that aligns with the "Defund The Police" movement. Adding on, voter registration and early voter turnout spiked this summer when the movement reached its peak.
"We heard a lot of people in the reports from around the Democratic Caucus say that the reason we lost these seats was the Black Lives Matter movement and specifically around defunding the police. I think that's been the center of this argument and you have seen AOC and others weigh on the other side. To me, I look at the data. I look at the data and I see voter registration. It's the number one thing I look at. During the pandemic, voter registration wasn't happening. Democrats weren't organizing in person. For the first time over the four year cycle, Republicans were registering more voters than Democrats during that period. Then, the George Floyd murder happens. That video comes out on a Wednesday in late May. The next day demonstrations begin around the country. I look that next day. After seeing Mayor Bottoms in Atlanta and Killer Mike on TV saying, 'We need to demonstrate, but we also need to vote. We need to register.' I'm a data guy, so I look at the early vote in Georgia the next day because they were voting in their primary. Just one day later, I saw that the turnout for voters under the age of 30 and Black Americans double," Democratic strategist Tom Bonier said.
Photo Credit: Getty Images