(RepublicanInformer.com)- Representative Cori Bush, a member of the Squad in the House, refuses to back down from the slogan to “defund the police,” even though plenty members of the Democratic Party are asking her to do so.
As the midterm elections are quickly approaching, Democrats are concerned that ultra-progressive stances like this one that the Squad members keep pushing could result in them losing control of both the House and the Senate.
But, Bush stuck to her guns, telling Axios Tuesday:
“I always tell [fellow Democrats], ‘if you all had fixed this before I got here, I wouldn’t have to say these things.'”
Instead of backing down from the rhetoric, Bush says Democrats need to better explain to all voters what “defund the police” actually means. She claims that some of the funding that’s currently going to police departments could be spent better on social services that would be more pre-emptive.
Bush, who is from Missouri, also said that if Democrats were to lose in the midterms, it wouldn’t be because the Squad adopted the “defund the police” slogan, but because liberals weren’t able to adopt the sweeping reforms under President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill.
As she said:
“‘Defund the police’ is not the problem. We dangled the carrot in front of people’s faces and said we can get it done and that Democrats deliver, when we haven’t totally delivered.
“If [Republicans] take the majority, it’s just done as far as trying to get the legislation across.”
Over the last two years, violent crime has risen across the United States. A study conducted by the Council on Criminal Justice found that murders increased 5% last year, and have gone up by 44% since back in 2019.
The rising rates of violent crime and recent election results have many in the Democratic Party trying to back away from the “defund the police” movement, which began not long after the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis in the summer of 2020.
Bush even said that some of her colleagues have said the Squad using the slogan is hurting them in their own districts.
In fact, some Democrats are taking the exact opposite stance, requesting more funding for police in their district. California Representative Karen Bass, who is running for Los Angeles mayor, said the city needs more police as residents “don’t feel safe.”
She also committed to add more officers to the city’s police force, getting it up to close to 10,000 authorized officers.
As she told the Los Angeles Times recently:
“Whether you’ve had your car broken into, your backpack stolen, your property damaged — or you’ve seen news coverage of home robberies or violent assaults — more and more Angelenos I speak with tell me crime has touched them personally, and they feel scared.”
It’s this fear that has many Americans distancing their own opinions from that of the Squad. But, the Squad’s refusal to understand the will of the people is what may ultimately do in the entire Democratic Party.
