Cori Bush wants to defund the Pentagon

[free my dawg]

Calling her a moron for wanting to decrease the budget of a bloated, useless institution whose own paid cronies in academia advocate the exact same is PROOF that so many of you treat politics like fan football or an MMO rather than something that actually impacts people's lives.

Cori Bush is an icon, a treasure to working people everywhere, and smarter than all of you who think you know so much lol

Imagine actually believing this. When she said defund, she clearly meant to remove all funding from the Pentagon, not just “decrease” the budget. And yes, she is a moron, as is any other politician who would propose such a thing.

Except for the fact that the left's definition of "defund" is different, and most of the articles involving "defunding" the Pentagon (including Bernie!) have defined it as "reducing the budget."

Attack her messaging all you want - Lord knows I've done enough of that - but I'd be willing to bet you're wrong.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Calling her a moron for wanting to decrease the budget of a bloated, useless institution whose own paid cronies in academia advocate the exact same is PROOF that so many of you treat politics like fan football or an MMO rather than something that actually impacts people's lives.

Cori Bush is an icon, a treasure to working people everywhere, and smarter than all of you who think you know so much lol

Imagine actually believing this. When she said defund, she clearly meant to remove all funding from the Pentagon, not just “decrease” the budget.

How is this clear? The go-to terminology for abolitionists (for various institutions) has always been ‘abolish’. ‘Defund’ carries a broader scope because it doesn’t imply how much of the infrastructure it wants to leave intact (to defund to $0 would be to abolish), although it implies more aggressive cuts than the euphemistic ‘efficiency savings.’

I agree the room for ambiguity means the term can be cast that way and it’s not wise to deploy ‘defund’ in the context of pushing high-salience issues like police reform through electoral politics. That ambiguity is not the same thing as an unambiguous commitment to abolition - if it was, why would the term have come into use at all? It’s not as if ‘Abolish,’ has been abandoned wholesale in other political contexts - Bush herself uses it w.r.t. her position on ICE.

[WD]

Calling her a moron for wanting to decrease the budget of a bloated, useless institution whose own paid cronies in academia advocate the exact same is PROOF that so many of you treat politics like fan football or an MMO rather than something that actually impacts people's lives.

Cori Bush is an icon, a treasure to working people everywhere, and smarter than all of you who think you know so much lol

Imagine actually believing this. When she said defund, she clearly meant to remove all funding from the Pentagon, not just “decrease” the budget. And yes, she is a moron, as is any other politician who would propose such a thing.

Except for the fact that the left's definition of "defund" is different, and most of the articles involving "defunding" the Pentagon (including Bernie!) have defined it as "reducing the budget."

Attack her messaging all you want - Lord knows I've done enough of that - but I'd be willing to bet you're wrong.

If you don’t want to defund, then why are they using the word in the first place? The definition of defund is: “to withdraw funding from”, it doesn’t mean to cut, it’s taking away all money from. Why do you have to twist the English language to get your point across? Say what you mean to say, it’s not that hard.

[WD]

Calling her a moron for wanting to decrease the budget of a bloated, useless institution whose own paid cronies in academia advocate the exact same is PROOF that so many of you treat politics like fan football or an MMO rather than something that actually impacts people's lives.

Cori Bush is an icon, a treasure to working people everywhere, and smarter than all of you who think you know so much lol

Imagine actually believing this. When she said defund, she clearly meant to remove all funding from the Pentagon, not just “decrease” the budget.

How is this clear? The go-to terminology for abolitionists (for various institutions) has always been ‘abolish’. ‘Defund’ carries a broader scope because it doesn’t imply how much of the infrastructure it wants to leave intact (to defund to $0 would be to abolish), although it implies more aggressive cuts than the euphemistic ‘efficiency savings.’

I agree the room for ambiguity means the term can be cast that way and it’s not wise to deploy ‘defund’ in the context of pushing high-salience issues like police reform through electoral politics. That ambiguity is not the same thing as an unambiguous commitment to abolition - if it was, why would the term have come into use at all? It’s not as if ‘Abolish,’ has been abandoned wholesale in other political contexts - Bush herself uses it w.r.t. her position on ICE.

I didn’t mention anything about her wanting to abolish the military, I think she morso wants to remove all funding, which is what the tweet implied. It’s clear because you have to look at the context of the word. Leftists use “defund” when talking about the police or military the same way conservatives use “defund” when talking about Planned Parenthood. When they say “Defund planned parenthood” they aren’t saying “reduce their budget”, they mean cut off all federal spending to the organization. I believe the same interpretation should be applied in both cases.

[Suburbia]

And people like her wonder why rank and file military members didn't care about Trump calling them suckers and losers.....why would they vote for the party that includes Cori Bush in it?

It's something Cori Bush would say

[GALeftist]

Man y'all really do enjoy a nice taste of boot before bed don't you

[free my dawg]

Calling her a moron for wanting to decrease the budget of a bloated, useless institution whose own paid cronies in academia advocate the exact same is PROOF that so many of you treat politics like fan football or an MMO rather than something that actually impacts people's lives.

Cori Bush is an icon, a treasure to working people everywhere, and smarter than all of you who think you know so much lol

Imagine actually believing this. When she said defund, she clearly meant to remove all funding from the Pentagon, not just “decrease” the budget. And yes, she is a moron, as is any other politician who would propose such a thing.

Except for the fact that the left's definition of "defund" is different, and most of the articles involving "defunding" the Pentagon (including Bernie!) have defined it as "reducing the budget."

Attack her messaging all you want - Lord knows I've done enough of that - but I'd be willing to bet you're wrong.

If you don’t want to defund, then why are they using the word in the first place? The definition of defund is: “to withdraw funding from”, it doesn’t mean to cut, it’s taking away all money from. Why do you have to twist the English language to get your point across? Say what you mean to say, it’s not that hard.

I have no idea. I can't read their minds. What we do know is that the facts of the "defund" conversation point towards the left's view of this than I do.

The only thing that's clear is that your entire argument is based on conjecture.

[Eraserhead]

Cori is one of the real ones.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Do I have have to say it?

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Calling her a moron for wanting to decrease the budget of a bloated, useless institution whose own paid cronies in academia advocate the exact same is PROOF that so many of you are whiny white incels who treat politics like fan football or an MMO rather than something that actually impacts people's lives.

Cori Bush is an icon, a treasure to working people everywhere, and smarter than all of you who think you know so much lol

Imagine actually believing this. When she said defund, she clearly meant to remove all funding from the Pentagon, not just “decrease” the budget.

How is this clear? The go-to terminology for abolitionists (for various institutions) has always been ‘abolish’. ‘Defund’ carries a broader scope because it doesn’t imply how much of the infrastructure it wants to leave intact (to defund to $0 would be to abolish), although it implies more aggressive cuts than the euphemistic ‘efficiency savings.’

I agree the room for ambiguity means the term can be cast that way and it’s not wise to deploy ‘defund’ in the context of pushing high-salience issues like police reform through electoral politics. That ambiguity is not the same thing as an unambiguous commitment to abolition - if it was, why would the term have come into use at all? It’s not as if ‘Abolish,’ has been abandoned wholesale in other political contexts - Bush herself uses it w.r.t. her position on ICE.

I didn’t mention anything about her wanting to abolish the military, I think she morso wants to remove all funding, which is what the tweet implied. It’s clear because you have to look at the context of the word. Leftists use “defund” when talking about the police or military the same way conservatives use “defund” when talking about Planned Parenthood. When they say “Defund planned parenthood” they aren’t saying “reduce their budget”, they mean cut off all federal spending to the organization. I believe the same interpretation should be applied in both cases.

Planned Parenthood could survive without any federal spending so it is plausible to defund that to $0 without dismantling the organisation. In neither case is it clear that the term mean "dismantle."

[wbrocks67]

When did defund stop meaning Zero Dollars?

If she's literal, that's insane. If she's not literal, silly word choice.

Yah, this is the same thing as Defund the Police. People need to stop using the word defund when they only mean "lower the budget and reallocate some resources to other things." It's also terrible messaging b/c people would agree with you if you said it like that, but when you're yelling about 'defunding' everything, that is not a winning message with an electorate at large.

[MaxQue]

Calling her a moron for wanting to decrease the budget of a bloated, useless institution whose own paid cronies in academia advocate the exact same is PROOF that so many of you treat politics like fan football or an MMO rather than something that actually impacts people's lives.

Cori Bush is an icon, a treasure to working people everywhere, and smarter than all of you who think you know so much lol

Imagine actually believing this. When she said defund, she clearly meant to remove all funding from the Pentagon, not just “decrease” the budget. And yes, she is a moron, as is any other politician who would propose such a thing.

Except for the fact that the left's definition of "defund" is different, and most of the articles involving "defunding" the Pentagon (including Bernie!) have defined it as "reducing the budget."

Attack her messaging all you want - Lord knows I've done enough of that - but I'd be willing to bet you're wrong.

If you don’t want to defund, then why are they using the word in the first place? The definition of defund is: “to withdraw funding from”, it doesn’t mean to cut, it’s taking away all money from. Why do you have to twist the English language to get your point across? Say what you mean to say, it’s not that hard.

"withdraw funding" doesn't mean "withdraw ALL funding". It can also mean "withdraw 10% funding" and so on.

[prag_prog]

Why can't left use words like reform instead of defund, abolish? Aesthetics matter a ton..polling shows majority public support 'reforming the police' but vast majority don't support 'defunding the police'

[Horus]

The defense budget should be massively scaled back.

[Intell]

1. Lefties being stupid at messaging example #6578

2. You can't fund social programs by merely reducing pentagon funding and if you believe that you're actually stupid.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Good! It's well past time, and honestly the damage we've caused by pissing away a generation's worth of resources on it is probably irreversible, but any defunding we can do now would help a bit. I'm glad this is part of the conversation now.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

War was created for and by rich people.

"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

[Vespucci]

I actually think a lot of the issue with “defund” comes from Republicans campaigning on “defunding Planned Parenthood”, which they clearly mean “give $0 to Planned Parenthood” by, so when people think of “defund” in a political context they conflate it with complete defunding. Of course the GOP is also using “defund” wrong, but they were first and thus basically defined it in our political environment.

[Hammy]

Calling her a moron for wanting to decrease the budget of a bloated, useless institution whose own paid cronies in academia advocate the exact same is PROOF that so many of you who treat politics like fan football or an MMO rather than something that actually impacts people's lives.

Cori Bush is an icon, a treasure to working people everywhere, and smarter than all of you who think you know so much lol

As others have pointed out, the problem is messaging. How you frame what you want to do matters far more than what you actually want to do, or what benefit it will have, because 99% of voters are drooling imbeciles who don't look past one or two words.