The Republicans’ big vulnerability in the midterms
While many pundits predicted Democrats to gain House seats in 2020, they actually lost a number of seats despite maintaining their majority. While part of this is attributed to infrequent voters coming out in larger numbers than anticipated to vote for the former guy, part of it has also been attributed to Republican accusations that the party wanted to ‘defund the police’ – despite the fact that Joe Biden and party leaders denounced this nonsense.
There were a few fringe candidates, many running in safely blue districts who tried to put a proactive spin on it – trying to explain why it was good policy that didn’t really mean what it implied. It continued to do damage in a lot of local races last year as well – with a Republican winning a council seat in Seattle.
Now, it’s the GOP shouting to “Defund the FBI” – which they really do mean – and it’s coming not so long after their consistent votes to actually defund the police. Defunding the FBI is also something that’s not really all that new for the GOP and the former guy, as it would mean no federal oversight while making it much easier to politicize local police forces. On Wednesday, President Biden saw the opportunity to point this out after signing the Inflation Reduction Act – emphasizing that funding for the FBI is being increased with the new legislation, as well as for local police.
Donald Trump and the GOP can’t intimidate the Justice Department into doing their bidding and he just put them on notice, while Democrats running in the 2022 midterms just got a clear greenlight to use the GOP’s own tactic against Republican candidates running in swing districts. Let’s reveal the party as the extremists they are and win in 2022.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making