When President Joe Biden called for “defunding the police” in his State of the Union address, some outraged conservatives reacted like a child having his favorite toy taken away.

That’s because the same people who describe Biden’s election as ‘stolen’, Democratic election victories as ‘fraud’ and the January 6, 2021 Capitol assault as ‘legitimate political speech’ still want to clinging desperately to another big lie — that Biden wants to “defund” the police.

“Defund the police, keep the kids in school, liberty and freedom, expose the Americans,” a tweet from Rep. Byron Donalds, a Republican from Florida, chided.

“Joe Biden is so desperate to boost his approval rating that he’s stealing Republican talking points.”

No, not fly, just lead. Biden is trying to divert the public’s attention from what Republicans like to think he said about the controversial “defund the police” movement, to what he actually said – repeatedly.

The truth is not enough for some people, especially in politics. Many Democratic Party insiders blame this particular Biden mythos for the party’s failure to meet polling expectations in 2020.

Now they hope to prevent him from causing more damage in the upcoming midterm elections in which the party is expected to suffer further losses.

Democrats’ own research recently showed that some voters in battleground districts think the party is “preaching” and “focused on culture wars,” according to Politico.

It’s politics. Although the conservative wing of the Grand Old Party has in fact declared a “culture war” against “liberal elites” in recent decades, pollsters now say voters blame Democrats for its excesses.

True or not — and there’s no doubt both parties have had their excesses — unless Democrats rebuff Republicans’ attacks on issues like police funding, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has warned. that they could lose ground to the GOP midterm. elections.

Still, progressive voices inside and outside the party criticized Biden for what Charles Blow of The New York Times called, “a ruthless attempt to appease the law and order mob.”

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Missouri, one of the most vocal supporters in Congress of the “defund” movement, attacked Biden on Twitter for not mentioning “saving black lives” in his speech. “All our country has done is (give) more funding to the police,” she tweeted. “The result? 2021 set a record for fatal police shootings.

No, Biden also did not mention the word “race” or his oft-repeated call for fairness.

But he called on the Senate to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and, “while you’re at it, the DISCLOSE Act so Americans can know who is funding our elections.”

In other words, I don’t think Biden is giving in to the lock-’em-all-up people. The record shows he’s just the Joe Biden we knew before he was elected president: a traditional pro-Labour, middle-of-the-road Democrat who enjoys the inside game of pushing bills through with the votes of both gone, if possible. and he never wanted to defund the police.

As I have often said, I am in favor of police accountability and crime solutions that work, but the slogan “defund the police”, like “abolish the police” and “Black Lives Matter” is a movement continuation of a program.

Without an agenda or some form of centralized leadership, such slogans are all too easily hijacked by those who may not have the best interests of the movement in mind.

This is what happened to “defund the police”. Polls show far greater support for spending more on police budgets than less.

While there’s nothing wrong with local governments reassessing where funding could do the most good – directing money towards violence reduction, mental health and other social programs that can easing unnecessary police burdens – the “defund” movement has too often sown confusion, reduced police morale and bitter political sentiments while violent crime rates have soared in many cities even before the pandemic.

That’s why some city leaders across the country have backtracked on decisions to cut police funding while others, like Mayor Lori Lightfoot, have opposed such cuts from the start and allocated more funds.

“We should all agree: the answer is not to defund the police,” Biden said. “The answer is to fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.”

It was one of the few remarks of the evening that managed to elicit thunderous applause from both sides.

Who could oppose a call to “keep our neighborhoods safe?”

But he also wants universal background checks, a ban on untraceable “ghost weapons” and other controversial measures.

Let the debates begin. But let’s be honest about what is being debated.

Clarence Page is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.