There is a real risk in politics that people mean literally what they are saying.
There is a situation where a group of people have together under the slogan "defund the police". There is a very high risk that if they get the power to do something they will, literally and only, defund the police.
Not many people are reading policy documents. The point of unity in politics is usually the literal meaning of the words being used. Secret signals of "really we meant this other thing" tend not to work.
Defund can easily mean abolish; there isn't really a feasible way to run a police force if they can't pay salaries. It is a literal reading of the phrase and in line with what some (hopefully a tiny minority) of protesters have been asking for.
There is a situation where a group of people have together under the slogan "defund the police". There is a very high risk that if they get the power to do something they will, literally and only, defund the police.
Not many people are reading policy documents. The point of unity in politics is usually the literal meaning of the words being used. Secret signals of "really we meant this other thing" tend not to work.
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