I warned About The "System" Managing Its Own Change

I heard Representative Jim Clyburn on Politics With Amy Walter this morning.

I haven't heard anything from him since he endorsed Joe Biden.

I was surprised at what he said.

He said he doesn't support defunding the police.

He said that, instead, he supports restructuring the police.

The reason I heard him give was that he has to go to the voters with his thinking and he can't go to them with "defunding" because that is just a "slogan"; "restructuring" on the other hand is easily understood - it's something the voters and, therefore, he, can really get their teeth into.

Any kid who had his or her allowance cut off has a gut level understanding of "defunding"; what's hard to understand?

"Restructuring", on the other hand, is a first class weasel word, the meaning of which has long been lost in the mists of bureaucratic antiquity.

While incomprehensible as to its meaning, its results are easily seen: various nodules of various structures of various organizations are moved around and re-named and given different reporting structures.

Sometimes some are combined; sometimes many are made from few; anybody that has ever worked for a large company, or anyone who has observed any kind of large organization has seen this process many times.

I saw it over the years as an employee of IBM.  In 1992, after its then most recent restructuring, the company nearly went bankrupt.

Do a search on "restructure" and "police" and see how much incomprehensible gibberish you get.

We've had all the "restructuring" we can stand.

Consent degrees "restructuring" various police departments span the continent.

Nothing changes; The Daily from the New York Times gives five reasons why.

The "restructured" police just keep killing black people.

We need to take their allowance away.

Maybe that's an understandable slogan.