Former White House aide under Bill Clinton Paul Begala told HBO host Bill Maher that he thinks Democrats have become too soft on crime in recent years and that he thinks it will hurt their election chances. 

Begala was responding to Maher's contention that he thinks "quality of life issues" like crime are going to decide the next election.

“They need to get out in front of it,” Begala said. “I want a Democrat to stand and say some people belong in jail.”

"White liberals" want to defund police

Begala also pointed out that it wasn't only blue states and districts that had high crime rates, giving as an example the claim that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's hometown of Bakersfield, California had a higher murder rate than San Francisco.

“Why aren’t Democrats talking about that?” he asked before claiming that states that voted for Trump had a 40% higher murder rate.

“For Democrats and my fellow liberals, it’s the people we supposedly care about are the victims of crime,” Begala said. “Elon Musk is not going to get his stupid Tesla carjacked. It’s poor people, it’s working people.”

Begala said it was "white liberals" who want to defund the police, a view which is supported by research.

Misguided sentiments

Like with most things involving white liberals, they think they're helping the disadvantaged by defunding police, because they think police are racist and out to get people of color.

It's good that Democrats like Begala are pointing out the fallacy of that thinking, because the media are not listening to Republicans when they say it.

The problem is, in Begala's day Democrats were the party of "working people" and the poor, but now they are the party of rich elites.

With their misguided utopian thinking, today's Democrats think they know what's best for everyone, and think they are benevolently ruling from their ivory towers when in fact they are becoming more out of touch with the needs of working people every day.

The errors of their ways

Democrats would do well to listen to Begala, but they won't because it doesn't fit the woke progressive narrative that police are racist and the only answer to that racism is to stop them from arresting people, even if they are committing crimes.

Hopefully, it won't take a complete breakdown of society for them to learn the errors of their ways and return to some semblance of sanity before it's too late.

Meanwhile, losing a few elections may be just what the doctor ordered.