Lacking a race card to play in the police beating death of Tyre Nichols, left-wing Democrats and their media allies have turned their attention not to the local government of Memphis, Tennessee, under a Democratic mayor and Democratic police commissioner, but toward the supposed entire system itself.

They now claim that policing, per se, is a racist institution that must be defunded and abolished. This time around, however, they are not stating this outright. They tried the "defund the police" argument two years ago and found it deeply unpopular. In turn, a new slogan, "reimagining policing," has replaced the "defund" movement’s particular vernacular of choice. This reflects a pattern on the Left. When an idea is unpopular, it just changes the language and terminology around said idea (see "gender-affirming care," for example). But the impact is the same.

Take Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL). He says, "To deny the anti-Blackness and white supremacy undergirding our justice system is to blind yourself from reality. We need a completely holistic, top-to-bottom approach to ensure justice in our country and accountability for actors in these systems." In a now-deleted tweet, Frost followed up, "You have to look at the entire system."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) similarly tweeted , "The effort to separate the officers who murdered Tyre Nichols from the system of policing that produced them is palpable." Ocasio-Cortez also retweeted Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), who wrote , "The footage that is being shared is extremely traumatizing. You do not have to watch the video to know cosmetic change is not enough. It's time to reimagine what community safety for all looks like."

Enter former President Barack Obama: "Along with mourning Tyre and supporting his family, it’s up to all of us to mobilize for lasting change. To learn more about how communities can reimagine public safety to prevent both crime and injustice, go to obama.org/anguish-and-action ." Obama’s website features a section on "Reimagining Policing."

But what's missing from these demands to reimagine policing are the specifics on how exactly that might be accomplished. Still, a wholesale, top-down "reimagining" of policing nationwide would no doubt include diverting a large amount of funding. Yet one of the reasons the reimagining talking point is having early trouble sticking is that Memphis has already acted against the five officers involved in the Nichols case. The officers were all suspended, then fired, and then criminally charged, including with second-degree murder. Their specific unit was disbanded.

Those pushing the "reimagining" narrative are simply using different words to push the "defund" agenda. The same unpopular ideas and policies have not changed, only the terminology. However, softening the language does not alter true intentions, and that reality shouldn’t go unnoticed.

Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) has written for National Review, the New York Post, and Fox News and hosts the Versus Media podcast.