OftenBen has at least part of the answer for sure.

But I see it as more of a reflection on a broader trend. Politically, Republicans were able to cast (and still do) liberals as not being "tough" enough, whether that meant being shitty to poor people and prisoners (which, in their minds, really meant "black people") or more generally being "pragmatic" or "realistic." Sacrifices are good, they argue, but the subtext is that they're good so long as they're not making them.

Sadly, the Democrats conceded the moral high ground long ago, and instead tried to argue on Republicans' terms while still somehow being against them. Everything's down to economics and numbers, and no one has the courage to say "this is going to be harder but it's the right thing to do anyway." The Democrats' primary argument has been that they see the world in the exact same terms, they're just less openly terrible about what they do with that worldview. Since this is how politicians have talked for 30+ years, it's unsurprising that it's infected the rest of "respectable" discourse.