I don't understand how San Francisco has exported any of this progressive ideology to the national party. Kamala's campaign was not even remotely left wing and national Democrats (the Biden admin!) supported the war on Gaza www.politico.com/news/2025/04... - ThreadSky

markasaurus.bsky.social • 6 days ago

I don't understand how San Francisco has exported any of this progressive ideology to the national party. Kamala's campaign was not even remotely left wing and national Democrats (the Biden admin!) supported the war on Gaza
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/21/san-francisco-democrats-push-to-center-00299814

Comments

alleged-human.bsky.social•6 days ago

San Francisco hasn't been progressive in decades (the last SF progressive Dem with any power was Mayor Moscone in the 1970s).

alleged-human.bsky.social•6 days ago

SF is a convenient fiction in national politics. Pelosi can pretend she's much more progressive than she actually is and right wingers can pretend that Pelosi is a shocking left wing radical.

markasaurus.bsky.social•6 days ago

It's pretty wild to hear San Francisco Democrats talk about moving to the center when @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social is (correctly) calling to defund ICE https://bsky.app/profile/billkristolbulwark.bsky.social/post/3lmx4skidgc25

markasaurus.bsky.social•6 days ago

Blaming "The Left" for everything that has gone wrong is pretty pathetic when the things "The Left" supposedly did never happened legislatively and were at best talking points for six months on the internet. The police were never defunded! The Dems never stopped the war in Gaza!

michaeltucsonaz.bsky.social•6 days ago

It’s just about vibes/media, not policy. Of course, party leaders and elected officials don’t control every activist. They can’t set the vibes.

markasaurus.bsky.social•6 days ago

David Brooks and Bill Kristol are both to The Left of the SF Democratic Party at the moment

estupi.do•6 days ago

part of the problem I think is that "the left" is just a subculture anyone can wander into, so "efforts...that aim to reorient the left to focus on policy outcomes, rather than symbolism" are not really "center" or "right" as some want it to be. the goal is ideally just trying to be less stupid lol

michaeltucsonaz.bsky.social•6 days ago

Yup, there are no gatekeepers in party activism.

estupi.do•6 days ago

and maybe there shouldn't be, if only reasonably intelligent adults can find the gate!

alxlndomountain.bsky.social•6 days ago

San Francisco is a one-party town and the people who pull the strings have decided to seize control of local politics by punching left...like they always like to do.

crowtpotkin.bsky.social•6 days ago

I honestly haven't seen anything from the author, Dustin Gardiner, recently, that doesn't paint him as someone who just isn't all that skilled an observer of SF politics.

maxanderson.bsky.social•6 days ago

It's because the notion that the SF Democrats were, as a collective force, aggressively progressive even at a local level is just totally divorced from reality unless your definition of progressive is solely "not actively hostile to minorities".

crowtpotkin.bsky.social•6 days ago

To be fair I can think of a few San Francisco Dems who consider themselves progressive because of their stance on minority rights, while being quite conservative on literally everything else.

nickel76.bsky.social•6 days ago

The idea that there is anything coherent about “SF Dems” policies in SF neatly aligning on some left/center right spectrum to export is so comical

porcelinarr.bsky.social•6 days ago

Performative leftist extremism may (or may not) be a problem in San Francisco, but not in the country as a whole. Isn’t this just the tech-bro right talking? Like that guy who wanted to push the “blues” out of government and replace them with the authoritarian “grays”? If I’m getting the word right.

markasaurus.bsky.social•6 days ago

Yes it's people being poisoned by the media environment they are living in. The national party couldn't have been more centrist (Kamala was showing off her gun:on social media) and look where it got us!

travisatkins.bsky.social•6 days ago

lol. the Democratic Party won in 2018, and 2020, and 2021, and 2022.

theartdontstop.bsky.social•6 days ago

And Sam Francisco had never actually implemented this policies! Police budget has only gone up! Poor people are just punished more!

ghowell73.bsky.social•6 days ago

I am a Dem I did not support war on Gaza and neither did Kamala if you were listening. I think we need to go left with new young people.

markasaurus.bsky.social•6 days ago

"if I was listening" - where exactly did she come out against it? I was hoping for that the entire time.

ghowell73.bsky.social•6 days ago

I am sorry I didn’t mean to be insulting. I’m so tired of all of this. I was (am) very upset about Gaza and Netanyahu. Frankly shocked by Biden’s complicity.
But we had two choices, Harris or Trump. How’s he doing with that whole thing?

ghowell73.bsky.social•6 days ago

I know everyone asks. She did not go to Netanyahu’s speech. She made a speech saying Israel has a right to defend itself but how it does so matters. She said we cannot look away from what is happening in Gaza.
She was Biden’s VP at the time. And in an awkward position.

ghowell73.bsky.social•6 days ago

I guess some people thought the answer was voting for Trump. How did that work out? We need the young people to run for office.

motorcityadam.com•6 days ago

Not familiar with San Francisco politics, but it really just feels like Musk and a good portion of Sand Hill (Tech MAGA) is successfully distorting political reality there.

Feels like that is what happened with Newsom post-election.

Harris lost and the gravitational pull of Tech MAGA remains.

mollymehaffy.bsky.social•6 days ago

Calling San Francisco politics 'left' means you have no nothing about San Francisco politics.

mollymehaffy.bsky.social•6 days ago

*means you know nothing*

markasaurus.bsky.social•6 days ago

Why are you arguing with me? My point is that the Politico article is garbage.

markasaurus.bsky.social•6 days ago

SF politics are not actually left but Nancy Tung is saying they were, and that we need to move to the center which is crazy talk

themeaningofliff.bsky.social•6 days ago

"New Pragmatism" sounds like "working even harder to loose elections."

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