The Democrats have succeeded in excising some unpopular officials from their seats in San Francisco:
Three San Francisco School Board members were removed from their positions by voters on Tuesday, CNN projects, following a tough recall campaign that pitted Democrats against Democrats as interlocking controversies over school closings and renamings fueled a well-funded backlash.
The recall is among the most dramatic examples yet of parents’ frustration spilling into local politics. School closures and debates over masking children, along with discussions about race and gender in classrooms, have made education a central political issue.
More than 70% of voters supported the recall of School Board President Gabriela López, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Commissioner Alison Collins as of Wednesday morning, according to preliminary results from the San Francisco Department of Elections. Their temporary replacements will be named by Mayor London Breed, a Democrat who in announcing her support for the recall last year said the city was at a “crossroads” and called the board’s priorities “severely misplaced.” …
The seeds of anger that led to the recall effort were planted early in the coronavirus pandemic, when the board considered changing the names of as many as 44 public schools in a city that was still grappling with how to safely reopen them. The discussions, which became the subject of some head-scratching in national media, touched off angry confrontations between the city’s liberal establishment and movement progressives. [CNN/Politics]
The progressives have unfortunately marked themselves as Angry Others, virtual enemies of the common citizen, for the action of punishing heroes of the Republic for their now-offensive crimes, without recognizing that they also performed heroically and intelligently in the face of overwhelming force, and triumphed, thereby winning the right to self-government.
In other words, yes, some of the Founding Fathers were slaveholders. But, unlike the traitor Confederate General Richard E. Lee, they also rose above their cultural training when they fought for freedom from the English Monarchy.
The Democrats have ejected the progressives from their seats, not only for insulting the Founding Fathers, but for the perception of ignoring the real business of the district, even though the former seat holders deny it. The next step for the progressives is to follow their brethren down the path of redemption. They need to publicly acknowledge the intellectual mistake in evaluating the Founding Fathers only on their moral failings, which were common for the time, and not including their accomplishments, which were deeply uncommon and even visionary.
Without such a public display, the independent voters will continue to remain suspicious of the progressive politician, thus inhibiting their chances of even winning primaries, much less general elections.
