After some 60 percent of San Francisco's voters — some of the most liberal in America — voted to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin — the face of the so-called "Progressive Prosecutor" movement — on Tuesday, woke liberals were left waking up to an unfortunate and uncomfortable reality on Wednesday. As usual, they refuse to admit the issue was with their own soft-on-crime policies that took SF streets from bad to worse. Instead of accepting defeat as a result of "progressive" values, they decided to make a whiplash-inducing pivot to argue that San Francisco is actually a conservative stronghold and not all that liberal. Yes, really.
New York Magazine argued that Boudin's loss is because the City by the Bay "has never been its left-wing caricature" and was run by Republicans for the previous century. Uh, ok.
San Francisco, governed by Republicans for most of the 20th century, doesn't rest on a New Deal foundation and increasingly lacks a working-class population to bolster progressive candidates https://t.co/1C2sg4Shto
— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) June 6, 2022
Others took things a step further and argued that San Francisco "has always been a conservative city," a claim that is just... no.
SF has always been a conservative city. Its liberal reputation comes from being okay with certain identities in certain neighborhoods. Thats it. Its a city that sequesters its black population to a toxic corner; comically unaffordable for 45 years; the west coast's corporate HQs.
— Darrell Owens (@IDoTheThinking) June 8, 2022
Of course, Shaun King had to chime in and offer his support for the point that SF is, in reality, conservative.
Ultimately, I think what has been most revealed to the nation is what progressive San Franciscans have known for a very long time…
— Shaun King (@shaunking) June 8, 2022
The reality of San Francisco is more conservative than the hype.
The Mayor endorsed Bloomberg.
The Congresswoman is a filthy rich aristocrat.
Meanwhile others continued to indulge and advance Boudin's campaign claim that the recall effort was some vast right wing conspiracy, which is also untrue.
One of the most committed, visionary DAs in the nation was just recalled. @chesaboudin made me believe in the term “progressive prosecutor.” Big-money, pro-cop interests bought the election. They’re trying to do the same thing in LA.
— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) June 8, 2022
We can’t fall for it.
As Townhall reported previously, current and former California Dem Party officials were pushing for the recall, and they also shot down the claims that conservatives were the driving force behind the successful attempt to fire Boudin. "The fact is San Francisco Democrats put the recall on the ballot with 83,000 signatures, and a recent poll shows the recall is supported by 64% of San Francisco Democrats," noted Nima Rahimi, an executive board member of the CA Democrat Party in an op-ed urging Boudin's removal. What's more, greater than 60 percent of San Francisco's voters are Democrats, and the last time a Republican held the mayor's office was in 1964.
The left can lose their minds all they want trying to spin Boudin's crushing loss in an ultra liberal enclave, but it won't change the fact that the rest of the country saw him go down in flames for his soft on crime policies. It also showed that blaming conservatives wasn't an effective campaign strategy. That should give pause to similar "progressive prosecutor" types in other liberal (soon to be deemed conservative?) cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.