Column: In San Francisco, a political tremor — the rise of Democratic moderation

SAN FRANCISCO — These are soul-searching days for Democrats, a time of reckoning and self-criticism as they attempt to comprehend why they misplaced Congress and the White Home and battle to seek out their means again from political purgatory.

The examination extends even as far as San Francisco, a spot famed for its liberalism and smugness, the place the inward-looking reflection started even earlier than Trump’s restoration to the White Home.

In 2022, voters solid out three uber-progressive members of the college board, who appeared extra intent on symbolic gestures, akin to renaming public colleges to erase the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Paul Revere, than pupil achievement. A couple of months later, the district legal professional, Chesa Boudin, was recalled in response to his perceived bleeding-heart method to public security.

Persevering with apace, voters in November elected a political newcomer and relative reasonable, Daniel Lurie, as mayor and punctuated the sentiment by gifting him a extra simpatico Board of Supervisors at San Francisco’s baroque Metropolis Corridor.

In the identical vein, town’s Democratic Social gathering, not precisely a pro-MAGA choir, has moved nearer to the center, electing a frontrunner who sees Trump’s election and improved standing on this blue bastion as a type of moments when crimson lights flash and sirens are blaring.

“One of many points with the Democratic Social gathering proper now’s that a lot of celebration politics, particularly on the native degree, has been largely performative and probably not related to the on a regular basis lives of working individuals,” stated the native celebration chair, Nancy Tung. “And I feel we’re seeing the backlash now nationally.”

San Francisco isn’t about to show right into a hillier model of Kansas, or grow to be Alabama with views of the Pacific. Trump obtained 6,000 extra votes right here in November than he did 4 years in the past and boosted his help by 2.5%. Nonetheless, he misplaced to Kamala Harris, town’s former district legal professional, by almost 65 proportion factors.

Tung’s politics also needs to be put in some perspective. She checks all of the Democratic packing containers — pro-choice, anti-Trump and on — and laughingly jokes that in lots of locations she’d be known as a communist. However Tung is a centrist by San Francisco requirements, and town’s political pendulum, which has lengthy oscillated between left and much left, has clearly swung her course.

Individuals “can name me no matter they need,” she stated over lunch within the metropolis’s Mission District. “I feel authorities ought to work for individuals, and on the native degree there’s some actually staple items that shouldn’t be controversial, proper? Each group deserves good public colleges. They deserve secure streets, clear sidewalks. Authorities that works, that’s not overly bureaucratic … that’s not placing large particular pursuits forward of on a regular basis individuals.”

Tung, 50, is the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants. She grew up in Southern California, in Arcadia, earlier than shifting to the Bay Space, the place she has spent most of her profession as a prosecutor. Her work within the San Francisco D.A.’s workplace focuses on hate crimes.

Tung started her political activism pretty lately, after Trump’s upset victory in 2016. On a visit to Washington, she had deliberate to have a good time Hillary Clinton’s historic election as America’s first feminine president. As an alternative, she had an unsightly cry on the Nationwide Portrait Gallery, seated earlier than a rendering of ladies who’ve served on the Supreme Courtroom.

A couple of weeks later Tung was again within the capital, marching on the eve of Trump’s first inauguration with bullhorn in hand. At house, she redoubled her political engagement by signing up with one in all San Francisco’s myriad Democratic golf equipment. Ultimately, although, Tung grew estranged, feeling marginalized not as a result of she was a lady or Asian American however as a result of different Democrats wouldn’t settle for her comparative moderation.

In 2019, she ran unsuccessfully for district legal professional, dropping to Boudin. The following 12 months, the Board of Supervisors scuttled Tung’s nomination to the Police Fee as a result of, within the local weather following George Floyd’s homicide, she was seen as too pro-police.

Slowly, nonetheless, the political winds shifted, as they usually do. By 2022, it was the management of the San Francisco Democratic Social gathering that appeared out of step. Amongst different strikes, the celebration opposed the college board recollects, which 70% of voters supported, and the ouster of Boudin, who was handily turned out of workplace. In 2024, Tung led a centrist slate that took management of the celebration.

Over lunch at a favourite Indian-Pakistani restaurant, she described her objectives between now and the tip of her time period in April 2028. Tung’s demeanor, as one may anticipate of a prosecutor, was no-nonsense. Arms crossed. Forehead creased.

An important factor, Tung advised, was shifting away from abstractions and indulgences and addressing points that contact voters’ each day lives.

Tung cited a decision the native celebration handed some years in the past opposing the usage of youngster labor in Africa’s chocolate commerce. A horrible factor, sure. However why, she puzzled, had been Democrats in San Francisco devoting time to the matter? “It makes individuals suppose you’re out of contact,” Tung stated. “Why is there one thing about youngster labor out of the country and never one thing about how we’re treating kids right here?”

That could be reductive, however the level is nicely taken. If the final election confirmed something, it’s that high-minded rules, like standing up for democratic norms, are much less necessary to many citizens than, say, the price of gasoline and groceries.

Democrats, Tung stated forking a serving of rice and lentils, have to “really present individuals our worth, like what we’re doing locally. … Are you serving to feed individuals? Are you serving to dress individuals? Are you serving to to attach individuals to companies? Are you serving to individuals reduce via crimson tape at Metropolis Corridor?”

Inevitably, the dialog turned to Trump and fears the nation is goose-stepping its technique to dictatorship.

Sure, Tung stated, celebration leaders like herself can and may converse out and assist channel Democratic outrage. There’s data and sources to share with people and teams, akin to immigrants, who could also be focused by punitive insurance policies. “Can we offer help to people who find themselves impacted? Sure we will,” Tung stated. “Can we offer a discussion board for individuals who wish to converse out? Sure, you are able to do that, too.”

However the true resistance, Tung stated, should come from elected officers, from members of Congress, from attorneys basic and others combating the Trump administration in court docket.

She didn’t say it, however the actuality is that if Democrats actually hope to cease Trump’s excesses and his bulldozing of federal packages, they’ll must take again some measure of energy in Washington.

And there’s a substantial amount of work to be completed.