Michael Bloomberg: San Francisco Shows Democrats Have a Seismic Challenge Ahead

[brooklynite]

The political earthquake that just occurred in San Francisco should be a dire warning to the national Democratic Party, because the same fault line stretches across the country and the tremors are only increasing.

In 2018 and 2020, I strongly supported efforts to win back control of Congress and the White House, because never in my lifetime have protection of the Constitution and the preservation of democracy been so threatened by domestic politics. I continue to believe that a healthy and vibrant Democratic Party remains essential to beating back the Republican Party’s dangerous turn toward authoritarianism and its tolerance for election subversion. But I am deeply concerned that, absent an immediate course correction, the party is headed for a wipeout in November, up and down the ballot.

Three months after Republicans scored major election upsets in Virginia and New Jersey, largely because of the frustration parents felt with Democratic officials who catered to teachers’ unions and culture warriors at the expense of children, voters in San Francisco recalled three school board members by margins of nearly three to one. Coming from America’s most liberal city, those results should translate into a 7 to 8 on the Richter scale, because the three main factors that drove the recall are not unique to the Bay Area.

First, the school board members failed to show any urgency in reopening schools even when it was clear that doing so was safe — and that remote classes were leaving students further and further behind. As private schools opened, public schools remained closed. Tragically, that failure will do lasting damage to many students and their career prospects, especially those from low-income communities. Data show that these students have fallen much further behind their peers — often losing a half year’s worth of schooling. Nothing has widened social achievement gaps more than poorly conceived remote instruction. Parents know this, and Democratic elected officials need to show them that they know it, too.

Second, the school board members seemed more concerned with political correctness than educating children. Instead of reopening schools, they spent their time renaming them, stripping off the names of historic figures like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln before a public outcry forced them to reverse course. Meanwhile, parents struggled to keep their heads above water as they tried to manage having their children at home. The city’s Democratic mayor, London Breed, rightly criticized the board for having its priorities backward.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-02-22/san-francisco-school-board-recall-is-a-sign-for-the-democratic-party

Just a reminder: Michael Bloomberg endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, and spent more than $350 M to elect Democrats in the 2020 election.

[nycbos]

1. One of the members of the board...

... who was recalled said "Asian-Americans use white supremacists thinking to get ahead" with all the hate crimes against Asian Americans occurring in my opinion that's a pretty disgusting statement. I completely see why there was a recall. I am a progressive Democrat in the mold of Elizabeth Warren, and if you lost me well that says something.

https://democraticunderground.com/100216361234

[Budi]

2. Ok. What's the "course correction" then Mr Bloomberg.

Seems SF reacted to 3 sc board members who dropped the ball on their duties to the school kids.

Maybe this removal was the proper "course correction" as seen fit by the removal of all three.

That was the course correction needed for electing 3 who didn't live up to their campaign claims.

[brooklynite]

6. The broader argument is the Democrats need to focus on issues voters care about

...and identity politics issues don't play outside of safe D districts.

An example from the Progressive Policy Institute report:

MYTH 1: PEOPLE OF COLOR THINK AND ACT ALIKE

For a while there was evidence that what some called the “Rising American Electorate” would indeed transform our politics. The coalition that gave Barack Obama a strong majority in 2008 was diverse in all the expected ways, and younger voters brought new and often progressive perspectives into the political arena. Black turnout has remained high, Hispanics continue to stream into the electorate, and turnout among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders rose by 39% from 2016 to 2020.

But more recently, developments among the largest segment of this coalition, Hispanic Americans, have called into question the belief in the basic similarity among people of color. It was widely recognized that the term “Hispanic” — a census category — covered an internally diverse community from dozens of different countries. It turned out that differences of national origin shaped political outlooks: It was one thing to flee countries dominated by brutal right-wing dictatorships, quite another to hail from socialist societies like Cuba and Venezuela.

As support for socialism surged among young progressive Democrats, these differences of origin influenced voting patterns. Nationally, support for Democratic presidential candidates fell from 71% in 2012 to 66% in 2016 and 59% in 2020 among Hispanic voters.[6] In Florida, home to large numbers of Cuban and Venezuelan refugees, Joe Biden received just 53% of the Hispanic vote, compared to Hillary Clinton’s 62%. This may have cost Biden the state with its 29 electoral college votes.

Since the 2020 presidential election, Hispanics have continued to drift away from the Democratic Party. An Economist/YouGov survey conducted in late December 2021 found that only 48% of Hispanics approved of Joe Biden’s performance as president and just 47% believed that Biden “cares about people like you.” Forty-three percent of Hispanics reported that they felt closer to the Republican Party than to the Democratic Party.

At the same time, gaps widened between Hispanics and African Americans on key issues. For example, just 12% of African Americans viewed police misconduct as isolated incidents rather than systemic, compared to 40% for Hispanics. Not surprisingly, just 48% of Hispanics regarded criminal justice reform as “very important,” compared to 73% of African Americans. Across the board, Hispanics were less likely to support Biden’s handling of domestic issues, from the pandemic to jobs and the economy and health care.

[nycbos]

7. Re: PEOPLE OF COLOR THINK AND ACT ALIKE

You can file that under no shit sherlock. The fact that we talk about it as a revelation is a bit worrying for the future of the party.

[WHITT]

3. He's Full Of Shit

So are anybody else espousing such gibberish.

* When Biden was inaugurated, almost all the schools were closed. Now, more than 98% of schools are open. There's no transfer to the Dems or the DNC, as their schools are open.

* The Repubs wildly UNDERPERFORMED in VA and NJ.

Really DUMB and FALSE assertions.

[WHITT]

24. By Historical Standards

the party not in the White House should have won the Governor's races and down-ballot by LARGE margins.

They lost in NJ and barely won in VA.

That's how.

[bullwinkle428]

4. Nobody knows how to read a room better than Michael Bloomberg...

[budkin]

5. Even the progressive mayor supported the recall... those members were awful

I know this is going to be weaponized against Democrats but Bloomberg shouldn't be the one doing it.

[nycbos]

9. That's his point.

When the progressive black woman who runs San Francisco thinks you've lost the plot it speaks volumes. I know you can apply a school board race in one city and call it a national trend, but the things that people talk about on leftwing Twitter don't really matter to the rest of the country.

Look at what happened in the New York City mayoral election, people in low income black and Hispanic neighborhoods voted for Eric Adams who made his campaign about public safety. From my Rangers logo you could probably figure out I'm from New York originally. Adams said during his campaign "people on social media do not pick a candidate, people on Social Security do." However on social media amongst people I know in progressive circles in New York we're kind of in denial about the results one even calling Adams a black Giuliani ignoring the fact that Adams won the black vote overwhelmingly, and was endorsed by several people who were the victims of police brutality.

[WHITT]

25. Which Has Nothing Whatsoever

to do with Dems in general.

His point is wrong.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

8. Can we assume the main reason for remaining closed was the health of the teachers?

The pandemic did a lot of damage to our minds. For quite a while healthcare workers and teachers gained much appreciation from the country as a whole. But eventually we fell back to blaming teachers and their union for our woes, as well as ignoring the strain on the Healthcare system. Basically the right reverted to Dog Eat Dog.

[brooklynite]

13. "refused to give up power"

Last time I checked, the Democratic City Council changed the term limits rule and the voters elected him.

[George II]

15. That rule change was supported by the person who led the charge to implement that rule, too.

[brooklynite]

19. So you just accused the Democratic City Council of corruption...

...for which I assume you have evidence.

[brooklynite]

22. What was the will of the people?

A previous City Council vote on term limits?

[George II]

14. Everyone knows why Bloomberg ran as a republican in his first term, and he became an independent...

...during his second term.

He ran for a third term fully within the law, and many prominent NYC and NYS Democrats supported his third run, including the man who lead the effort to impose term limits in the 1990.

[George II]

18. Everyone knows why Bloomberg ran as a republican.

[George II]

26. The City Council suspended the 2-term limit, and again we ALL know why he ran as a republican.

He was a Democrat all his life, changed to republican in 2001 to run for mayor, left the republican party during his second term.

He is now a Democrat again. So for just about 6 or 7 of his 80 years he was nominally a republican.

[uponit7771]

12. How TF is *THIS* "siesmic" but being party that supports text book terrorism against America isn't?!

[pansypoo53219]

29. don't get 2020 on the past. need to learn more about the german socialists. take care of the

infrastructure before utopian stuff. 1st if u see a shoplifter, throwing shit at them is legal. especially cans.