OPINION:
In what’s being billed as a warning to other left-leaning district attorneys around the nation, San Francisco voters ousted soft-on-crime Chesa Boudin in a recall election that wrapped with such wide margins, the message is hard to mistake: Even Democrat-dominated districts don’t like thieves and murderers within their midsts.
Now the question is: how long will this attitude last?
San Fran is one America’s most liberal cities. Yet 61% of voters there said buh-bye to Boudin.
That’s after he was elected in 2019 with almost 51% of the vote.
What’s changed?
The city’s murder rate has increased. The city’s shoplifting rate has increased. The city’s incidences of open drug dealing has increased.
And even Democrats were getting sick of fending off criminals on their front door steps — figuratively speaking, but perhaps not. As The New York Times recently wrote, a former San Francisco Democratic Party operative with a history of left-leaning politicking that leaned so far left she was actually dubbed a communist became disillusioned by Boudin after her office was broken into four times in the past year or two. That, plus a video of a man openly punching a Chinese woman on the streets in broad daylight, was enough for her to reconsider the leadership of the city she loved.
Even Democrats hate the idea of being victimized by crime.
So now Boudin is being sent packing — and more than that, a Republican-turned-Democrat who’s still retains his GOP tough-on-crime views, Rick Caruso, has won enough support in his race for Los Angeles mayor that he’s forced a runoff against Democrat Karen Bass. What’s happening to the lefties in California?
Are they finding their squishy-squashy views of criminal justice aren’t working out that well after all?
It’s tempting to suggest that what’s taking place in California is a sort of awakening to reality of the Democrats — the Democrats who’ve been calling for defunding of police, who’ve been faulting police rather than criminals for crime, who’ve been decrying America’s justice system as inherently racist and in dire need of overhaul.
It’s tempting to shout hurrah at The New York Times’ own characterization of the Boudin recall that went like this: “Voters in California delivered a stark warning to the Democratic Party on Tuesday on the potency of law and order as a political message in 2022.”
It’s tempting to cheer an opinion headline in The Washington Post, post-recall, that stated this: “Boudin’s recall proves Democrats have lost the public’s trust on crime.”
It’s tempting to look at California and say, as California goes, so goes the nation, and conclude that maybe, potentially, perhaps — finally! — the Democrats are having a sort of epiphany and finally seeing the law and order light; they’re finally coming to their senses; they’re finally leaving behind the George Soros funding for socialist and Marxist take-overs of American justice and instead climbing aboard the Republican pro-police, pro-law, pro-order movement.
Then the bubble bursts.
Then Boudin speaks.
“This is a movement, not a moment in history,” Boudin said, in the wake of his loss. “The coalition that we built … it is broad, it is diverse, it is strong. And it is a coalition that is deeply committed to justice.”
And then reality speaks and says: Democrats aren’t going to change a thing. They’re just going to dig in deeper and move on to the next race. Boudin, for Dems, is a temporary set-back and the leftist donors are no doubt already drilling deep to buy the next leftist guy.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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