The San Francisco Democrats

New York Sun ^ | June 18, 2019 | Editorial of The New York Sun

[Hojczyk]

Listening to the Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, trying to blame the crisis in the Gulf of Oman on President Trump, we found ourselves thinking of the San Francisco Democrats. They are the Democrats who were skewered in a widely celebrated speech by the highest profile Democrat to throw in with President Reagan. That, of course, was the Gipper’s envoy to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick.

Kirkpatrick, in a speech in 1984 to the GOP nominating convention at Dallas, coined the phrase “San Francisco Democrats.” San Francisco was where the Democratic Party nominated President Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, to challenge Reagan’s bid for a second term. The San Francisco Democrats sought to appease the Soviets and blame America for the world’s ills.

“The United States has become great because we, as a people, have been able to work together for great objectives even while differing about details,” Kirkpatrick quoted Truman. There was a good bit of mockery of Kirkpatrick for joining Reagan. No one will need the Sun to underline the point that President Trump is no Reagan — save for the fact that they were both underestimated. Let Mr. Trump remember the warning from Justice Robert Jackson about presidential power being at its ebb when the president is at odds with Congress.

President Obama forgot that when he struck the Iran deal. It is why Mr. Trump could move forcefully to end it. That in and of itself, though, underlines the risk for the Democrats in failing to come together with Mr. Trump on a policy in respect of Iran. After Kirkpatrick’s speech on the San Francisco Democrats, President Reagan went on to win re-election by carrying 49 of the 50 states.