Posted on 02/12/2021 3:55:38 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
You may have heard that San Francisco’s Board of Education voted 6-1 to rename 44 schools, stripping ancient racists of their laurels, but also Abraham Lincoln and Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
In normal times, bemusement would be the right response to a story like this. Cities should have idiosyncratic, out-there politics. You need to earn your “Keep X weird” bumper stickers. And for all the Fox News hosts who’ve collapsed onto their fainting couches, America isn’t suffering from a national shortage of schools named for Abraham Lincoln.
But San Francisco’s public schools remain closed, no matter the name on the front. And that’s where this goes from wacky local news story to a reflection of a deeper problem.
San Francisco is about 48% white, but that falls to 15% for children enrolled in its public schools. For all the city’s vaunted progressivism, it has some of the highest private school enrollment numbers in the country.
California has the highest poverty rate in the nation, when you factor in housing costs, and vies for the top spot in income inequality, too.
California talks a big game on climate change, but even with billions of dollars in federal funding, it couldn’t build high-speed rail between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
California, as the biggest state in the nation, and one where Democrats hold total control of the government, carries a special burden. If progressivism cannot work here, why should the country believe it can work anywhere else?
I hope California keeps being weird. But it needs to do better.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It doesn’t matter how badly California fails. Evidence does not matter to liberals, and they do a very good job of fooling and manipulating the American public.
“The Past was erased. The Lie became the truth”.
Once again. I read an article how Progressive California is.....and how the progressive California has led to more inequity and debt. Then, at the end of the article some pundit tries to blame California’s idiotocracy on Donald Trump tweeting.
Don’t worry, The FedGov under Joe Biden will ‘bail out’ California just like it did New York for it’s participation in the riots just like New York!!!
No, it’s not the socialist policies or the lying ‘Progressive’ politicians that have screwed up your entire state and left so many in poverty.....No...it was Donald Trumps fault.
You really can’t make this stuff up!
Author Ezra Klein makes several good points, but sill misses the boat. This next paragraph was followed immediately by a statement bashing Trump, and for all the wrong reasons.
***In California, taking that standard seriously might mean worrying less about the name on the school than whether there are children inside it — as Mayor Breed has been insisting. It might mean worrying less about the sign in the yard than the median home price on the block. And yes, it might mean worrying less about a cumbersome process that claims to be about environmental protection and more about how to speed along projects that will lead to environmental justice.
There is a danger — not just in California, but everywhere — that politics becomes an aesthetic rather than a program. It’s a danger on the right, where Donald Trump modeled a presidency that cared more about retweets than bills.***
Trump wasn’t in charge of bills. That’s Congress’ job. President Trump knew how to cut through red tape like nobody else. We were finally getting somewhere. Even environmentally, things were looking better. The left just can’t seem to accept “wins” when conservatives are the ones making those wins happen.
Your post wasn’t up when I had started to write mine, but we both understood the author in the same fashion. The left can’t help but still blame Trump for everything. They have no solutions, and they tear apart anyone who does.
“If progressivism cannot work here, why should the country believe it can work anywhere else?”
It doesn’t.. and it won’t. But for the left, it’s not about governance, but about power.
I suspect what he means by weird is places where Christianity is non-normative, whites who form families and take care of themselves are a minority, and sexual degeneracy is widespread.
The idea that places like that, currently sinking fast, can EVER become "better" should be challenged every time they stick their heads up.
It only took three days and some rain to turn Yasgur's farm into a shithole. Cities, States, and nations take longer.
Peace out.
I would be happy to double congressional salaries if they promise to play golf every day and not do a damn thing other than giving school kids tours of the Capital.
The Trump bashing is mandatory for the media types or they lose their jobs.
It can be safely ignored like punctuation marks—it is equally meaningless.
Yup
His idea that it is a positive good for places to be what he calls “weird”,
Journalistic gymnastics to change the definition of the word weird introduced in antifas torn, looted and burned Portland oregon not California, probably in a knee jerk reaction to the use of the word weird by the enemy of all communists and progressive insane wokeastinians, Dan bongino.
Yes, it is mandatory, but I wonder if these idiots will ever connect the dots, even the ones that they put down. My guess is...no, they won’t.
California, as the biggest state in the nation, and one where Democrats hold total control.
They got what they voted for enjoy.
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