Everybody makes mistakes, right? We see a problem, develop a plan to fix it, and then implement that plan. Sometimes the plan doesn’t materialize as we’d expected or just completely fails due to factors beyond our control, unforeseen circumstances, not being implemented correctly, or sometimes simply because it just wasn’t a very good plan. If the plan completely failed it would be beyond stupid to do it over and over and over again and expect to achieve the desired result; in fact, that’s the colloquial definition of insanity. (We’re not quite sure who said that, but it’s often misattributed to Albert Einstein.)

By that measure any California Democrat – and I limit it to California because it’s one of the few places where the effect of full far-left radical control is on display for all to see – who’s still a true believer in the societal, national security, educational, and economic policies that are in place in the state is unfit to hold office.

This isn’t a tribal, partisan position. The progressive left has controlled California with an iron fist for two decades, and for at least the last decade there hasn’t been a meaningful opposition party. In that timeframe, the progressive cabal of destruction, led by Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, and George Gascon, has been able to turn their totalitarian wishlist into reality, the resulting economic and societal results are unquestionably horrific.

Because the results are so starkly obvious and so blatantly caused by the “unintended consequences” of these “caring” policies, any Democrat elected official or candidate who’s still bitterly clinging to them should never have the opportunity to enact laws ever again.

“Good luck with that; California Democrats will never admit failure, Jen,” some might say. It’s absolutely true that some of them will be as committed to their party line as Peter “It was a zoonotic spillover!” Daszak. But a good number of rank-and-file Democrats and activists have already at least admitted the need for a functioning opposition party to prevent blatant corruption and waste, and quite a few have been completely red-pilled.

Even some lifelong progressives in San Francisco are awfully close to becoming “red-pilled,” though few will admit it publicly for fear of losing their jobs. A long Twitter thread posted by a San Francisco native and self-described “proud liberal, progressive San Francisco Democrat,” Michelle Tandler, describes both the terrible conditions in San Francisco and what she believes caused them and is a fascinating look at the thought process people go through while (potentially) being red-pilled. (I know that many of our readers loathe Twitter threads in stories, but this one is worth it.)

Tandler started her thread by imploring her followers (who are probably left-leaning at the very least) to read the “Conservative Twitter” replies to Target’s announcement that they would be closing their San Francisco stores early because of an increase in crime so they could understand how many in America view San Francisco and the left.

Conservative Twitter is all over this.

I highly recommend reading the quote tweets for a deeper understanding of how many in America view SF, the left, etc.

A thread 🧵 (1/x) https://t.co/0ngZ5NUqyr

— Michelle Tandler 🌁 (@michelletandler) July 3, 2021

Instead of posting all of Tandler’s tweets, I’ve pasted the contents here. Tandler dispassionately lists what she believes to be conservatives’ impressions about what people on the left believe/support, including specific lefty policies/goals/actions conservatives critique. She then acknowledges that San Francisco has been the “petri dish” for these policies (which I like to refer to as live experiments) and some of the negative consequences.

There seems to be an impression among many conservatives that the left:

• Doesn’t support & protect businesses
• Doesn’t protect citizens from criminals
• Is trying to destabilize our social order/society

On this last part – about society – the right tends to critique:

• Branding white people as “oppressors” (e.g., critical race theory)
• Recasting American history as rooted in evil (e.g., renaming schools)
• Undermining meritocracies (e.g., getting rid of adv math)

SF has caught a lot of national attention as we are a petri dish for many progressive ideas – e.g.,

• Harm reduction & housing first approach to addiction & homelessness
• High taxes (state income tax, businesses)
• Decarceration, ending bail, lax prosecution

There are early signals that politics are having a significant impact on the Bay Area:

• 45% of businesses in SF are still closed
• SF/CA exodus is real
• Remote is here to stay (in many parts b/c people don’t want to go downtown)

While popular opinion on the value and effect of these policies in San Francisco proper has changed slightly over the last two to four years, it’s still a radically progressive city (as the election of Chesa Boudin shows). A Republican Member of Congress told me they’d recently met with all of the GOP donors in San Francisco – all three of them – and that Nancy Pelosi really does represent the views of her constituents. But those opinions might really change, Tandler says, if the city’s real estate prices start falling.

I think we will start to experience a real shift in outlook if real estate prices start falling. This could occur due to:

• Recession (we are overdue, RE usually in 10-year cycles)
• Remote guts city of younger workers, fewer buyers
• Crime driving out elderly, families, women

Crime? What crime. Chesa Boudin has made San Francisco a kinder, gentler city – right? What Tandler says next every Democrat elected official in California would do well to really internalize because if this continues much longer they will lose their constituency. Conservatives like to mock liberals/progressives about their tendency to make decisions and vote based on emotion and feelings instead of data and facts. Well, the full consequence of progressive social justice warrior policies is starting to really smack San Franciscans in the feelings, and that’s a really bad sign for Democrats.

Anecdotally, every single one of my friends right now is considering leaving SF (and frankly, myself included). The biggest driver is no longer cost of living. It’s crime. My friends are scared for their children, and their husbands are scared for their wives…

And it isn’t about metrics. Nobody is saying we are “X% up” in this category. It’s how they feel walking the streets. It’s walking a stroller next to a tent that has a pile of bikes next to it. It’s being screamed at or chased by someone who seems mentally unstable.

What I’m seeing is that if there is a big enough incident, it shakes people up. It could be seeing a robber trying to climb into your child’s bedroom, being pulled off your bike, having someone chase you with a pipe… These incidents shake people up. And their friends too.

Those incidents absolutely shake up both the victims/intended victims and their friends and families.  Take this instance, for example (details of the incident are at the bottom of this story):

On Friday, July 2, a male and female were victims of a carjacking, attempted murder and assault to commit a sexual act in an incident that began in downtown Santa Monica parking structure #8. The attacker was a 30-year-old homeless man. https://t.co/QI4QhU7YAR pic.twitter.com/QLU3Idtw8T

— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) July 5, 2021

I don’t know either of the victims in this heinous attack, but since it happened in a place I’ve been to many times, a place where a few girlfriends and I have wandered back to our cars after midnight on many a girls night, it shook me up too. Because it could have been me.

But back to Michelle’s thread. She makes an assertion about the role of government that her peers can certainly agree with then lays out how it’s not doing its job and how these policies prevent the government from doing its job.

Ultimately, I think that the biggest responsibility of government is to protect people from one another. It is in place to protect us from assault, theft, robbery, etc.

Right now the criminal justice system in SF is not working. It is allowing people to get high on very powerful drugs and terrorize one another, neighbors, stores. It is allowing rampant theft, burglary & car break-ins. It is allowing mentally unstable felons to stab elderly women.

She then makes another assertion her peers can agree with about the “social contract” that’s inherent in any community what community members justifiably expect from the government then lists examples of San Francisco government abdicating its responsibility.

There is a social contract inherent in living in a city. We are all crammed together in a small space with the expectation and understanding that we protect one another. There is an expectation that our government will keep things functioning smoothly so we can coexist.

The San Francisco government has abdicated on that responsibility. It is focused on equity & “justice” at the expense of fulfilling its basic duties. Fee caps, school renaming, criminal justice experiments, public banks, red tape, corruption… the list goes on.

My whole life I’ve considered myself a proud liberal, progressive San Francisco Democrat. Today I am ashamed of my city. I see smug ignorance of the laws of unintended consequences. Moral grandstanding, winning over data, logic, and facts. Radical candidates winning elections unopposed. Social justice warriors getting into government and wreaking havoc on neighborhoods, businesses, children.

Why have we all been asleep at the wheel? Where is our sense of civic duty? Civic pride? Is this who we want to be?

Yes! Look around. Is this who we want to be? Based on the two paragraphs above, it seems Tandler has been red-pilled. She’s calling out the “smug ignorance of the laws of unintended consequences” and is ashamed of her city for focusing on “equity & “justice” at the expense of fulfilling its basic duties. It takes courage to admit that to oneself, and even greater courage to publicly post those sentiments.

She continued:

Throughout history, millions of ppl have gone to war and died for their country, their home, their sense of what is right. What is going on in SF isn’t right. We likely have the most inept, corrupt local government in the nation. For a city of innovation, this is humiliating.

I tweet because my heart is breaking about what’s happening in my hometown. This is not how an American city should look and feel. I feel like I’m on the brink of being red-pilled. How can I not, when our policies are so aligned with the radical left?

No, this is not in any way how an American city should look and feel. It is heartbreaking to watch one’s beloved hometown sink to such terrible depths, even if one voted for the people who enacted the policies that led to the bottom of the barrel. And in the next bit of the thread it’s clear that Michelle gets it:

San Francisco has a long history of push and pull between moderate and progressive Dems. Currently, we are fully in the hands of the progressives. They are in charge of our criminal justice system and our governing body, the board of supervisors.

My hope is that in the next few elections we turn this around. We need more moderates in office. Mayor Breed will need more moderates in the BOS to get things done. People say the word moderate isn’t inspiring. Well, it is to me.

(fin)

Some in “Conservative Twitter” focused on the last portion of the thread, railing on the author for “not connecting the dots between the people you voted for and what’s happening,” and for still failing to issue a blanket condemnation of all Democrats in the state. I don’t agree with that criticism. Tandler clearly links those policies – and their consequences – to the far-left policies in place in San Francisco. She can’t go (yet) as far as endorsing any conservative holding office in San Francisco, at least publicly. But by not mentioning anything Republican or highly partisan the people who really need to feel that change of heart are given the space and grace to reflect on what’s happening and shift their paradigm.

Judging by Tandler’s shift over time, believing that this change of outlook can occur in committed Democrats isn’t insanity, especially when incidents like the one described below are occurring with alarming frequency. After seeing the initial story about the Santa Monica carjacking I saw a post on a local law enforcement forum that described the incident in terrifying and heartbreaking detail.

WARNING: This is a dark, dangerous, and disturbing story I have been working on. But I feel that residents, as well as tourists, need to know the truth.

SMPD [Santa Monica Police Department] confirms this is an ongoing investigation. This happened at 1:20 a.m. Friday, in parking structure 8. A young couple was getting into their car, a white Jeep with no top, when a violent, possible meth head transient jumped out at them. He told the male that they were not going anywhere until he had sex with the young woman. He then started pulling her out of the car. The young man jumped out and started scuffling with him, and they managed to get away. Or so they thought.

When they reached the exit, the violent vagrant was waiting. He again demanded he have sex with the girl before they could leave. And again, started dragging her out of the car. The boyfriend jumped out and knocked him off her. At this point, the vagrant ran around to the driver’s seat, and jumped in the car. The girl then jumped out. The vagrant sped away, and the boyfriend chased him down Colorado. The vagrant abruptly stopped the car, and threw it in reverse.

TRIGGER WARNING: He then ran over the boyfriend, back and forth, several times. The vagrant then sped off and headed for the Pier, where he crashed into a nearly constructed barricaded. He staggered out of the car, his face and body covered with blood. At this point, the Police came and arrested him. He was charged with carjacking, attempted homicide, and assault to commit rape. The young man was rushed to SM/UCLA, then transported to the UCLA Trauma Center. He suffered severe injuries, including a fractured skull, broken ribs, and detached ear. At this moment he is fighting for his life, and we pray he survives.

The girl, presumably in shock, walked all the way home to her parents in Brentwood. She was then taken to UCLA.

While the particular details of this story aren’t common, the brutality, the lawlessness, and the background of the perpetrator (a homeless person whose mental illness/addiction is out of control, making them violent) are. These types of attacks aren’t happening everywhere in California; they’re happening mainly in the big cities that have been under complete Democrat control for decades. The policies leading to this massive decline in safety (and increase in the cost of living) can be traced back solely to the far-left criminal justice, civil rights (for “unhoused individuals), and social justice policies California Democrats have rammed down our throats for decades. The results are plain to see. Anyone who still champions these destructive policies shouldn’t be anywhere near the lawmaking process.