While San Francisco Bay Area politicians dominated California politics over the past couple of decades as the state became more Democratic, the term “San Francisco Democrats” doesn’t play so well nationally.
Those with long memories will recall the term “San Francisco Democrats” served as a pejorative attack against the party following the Democratic National Convention in the City by the Bay in 1984. In a speech at the Republican convention that year supporting President Ronald Reagan’s re-election, UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick used the phrase in a negative way multiple times.
Supporting San Francisco values is understood to mean embracing liberal politics, culture, social and moral attitudes. Whether a political attack from the 1980s has impact today was tested in the recent Georgia congressional election. The Congressional Leadership Fund produced an ad tying Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff with San Francisco attitudes.
How much impact that ad had in Ossoff’s defeat is not clear. However, there were many other ads attacking Ossoff featuring San Francisco’s congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. Ossoff’s defeat and the connection to Pelosi has a number of Democrats questioning whether this is a time for change in Democratic House leadership.
Meanwhile, another test on San Francisco area attitudes comes if the National Basketball Association champion Golden State Warriors is invited to the White House. The Oakland based team that has a date to cross the Bay to a new home in San Francisco may refuse an invitation from President Trump to visit the White House if the invitation is tendered.
Some members of the team and Coach Steve Kerr have made negative comments about President Trump and his policies. However, when Coach Kerr was asked about a White House invitation on the TK radio show hosted by Tim Kawakami, Kerr took a reasoned approach: “I, like many of our players, are very offended by some of Trump’s words and actions. On the other hand, I think there’s something to respecting the office, respecting our institutions our government. It think it could make a statement at a time when there’s so much divide and everybody seems to be angry with each other. It might be a good statement for us to go and show, ‘Hey, let’s put this aside, put all this partisan stuff aside and personal stuff aside, respect the institution and maybe, if you know, one of you players wants to voice your concerns over what’s happening, what better opportunity to do so.’”
Kerr said he’d leave it up to the players to decide to go if an invitation comes. Kerr’s instinct to respect the office and take the opportunity to voice concerns is appropriate and should be a guiding light for all who receive such an invitation in the future.
If the team refuses to see the president, the rest of the country will shrug it off as San Francisco attitude. While San Francisco politicians will continue to play a major role in the politics of the state, all these decades since the Kirkpatrick speech San Francisco values still have limited appeal nationally.