San Francisco – These are days of searching for the soul for the Democrats, an era of calculation and self -criticism while trying to understand why they lost Congress and the White House and fight to find the way back of political purgatory.
The exam extends to San Francisco, a place famous for his liberalism and presumption, where the internal reflection began even before Trump's restoration to the White House.
In 2022, voters cast three super-The progressive members of the School Board, which seemed more intentionally with symbolic gestures, such as changing the name of public schools to erase people like Abraham Lincoln and Paul Revere, than the student achievement. A few months later, the district prosecutor, Chesa Boudin, was withdrawn in response to her perceived approach of bleeding heart for public safety.
Continuing the Apacio, the voters in November chose a political newcomer and a moderate relative, Daniel Lurie, as mayor and punctuated the feeling by giving him a more sympathetic board of supervisors in the City of Barroque de San Francisco.
Along the same lines, the city's Democratic Party, not exactly a Pro-Maga choir, has approached the environment, choosing a leader who sees Trump's elections and improved the position in this blue bastion as one of those moments in that red lights flash and sirens are at full volume.
“One of the problems with the Democratic Party at this time is that much of the party's policy, especially at the local level, has been largely profiled and not really relevant to the daily life of working people,” said the president of the local party, Nancy Tung. . “And I think we are seeing the reaction now nationally.”
San Francisco is not about to become a version of Kansas, or become Alabama overlooking the Pacific. Trump received 6,000 votes more here in November than four years ago and increased his support by 2.5%. Even so, he lost to Kamala Harris, the former district prosecutor of the city, in almost 65 percentage points.
Tung's policy must also be put in a perspective. She checked all democratic boxes (probortist, anti-trump and forward) and jokes laughing in many places communist. But Tung is a centrist of the San Francisco standards, and the political pendulum of the city, which has long oscillated between the left and the extreme left, has clearly balanced its direction.
People “can call me as they want,” he said during lunch in the city's mission district. “I think the government should work for people, already local level there are some really basic things that should not be controversial, right? Each community deserves good public schools. They deserve safe streets, clean sidewalks. Government that works, that is not too bureaucratic … that is not putting special interests ahead of common people. “
Tung, 50, is the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants. She grew up in southern California, in Arcadia, before moving to the Bay area, where most of her prosecutor has passed. His work in the San Francisco DA office focuses on hate crimes.
Tung began his recently political activism, after Trump's annoying victory in 2016. On a trip to Washington, he had planned to celebrate Hillary Clinton's historical elections as the first woman president of the United States. Instead, he had an ugly cry in the National Gallery of Portraits, sitting at a representation of women who have served in the Supreme Court.
A few weeks later, Tung returned to the capital, marching on the eve of Trump's first inauguration with Bullhorn in his hand. At home, he redoubled his political commitment by registering with one of the innumerable Democratic clubs of San Francisco. Eventually, however, Tung separated, feeling marginalized not because he was an American woman or Asian, but because other Democrats would not accept her comparative moderation.
In 2019, he ran without success for the district prosecutor, losing to Boudin. The following year, the Supervisors Board sank the nomination of Tung to the Police Commission because, in the weather after the murder of George Floyd, it was seen as too political.
Slowly, however, political winds changed, as they often do. By 2022, it was the leadership of the San Francisco Democratic Party that seemed out of the way. Among other movements, the party opposed the withdrawals of the School Board, that 70% of the voters supported, and the expulsion of Boudin, which was left the position. In 2024, Tung directed a centrist board that took control of the party.
During lunch at a favorite restaurant in Indian-Pakistani, he described his goals between now and the end of his mandate in April 2028. Tung's behavior, as one would expect from a prosecutor, was meaningless. Crossed arms. Walk wrinkled.
The most important thing, Tung suggested, was to get away from abstractions and indulgences and address the problems that touch the daily life of voters.
Tung cited a resolution that the local party approved a few years ago opposing the use of child labor in the African chocolate trade. A terrible thing, yes. But why did he ask, the Democrats in San Francisco dedicated time to the matter? “It makes people think you're out of contact,” Tung said. “Why is there anything about child labor in another country and not something about how we are treating children here?”
That can be reductive, but the point is well taken. If the latest elections showed something, it is that the principles of high mentality, such as defending democratic norms, are less important for many voters than, for example, the cost of gasoline and edible.
The Democrats, Tung said, forking a portion of rice and lentils, they need to “show people our value, like what we are doing in the community. … Are you helping to feed people? Are you helping to dress The people? Are you helping to connect people to services?
Inevitably, the conversation became Trump and fears that the country is going to the dictatorship.
Yes, Tung said, party leaders as she can and should speak and help channel democratic outrage. There are information and resources to share with individuals and groups, such as immigrants, which can be attacked by punitive policies. “Can we provide support to affected people? Yes, we can, ”said Tung. “Can we provide a forum for people who want to speak? Yes, you can do that too. “
But the real resistance, Tung said, will have to come from elected officials, members of Congress, general prosecutors and others fighting the Trump administration in court.
She did not say it, but the reality is that if the Democrats really hope to stop Trump's excesses and her drag of federal programs, they will have to recover some measure of power in Washington.
And there is a lot of work to do.
