Why the SF DA’s Recall Isn’t a Sign of Backlash Against Progressives

Today, political reporters and pundits are making much of the first story, arguing that it demonstrates a clear trend that started with Eric Adams’ victory in the New York City mayoral race last year, that core Democratic voters are rejecting progressive approaches to crime and incarceration. In New York Magazine, Ross Barkan described the first story as a rejection “of a certain strain of liberalism that buoyed reform-oriented prosecutors across the country and sought to defund the police.” In the Atlantic, Nellie Bowles said the incumbent in the first story lost because “he was making the citizens of our city miserable in service of an ideology that made sense everywhere but in reality.” The New York Post called the recall a rejection of “soft-on-crime policies.” None of them are mentioning the second story. That’s because people writing trend stories don’t like inconvenient facts. And so this is how backlashes get artificially fueled. <a href="https://micahsifry.medium.com/a-tale-of-two-city-district-attorneys-56829b703293">Read More</a>