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"Left of the country" doesn't mean uncompetitive. There's a incredibly vast amount of political real estate to the left of the American mainstream.

SllX 6y ago
Our elections are not competitive. If we were talking about two left parties competing in our “non-partisan” General elections, you would have a point, but it is Democrats top to bottom, who are only slightly distinguishable from each other in the context of San Francisco politics. In the context of California politics, they’re expected to all carry the same amount of fealty to the Unions, the State Party and its platform as any other California Democrat and in the context of Democrats nationwide, the San Francisco Democrats may as well be the bloody Borg. The Mayoral special election between London Breed, Mark Leno and Jane Kim could be called “competitive”, but no matter who won (London won), the trajectory and policies of the City would have remained effectively the same with the only difference being who could advance their career that year. Or to put it another way, it is a very competitive environment as long as you are a Democrat, but it is not an ideologically or politically competitive environment and the policies of the City government are stagnant (Fix homelessness! Save Muni! Stop car break-ins! Build more housing but only the right kind, maybe! etc.). This is unlikely to change under single party rule.
- sagarm 6y ago
  There's significant daylight between the prog and moderate coalitions in SF -- at least if you care about anything on their platforms. Again, if your focus is policing people's sex lives and consensual relationships, it'll all look the same to you.
  - SllX 6y ago
    Moderates and Progressives war over small differences because they are in competition with each other, even if the type of competition is in its nature internal to the power struggles within the Democratic Party. If you can’t distinguish yourself from the pack in some small ways, it’s going to be harder for you to win elections. Taking that back to the Special Mayoral election, London Breed managed to do just that, over Mark Leno and Jane Kim who had this kind of mutual endorsement deal going on exploiting the nature of the ranked choice voting. But it is a power struggle internal to the Democratic Party. Sure you have different people with different ideas about where to go, what to do, but overall the trajectory is largely the same, and to be frank, it isn’t a direction I like. I still don’t know if I was naïve in hitching my wagon to the Democratic Party when I came of age, if I was never really in agreement with it, or of it just left me, and I’ve been trying to figure that out. What I do know is that there’s no place for me in it anymore, but whether I was naïve before, then and now, they’re still the only game in town and the combination of Ranked-Choice Voting and Open Primaries is further cementing them both here and in localities around here. I have my ballot in front of me, and for every race below President, it is virtually indistinguishable from a Democratic primary ballot because that is in effect what our General elections around here have become, a question of whose career do you want to advance or maintain under the auspices of this particular party banner? > Again, if your focus is policing people's sex lives and consensual relationships, it'll all look the same to you. Since nobody has mentioned anything of the like in this comment chain, I’m forced to conclude you’re making certain assumptions about me and insinuating something unsavory there. Maybe my conclusion is wrong, you tell me. Unfortunately for you, that’s never been something I gave a crap about. I’m not some bloody transplant weirded out by the Castro, I grew up in the Castro, and for the moment it is still my home.

SllX 6y ago

Our elections are not competitive. If we were talking about two left parties competing in our “non-partisan” General elections, you would have a point, but it is Democrats top to bottom, who are only slightly distinguishable from each other in the context of San Francisco politics. In the context of California politics, they’re expected to all carry the same amount of fealty to the Unions, the State Party and its platform as any other California Democrat and in the context of Democrats nationwide, the San Francisco Democrats may as well be the bloody Borg. The Mayoral special election between London Breed, Mark Leno and Jane Kim could be called “competitive”, but no matter who won (London won), the trajectory and policies of the City would have remained effectively the same with the only difference being who could advance their career that year. Or to put it another way, it is a very competitive environment as long as you are a Democrat, but it is not an ideologically or politically competitive environment and the policies of the City government are stagnant (Fix homelessness! Save Muni! Stop car break-ins! Build more housing but only the right kind, maybe! etc.). This is unlikely to change under single party rule.

sagarm 6y ago
There's significant daylight between the prog and moderate coalitions in SF -- at least if you care about anything on their platforms. Again, if your focus is policing people's sex lives and consensual relationships, it'll all look the same to you.
- SllX 6y ago
  Moderates and Progressives war over small differences because they are in competition with each other, even if the type of competition is in its nature internal to the power struggles within the Democratic Party. If you can’t distinguish yourself from the pack in some small ways, it’s going to be harder for you to win elections. Taking that back to the Special Mayoral election, London Breed managed to do just that, over Mark Leno and Jane Kim who had this kind of mutual endorsement deal going on exploiting the nature of the ranked choice voting. But it is a power struggle internal to the Democratic Party. Sure you have different people with different ideas about where to go, what to do, but overall the trajectory is largely the same, and to be frank, it isn’t a direction I like. I still don’t know if I was naïve in hitching my wagon to the Democratic Party when I came of age, if I was never really in agreement with it, or of it just left me, and I’ve been trying to figure that out. What I do know is that there’s no place for me in it anymore, but whether I was naïve before, then and now, they’re still the only game in town and the combination of Ranked-Choice Voting and Open Primaries is further cementing them both here and in localities around here. I have my ballot in front of me, and for every race below President, it is virtually indistinguishable from a Democratic primary ballot because that is in effect what our General elections around here have become, a question of whose career do you want to advance or maintain under the auspices of this particular party banner? > Again, if your focus is policing people's sex lives and consensual relationships, it'll all look the same to you. Since nobody has mentioned anything of the like in this comment chain, I’m forced to conclude you’re making certain assumptions about me and insinuating something unsavory there. Maybe my conclusion is wrong, you tell me. Unfortunately for you, that’s never been something I gave a crap about. I’m not some bloody transplant weirded out by the Castro, I grew up in the Castro, and for the moment it is still my home.