San Francisco-style Politicians' Extremist Ways Would Ruin our Country
By: Andy Gionnette, Iowa State Daily (Iowa State U.)
November 2, 2006 6:24 PM
(U-WIRE) AMES, Iowa - Welcome to San Francisco - home of sourdough bread and cable cars. For the while that I spent on the West Coast - in Santa Cruz, a sort of love-child between people not wealthy enough for San Francisco and the beauty of the Monterey bay area - I learned how to deal with even the most extreme left-wingers ever-fashioned by the collective hatred of corporations and George W. Bush.
People there made Ted Kennedy look like Jerry Falwell. Most of all, I learned that there was no way to change them, and that it was best to leave them alone in their little fantasy world of masked socialism and legalized "medical" marijuana.
But there is still San Francisco, where the general feeling of great arrogance toward the rest of the country presides in its residents' giant, arrogant heads. What, you don't believe me? Then listen to this.
Former San Francisco supervisor Angela Alioto went ahead and took credit for starting the city-wide anti-smoking-ban-in-restaurants movement that continues to this day. She also believes that "the rest of the country will follow us once we [call for President Bush's impeachment]." So by their logic, people who currently live outside San Francisco do not possess the mental capacity to judge current events on their own - they have to rely solely on the city of San Francisco to provide the proper opinion.
Along with that, the city, in its shameless arrogance, has shown it will give no second thought to overstepping federal policy and support.
For instance, activists and city officials have tried to essentially make the city a military-free zone, with efforts to erase any sort of military history from the city. City supervisors also try to prevent military recruiters from setting up shop in bay area high schools, a movement complete with propositions in place that would make it policy to prevent it - a move that would disqualify the schools for federal funding.
In 2005, San Francisco city supervisors voted against bringing the USS Iowa - a ship that has been decommissioned since 1990 - to San Francisco because of their position on the Iraq war and the military's stance on homosexuals.
In 1989, San Francisco declared itself a "city of refuge" for illegal immigrants, passing an ordinance that would forbid city resources from being used to enforce federal immigration laws, and recently passed a resolution reaffirming it. Mayor Gavin Newsom said earlier this year that the city would not comply with any federal regulations that would criminalize those who help illegal immigrants.
But what does all of this have to do with us in Iowa? Well, since the move, I have been satisfied to take everything said in the city with a grain of salt and with the hope that this extremist ideology will not leak east of the Sierras.
But now all of this may be about to change.
With an overwhelming resentment of Congressional Republicans, not to mention detestation of the president, many Americans are looking to the Democratic Party for answers. Therefore, it is quite possible that Democrats will win the House and Senate, and for the first time since '94, we will have a Democratic Congress. This may not be the end of the world - but what if this San Francisco mentality was to enter leadership in Washington?
Enter Nancy Pelosi. Pending the upcoming elections, Pelosi would become speaker of the House, leading the charge the way Newt Gingrich did for the Republicans.
Nancy Pelosi represents the 8th district in California - San Francisco - and she was elected for a reason.
Pelosi represents everything that the city of San Francisco stands for. This includes the anti-military, anti-federal attitude that is passed off as democracy. This attitude cannot be given this much power in Washington, as it could prove detrimental to the majority of the public.
Many people are certainly dissatisfied with Congress now, and they share some of the beliefs that the city does about the war on terror, but I believe that even those people will find that the possible upcoming leadership from that part of the country will be too extreme on issues - including the war.
The city of San Francisco has no respect for its constituents, and with such a stubborn, unethical representative in Pelosi on the brink of becoming the most powerful congressperson in the House of Representatives, I certainly have reason to be fearful, yet remain hopeful that the rest of the country will somehow draw the same conclusion come Nov. 7.
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