Michael I usually don't care about politics, except maybe when there's something to laugh about. However, the fun of observing San Franciso politics has evaporated completely in recent years, having to watch helpless feel-good politicians turning the city into a lawless hellscape. When you can't buy a bicycle anymore because it will be stolen immediately, or you can't park a car on the street anymore because unchallenged thieves cut off the catalytic converter in broad daylight, the fun stops eventually (USARundbrief reported).

Many others were in the same situation as us when we had to watch the San Francisco District Attorney, Chesa Boudin, who was elected by the people for four years, refuse to prosecute criminals arrested by the police. This kept happening even for repeat offenders, the man obviously following a very absurd and radical political ideology. But eventually even the most tolerant citizens of San Francisco were so fed up, that they demanded the dismissal of the inactive prosecutor through a petition, only two years into his four-year term. This "recall" procedure exists in the state of California for all kinds of political offices, and even some of our governors have had to face a vote of no confidence forced by the people. The signatures of angry citizens were certified in November, and the actual recall vote was held on June 7, 2022.

When such referendums pile up, as is unfortunately the case in California, many citizens simply don't bother to vote out of fatigue. Boudin was elected in 2019 with only a few votes ahead with a voter turnout of only 41%. However, in the June 2022 recall, large parts of the city's population were so angry about the prosecutor's missteps that 46% of them managed to cast their votes. 90% of them voted by mail, 10% dragged themselves to one of the many polling stations scattered across the city.

As is now common across politics, unfortunately no party today runs fact-based election campaigns or can even accept a democratically targeted election result when they're not the winner. Every week I found new leaflets in our mailbox, mainly from Boudin's fanatical followers, in which it was dramatically explained to me that anyone who voted for the recall must be a Republican! The whole recall process was allegedly financed by billionaires, some of whom were even connected to Republicans in Congress, the flyers said! Interestingly, San Francisco is one of the most left-leaning cities in the USA, with about 5% Republicans and 63% Democrats, so "Republican" is an insult that hardly anyone will tolerate.

Furthermore, it must be mentioned that practically every election campaign here in the USA is sponsored by wealthy citizens, who finance television and internet ads and donate money for spectacular stage appearances with lots of balloons. Even Boudin's anti-recall campaign was funded by wealthy citizens who supported his politics. But on election day, of course, it was the citizens who went to the polls, each with only one vote, regardless of whether they were rich or poor.

With excitement, we followed the vote count after the polling boths had closed in the evening hours of the day the votes were cast, and it quickly became clear that Boudin had been ousted from office with a bang. A glance at the election map (Figure 6) made it clear that purple-colored wealthy old hippie neighborhoods (Bernal Heights, Haight-Ashbury, Noe Valley) and the Latin American Mission District wanted to keep the district attorney. The residents of the green-colored neighborhoods, who wanted to fire him, were composed of wealthy snobs (Pacific Heights, Marina, Seacliff) and Asian working class (Sunset, Richmond, Excelsior), which gave the edge due to the higher population count.

In his resignation speech, Boudin blamed wealthy Republicans who had funded the recall with three times as much money as his own supporters. That he was simply a bad fit for the job of District Attorney never occurred to him. You see, when you lose an election nowadays, you don't look for the blame within yourself. After all, you own the truth and everyone else is a fraud or simply crazy. It's quite remarkable that democratic principles are no longer in demand with the "Me! Me! Me!" generation, no matter if left or right.

The recall received surprisingly wide press coverage, and even though it was only a city election, national news outlets such as CNN and the major daily newspaper New York Times reported extensively on it. They all wanted to recognize a political trend in the result. The magazine "The Atlantic" even published a ten-page article titled "How San Francisco Became a Failed City", written by an author who grew up in San Francisco, documenting the decline of the city she once loved. Worth reading!

• More topics you might be interested in:

  	The US Supreme Court and "Roe vs. Wade"
  	Fourth of July
  	Wordle
  	Soda maker with Welder's CO2 Tank
  	Sunken WWII Cannon Platform on the Beach
  	The Little Produce Store Around the Corner

  
  

• More topics you might be interested in:

  	The US Supreme Court and "Roe vs. Wade"
  	Fourth of July
  	Wordle
  	Soda maker with Welder's CO2 Tank
  	Sunken WWII Cannon Platform on the Beach
  	The Little Produce Store Around the Corner