The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to end a boycott of 30 red states that had passed laws the radical left thought were anti-LGBTQ or restricted access to abortion. The boycott had prohibited city employees from traveling to or doing business with companies in states that passed conservative legislation, ignoring the most basic purpose of the Constitution: E Pluribus Unum — “Out of Many, One.”
Practically speaking, San Francisco could no more “boycott” an entire state than it could separate itself from California and govern itself as a sovereign entity. While some in America may devoutly wish the San Andreas fault would sheer off a slice of the California coast including San Francisco and send it floating away, we can only get so lucky. San Francisco and the rest of America are tied together no matter how kooky San Franciscans get.
“It’s not achieving the goal we want to achieve,” said Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, the sponsor of the legislation to repeal the boycott. “It is making our government less efficient.”
When did the radicals in San Francisco start caring about “efficiency” in government?
Related: Another Premier Business Bails Out of Violent and ‘Hostile’ San Francisco
The rollback comes after a report by the city administrator’s office found that no states ever appeared to change their own laws in response to the city’s boycott. A budget and legislative analyst’s report also found the city had done business with the states on the boycott list. A one-year period between mid-2021 and mid-2022 saw waivers for contracts and purchase orders totaling $791 million. Meanwhile, the budget and legislative analyst also found that the city had spent nearly $475,000 in staffing expenses to carry out the boycott.
The effect on red states was non-existent and the city did nearly a billion dollars worth of business with the blacklisted states anyway? Sheesh.
The law “has created additional administrative burden for City staff and vendors and unintended consequences for San Francisco citizens, such as limiting enrichment and developmental opportunities,” according to the city administrator’s report. “Few, if any, other jurisdictions implement travel or contracting bans as expansive as the City’s.”
Mayor London Breed tried to make the best of the repeal. Breed’s office said in a statement that she “recognizes the well-intentioned effort behind” the boycott but also “acknowledges the many difficulties that affect contracting in the City.”
I’m with T.S. Eliot: “Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.” Ain’t it the truth.
This kind of self-aggrandizement at the expense of the people is what we’ve come to expect in San Francisco. Government by striking a pose is not very effective but it allows the liberals on the city council to pat themselves on the back and puff out their chest, telling themselves how good and moral they are.
Supervisors Shamann Walton, who previously told National Review that the San Francisco advisory committee’s recommendation that the city pay out hefty reparations to the city’s longtime black residents does not go far enough toward making things right, warned there could be “many unintended consequences of the repeal” and said as states are doubling down on their conservative laws he does not want to make it seem that the city is “not still fighting against these discriminatory practices and laws.”
I think we should force San Francisco to ask Congress if they can rejoin the union. They were so all-fired up to end their association with 30 states, perhaps they should have to ask permission from red states to come back.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member