Gavin Newson (Democrat) beat Matt Gonzalez (Green) for Mayor of San Francisco. San Francisco is arguably the most liberal major city in the United States but largely out-of-touch with the rest of California, e.g. during the recent governor recall, Gray Davis won by 80% in San Francisco while losing to a significant majority in the rest of California. The issue of the "homeless" has long been an important part of San Francisco's bizarre form of politics. One of the first things a visitor to San Franciso will notice are the many bums aggressively begging for quarters. This problem (which is hurting the city's vital tourist trade) is a direct consequence of San Francisco's liberalism. To begin with, to call these people "bums" is very politically incorrect by San Franciscan standards. To be "correct", one is expected to refer to these people as "homeless". Of course the word "homeless" creates the image of some innocent person who through no fault of his own has lost his home, e.g. a refugee from a natural disaster. To be sure there are many innocent people in San Francisco who lost their homes because of the recession or are forced to live in automobiles or recreational vehicles due to the extreme cost of real estate in the Bay Area (why these people chose to remain in the Bay Area is another question). There are also many "homeless" people in San Francisco who suffer from serious mental illness and should be in institutions. I have to confess to being a Reagan hater. One of Reagan's worst offenses as governor of California was in shutting down many of the state's mental hospitals in the name of false economy. Many of these ex-inmates ended up dying slowly on the streets since they were unable to fend for themselves. Anyway, it is important to emphasize that the overwhelming majority of San Francisco's bums are neither innocent victims or hopeless lunatics. Repeated studies have shown that most of these people are common drug addicts who have been in-and-out of jail or drug-rehabilitation. They have found it easier to beg from the streets of San Francisco rather than work for a living. The word "bum" is indeed the most appropriate description. The recent mayor election polarized the city's liberal politics because the democratic candidate advocated the "Care not Cash" welfare reform, i.e. stop simply throwing money at the bums and instead work at resolving root causes such as drug addiction. The Green Party opponent saw this as a "heartless" attitude towards San Francisco's bums and appealled to the city's progressives to oppose it. It's almost ironic that this sort of demagoguary has a symbiotic relationship with the city's bums. Forty years ago, San Francisco didn't really have a bum problem. The problem was created through liberal politics. As the problem worsened the same liberals who created it, used it to further legitimize themselves against heartless conservatives. Anyway, it's now clear this symbiotic process can only go so far since the Green candidate lost.

Gary