The Patriot Post® · San Fran Business Ban Tosses Reason in the Can
California is always on the cutting edge of progressive leftism. It’s the woke haute couture, and San Francisco is its Paris or Milan. To some extent, though, San Francisco is getting too woke for the rest of California — especially for its own citizens.
Its progressive policies are driving up crime to such an extent that citizens would rather leave their cars unlocked than have their windows smashed during a break-in. Businesses are leaving town because the city won’t punish theft. Moreover, three school board members were recalled because a united parent front was disgusted at their woke agenda.
The outrageous policy on today’s docket is the mean-girl-style law that San Francisco has enforced on its businesses and city officials. The law enacted in 2016, called Chapter 12X Administrative Code, bans official city-funded travel to more than two dozen states while barring commerce with companies that house their headquarters in those specified states. The first part really only effects city officials. It’s the second part dealing with businesses that is the outrageous bit.
Since its inception, Chapter 12X has progressively expanded its list of excising factors. The blackballed states, according to 12X, are states that have laws that are contrary to the radical LGBTQ+ agenda; that prohibit abortion “prior to viability” (as defined by San Francisco); and that have “voter suppression laws.”
This law — boycott, really — prohibits business dealings with companies whose headquarters are in 28 states. Here is a compendium put together by San Francisco City Administrator Carmen Chu, who we might add is also unhappy with these restrictions.
Frankly, this edict hurts San Francisco more than the states it is boycotting. Wall Street Journal writer James Freeman notes, “Call it wokeness or super wokeness, but once again we see the power of progressive leftism to destroy without building anything of value.”
Freeman goes on to quote San Francisco reporter Joe Eskenazi, who noted he was unable to find anyone, even in San Francisco, who had anything good to say about the economic sanctions it is attempting to place on states. He writes, “On the contrary, on-the-ground organizers and activists told me San Francisco’s move was high-handed, unwelcome and wrong-headed.” This, Eskenazi reasoned, is probably why San Francisco is the only city putting these sanctions on businesses.
The biggest problem with Chapter 12X isn’t that it’s debilitating for San Francisco businesses. It’s the fact that 12X puts on parade the bullying authoritarian agenda of the leftist radicals. It unveils the deep-seated bigotry and intolerance — and in some cases downright evil — behind these movements.
To quote PJ Media’s Chris Queen, “San Francisco is awfully judgy for a city where homeless people poop in the streets all the time.”