San Francisco voters more moderate than liberal - Results show voters moderate on measures

[Kadie]

S.F. voters more moderate than liberal
Results show S.F. voters moderate on measures

Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 4, 2010


The national pundits had it wrong about San Francisco's baseball prowess, and they may have it wrong about the city's voters, too.

Thought to be the most liberal in the nation, the city's residents have again showed a surprisingly moderate streak when it comes to controversial ballot measures.

After election day, homeless people can no longer sit or lie down on sidewalks anywhere in the city. Muni bus drivers, long the second-best paid transit workers in the nation, lost their sweetheart deal.

Same-day voter registration won't happen, and neither will noncitizen voting for school board races. Tourists and conventioneers won't face higher hotel taxes, and the city won't be spending bond money to seismically retrofit wood buildings.

These votes came two years after a similarly long and divisive list of ballot measures that saw San Francisco voters strike down decriminalizing prostitution, exploring public power and spending on affordable housing. They voted to keep a military presence in public schools - and even declined to rename a sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/04/BA391G6EL7.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz14K6j7ThR

[ClassWarrior]

1. Read this article, then go back and re-read the one in the OP. You'll be amazed...

...how differently it reads:

No Center, No Centrists
George Lakoff

"Centrism" is the creation of an inaccurate self-serving metaphor, and it is time to bury it.

There is no left to right linear spectrum in the American political life. There are two systems of values and modes of thought -- call them progressive and conservative (or nurturant and strict, as I have). There are total progressives, who use a progressive mode of thought on all issues. And total conservatives. And there are lots of folks who are what I've called "biconceptuals": progressive on certain issue areas and conservative on others. But they don't form a linear scale. They are all over the place: progressive on domestic policy, conservative on foreign policy; conservative on economic policy, progressive on foreign policy and social issues; conservative on religion, but progressive on social issues and foreign policy; and on and on. No linear scale. No single set of values defining a "center." Indeed many of such folks are not moderate in their views; they can be quite passionate about both their progressive and conservative views...

The rest at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/no-center-no-centrists_b_60419.html

NGU.

[ClassWarrior]

2. .

[Kadie]

3. ok

I read it once. I think I need another cup of coffee and read it again. :)

I can kind of see what the writer is saying, but I also got a bit lost in his article.

Personally, I have alway hated to use labels. People just don't fit into defined categories. People are much more complex than that. Most people anyway. :D

[ClassWarrior]

4. Yeah, that's essentially what Lakoff is saying. People don't fit along a linear spectrum.

They have complex positions both to the left and right.

NGU.