San Francisco’s recall isn’t entirely about the ‘woke left’ going too far

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As soon as the polls closed and declared that voters successfully recalled three members of San Francisco’s school board, the stories almost immediately wrote themselves about how this was an example of the “woke left” having gone too far, even for a decidedly liberal city like San Francisco.

In 2020, stories abounded about how the school board sought to rename schools named for Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. This made the recall seem like once again, crunchy California liberals have run amok and are caring about minute details. This has launched a slew of takes about a backlash against “woke” politics or “the left” and how it’s a warning for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.