Question

According to Michael Anton, what are San Francisco Values? What value does he claim is missing from David Talbot’s list? If Anton is correct, what does that omission suggest about the city’s understanding of itself and its history?

Answer 1

David Talbot has spoken of the difference between the rich and the poor in his stance related to San-Francisco values. He defines it as “gay marriage, medical marijuana, universal health care, immigrant sanctuary, ‘living’ minimum wage, bicycle-friendly streets, stricter environmental and consumer regulations.” As short summaries go, this is not a bad sampling of the incoherent impulses underlying modern liberalism: hedonism, utopianism, suicidal altruism, triviality, overblown responses to sensible concerns. What his formulation leaves out intentionally is one crucial element because it seems not merely to stand in direct contradiction to the others. Contemporary liberalism exists to redistribute wealth, which in turn has, historically, sought to fend off, mock, and discredit liberalism in very many ways. The central purpose of San Francisco Values is, then, to justify, obfuscate, glamorize, exalt, and deflect attention from House of Bourbon levels of wealth concentration and inequality. It all started with Republicans using this term in NorthCal House Race (1996). Newt Gingrich and Bill O’Reilly popularized the term in their own way. This was shorthand for identification of all the above marginalised groups being talked about and considering liberalism from a different light while taking into account all the aspects of the larger society. The proponents cited the welfare of all and broader perspective of social justice, equality and prosperity. SF later passed the health related and wage laws in the 90s. Post this, in the year 2014, SF was declared as the liberal city in the United States. In this sense his ideas had missed upon the views that Talbot had emphasized on. He extended them to hedonism, utopian views, etc.The history of US therefore consists of large amount of revolutions and movements brought about in order to propagate more liberal and universally applicable ideas. Contemporary thinkers'view points were given equal attention and consideration and only after extensive work were protcols, laws and policies generated to account to the welfare of all.