The San Francisco Recall Earthquake (w/ Matt Bai)
Skullduggery
Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman, Victoria Bassetti
4 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2022
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
While the Biden White House waits nervously to see if Russia invades Ukraine, perhaps in the next few days, the biggest political story this week that took place was as local as it gets. In San Francisco, where voters, by an overwhelming margin, recalled three school board members. Why? Incompetence and frustration to be sure over the board's decision to keep public schools shut down all last year over Covid even as schools elsewhere were opening. But perhaps even more the recall vote was a rejection of the board members progressive woke agenda. In the name of racial justice the board was looking to rename schools. Even those named after Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. It had ended merit based admission to one of the city's elite high schools because it lead to too many Asian-American students and not enough African-American and Hispanics getting in. That vote has been seen as a wake up call for Democrats when the eyes of some have too often embraced the progressive agenda that has alienated voters across the political spectrum. Washington Post columnist Matt Bai joins us to talk on why the woke agenda has alienated him and what the radical drift of both political parties could mean for the country's future.
GUEST:
- Matt Bai (@mattbai), Contributing columnist focusing on politics at @washingtonpost
HOSTS:
- Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
- Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
- Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)
RESOURCES:
- Matt Bai's latest piece for @washingtonpost discussed on pod - Here.
- Yahoo News' Alex Nazaryan's piece on the San Francisco School Board situation - Here.
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| 0:00.0 | Big story this morning, San Francisco residents recalled three members of the school board. |
| 0:06.4 | Yeah, after parents criticized them for, in their minds, putting progressive politics over |
| 0:11.5 | the needs of their children. |
| 0:13.9 | While the Biden White House waits nervously to see if Russia invades Ukraine, perhaps |
| 0:18.1 | in the next few days, the biggest political story this week that took place was as local |
| 0:22.8 | as it gets in San Francisco, where voters by an overwhelming margin recalled three school |
| 0:28.5 | board members. |
| 0:29.8 | Why? |
| 0:30.8 | In competence and frustration to be sure over the board's decision to keep public schools |
| 0:34.5 | shut down all last year over COVID, even as schools elsewhere were opening. |
| 0:39.7 | But perhaps even more, the recall vote was a rejection of the board member's progressive |
| 0:43.8 | vote, agenda. |
| 0:45.1 | In the name of racial justice, the board was moving to rename schools, even those named |
| 0:49.1 | after Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. |
| 0:51.1 | It had ended merit-based admission to one of the city's elite high schools, because it |
| 0:55.8 | led to too many Asian American students and not enough African Americans and Hispanics |
| 1:00.8 | getting in. |
| 1:02.2 | That vote has been seen as a wake-up call for Democrats, and the eyes of some have too |
| 1:06.0 | often embraced the progressive agenda that has alienated voters across the political spectrum. |
| 1:11.7 | We'll talk to Washington Post-Column this matt-bye on why the woke agenda has alienated him, |
| 1:17.2 | and what the radical drift of both political parties could mean for the country's future |
| 1:22.0 | on this episode of Skull Duggery. |
... |
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