Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Sen. Feinstein, Justice Breyer Hold California Hostage by Not Retiring
Joe-Mathews
By Joe Mathews
Published 3 years ago on
September 2, 2021

Share

San Francisco stubbornness is holding the republic hostage.

The hostage takers — U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer — are past retirement age, but refuse to quit their jobs now, when they could be replaced by allies. Their stubborn insistence on retaining power could elevate right-wing political forces hostile to California and democracy itself.

If Gov. Gavin Newsom is recalled and the 88-year-old Feinstein dies or retires during a Larry Elder governorship, Feinstein would be replaced by a Republican, flipping the U.S. Senate back to the California-hating GOP.  The 83-year-old Breyer, by not retiring while a Democratic Senate could confirm a like-minded replacement, risks having his seat go to another right-wing justice.

Feinstein and Breyer Share Old Age and Hometown of SF

portrait of columnist Joe Mathews

Joe Mathews

Opinion

Why do Feinstein and Breyer cling to power, despite the risks? Conventional wisdom chalks their stubbornness up to age. But the real source of their political pig-headedness is their shared hometown, San Francisco.

Is there any human settlement more stubborn than San Francisco? Even in California, where going your own way is the leading religion, San Francisco proudly defies conformity and good sense with politics and ideas that leave us scratching our heads. “Forty-nine square miles, surrounded by reality,” is how native son Paul Kantner, of Jefferson Airplane, fondly described his hometown.

Of course, San Francisco owes its existence to stubbornness—rebuilding itself after the 1906 earthquake. While other Californians are routinely warmed by the sun, San Franciscans, isolated on a cold peninsula, must rely on their inner fire. And you need stubborn resourcefulness to afford San Francisco rent these days.

So, how can we expect Feinstein or Breyer to know when to quit when they are from a place where just getting around town means there’s always another hill—Telegraph, Nob, Russian—to climb?

‘San Francisco Stubbornness’

The senator and the justice come by their San Francisco stubbornness honestly. Feinstein was hardened first by demanding nuns at Convent of the Sacred Heart High School—and then, as supervisor and mayor, by the city’s brutal politics. Breyer learned politics through his father—the board of education’s legal counsel—and as a debater at Lowell High. Both Feinstein and Breyer stayed close—Stanford—for college.

Feinstein and Breyer also embody the local combination of privilege and self-righteousness that can make their hometown so infuriating. They also portray themselves as independent-minded figures, even though such independence is stubbornly out of step with the times. Such an outdate outlooks is itself very San Francisco.

“People don’t grow up, they grow old,” the late, great San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen wrote. “One fateful way to counteract that is to live in the past, the occupational hazard of San Franciscans.”

Several Key Politicians Nurtured by San Francisco

Caen’s old warning points to a current irony: defiance of reality has never been more popular across the United States. So, is it any wonder—in our polarized and angry age—that the rest of the country has come to prize the brand of stubbornness nurtured by San Francisco? Americans elevated the most stubborn California politician of the younger generation, former San Francisco DA Kamala Harris, to the vice presidency, backing up a 78-year-old president. Proudly obstinate San Franciscan Nancy Pelosi, 81, is considered an indispensable House Speaker.

In the past decade, Californians, improbably, reinstalled that stubborn old coot Jerry Brown in the governorship, and they made former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, running on a platform of resistance to national political norms, Brown’s successor. Newsom is now trying to defeat a recall with a stubborn strategy of denying voters a Democratic alternative to his rule.

A San Franciscan, State Senator Scott Wiener, has become prominent statewide by stubbornly pursuing housing construction that the rest of California loathes. At age 87, Willie Brown, still behaves as if he is his city’s mayor—17 years after he left office.

Recall is a Manifestion of Californians Frustrations with SF Politicians

The attempt to recall Newsom is mostly grounded in misinformation and right-wing fantasy, but it does respond to a very real California frustration with the San Francisco political machine and its stubborn self-regard, even as the state is consumed by multiple crises.

I recently called my favorite San Francisco pol, Quentin Kopp, an ex-judge and legislator who even San Franciscans consider too stubborn. Kopp, 93, still swims and goes to his law office every day. He isn’t retiring (we also discussed his longtime devotion to high-speed rail), and says that demands that Breyer and Feinstein quit because of age are “insulting and regressive.”

So, if you’re waiting for stubborn San Franciscans to step down, don’t hold your breath.

About the Author

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Fashion Fair’s Forever 21 to Close. ‘Still a Ways to Go,’ Says Employee

DON'T MISS

Who Runs Elon Musk’s DOGE? Not Musk, the White House Says.

DON'T MISS

New Self-Pollinating Almond Tree Could Be Huge for a Big Fresno Cash Crop

DON'T MISS

Madera County Secures First Fentanyl-Related Homicide Conviction

DON'T MISS

Musk Team Seeks Access to IRS System With Taxpayers’ Records

DON'T MISS

Bannon Calls Musk a ‘Parasitic Illegal Immigrant’

DON'T MISS

Fresno Weather Forecast: Pretty as a Postcard

DON'T MISS

Kennedy Says ‘Nothing’ Off-Limits in Scrutinizing Chronic Disease

DON'T MISS

Judge Declines to Immediately Block Elon Musk or DOGE From Federal Data or Layoffs

DON'T MISS

NBA Playoff Race Heats Up as All-Star Break Ends

UP NEXT

California’s Aging Population Will Test Whether Its Demography Is Destiny

UP NEXT

CA Schools Still Fall Behind Despite Big Increases in Spending

UP NEXT

Editorials of The Times: Now Is Not the Time to Tune Out

UP NEXT

Look Past Elon Musk’s Chaos. There’s Something More Sinister at Work.

UP NEXT

The Deadly Truth: Record Number of Journalists Killed in 2024

UP NEXT

Will ‘Too Many Cooks’ Complicate LA’s Recovery From Deadly Fires?

UP NEXT

I Miss the Old Kanye, Not This Antisemitic Crashout

UP NEXT

This Isn’t the Donald Trump America Elected

UP NEXT

Trump Targets Troubled CA Bullet Train Project. Will He Kill It, Too?

UP NEXT

CA School Test Scores Trail Those of States Newsom Considers Culturally Backward

Madera County Secures First Fentanyl-Related Homicide Conviction

14 hours ago

Musk Team Seeks Access to IRS System With Taxpayers’ Records

14 hours ago

Bannon Calls Musk a ‘Parasitic Illegal Immigrant’

14 hours ago

Fresno Weather Forecast: Pretty as a Postcard

14 hours ago

Kennedy Says ‘Nothing’ Off-Limits in Scrutinizing Chronic Disease

14 hours ago

Judge Declines to Immediately Block Elon Musk or DOGE From Federal Data or Layoffs

15 hours ago

NBA Playoff Race Heats Up as All-Star Break Ends

15 hours ago

NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon Talks ‘Days of Thunder’ Sequel With Tom Cruise

15 hours ago

Adames Joins Giants, Excited to Team Up With Gold Glover Chapman

15 hours ago

Leonard Peltier Released After Biden Commuted Sentence in FBI Agents’ Killings

16 hours ago

Fashion Fair’s Forever 21 to Close. ‘Still a Ways to Go,’ Says Employee

Signs hung throughout fast-fashion clothing store Forever 21 show discounts ranging from 10% to 40% off the “entire store.” And,...

11 hours ago

11 hours ago

Fashion Fair’s Forever 21 to Close. ‘Still a Ways to Go,’ Says Employee

13 hours ago

Who Runs Elon Musk’s DOGE? Not Musk, the White House Says.

13 hours ago

New Self-Pollinating Almond Tree Could Be Huge for a Big Fresno Cash Crop

Fentanyl M30 Pills
14 hours ago

Madera County Secures First Fentanyl-Related Homicide Conviction

14 hours ago

Musk Team Seeks Access to IRS System With Taxpayers’ Records

FILE — Steve Bannon speaks to reporters outside State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Feb. 11, 2025. Stephen Bannon, a top adviser during President Trump’s first term and a key figure among his supporters, said Elon Musk wants to “play-act as God” as part of his push to overhaul the federal government. (Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times)
14 hours ago

Bannon Calls Musk a ‘Parasitic Illegal Immigrant’

14 hours ago

Fresno Weather Forecast: Pretty as a Postcard

14 hours ago

Kennedy Says ‘Nothing’ Off-Limits in Scrutinizing Chronic Disease

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend