It’s hard to escape the conclusion that a lot of San Franciscans have climbed off the woke bandwagon—or were never wholeheartedly on it. Again, voters’ evident rejection of the board’s incessant braying about racism, white privilege, and the rest is inextricably entangled with their anger over the fact that schools remained closed for so long. But school closures nationwide are associated with Democrats, so that’s hardly cause for progressive relief.

The recall should nudge the city’s leaders to question the depth of liberals’ commitment to the post–George Floyd ethos, especially when more is at stake than symbolic gestures of rectitude, and to recalibrate. Instead, they are minimizing the significance of the election result, or accusing recall supporters of being right-wing bigots.

The teachers’ union has pointed an accusatory finger at the “billionaires and wealthy venture capitalists” who poured $2 million into the pro-recall campaign, but 78 percent of voters cannot be conjured up by mailers and media buys. San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton claimed that the recall was driven by “closet Republicans and most certainly folks with conservative values in San Francisco, even if they weren’t registered Republicans,” telling the San Francisco Chronicle that “Trump’s election and bold prejudice brought a lot of that out, even in our Democratic and liberal city. There are a lot of people who do not want people of color making decisions in leadership.” Never mind that a lot of the people who supposedly did not want people of color making decisions in leadership were people of color, that the city’s mayor is a person of color, and that wanting schools open and supporting merit-based admissions are not evidence of conservative values, let alone being a “closet Republican.”