Leftists Removing Sen. Feinstein's Name from School for What She Did with Confederate Flag in 1984
Cancel culture can come after anyone, even the left’s formerly beloved heroes.
The city of San Francisco will rebrand a school currently named for Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California because she replaced a vandalized public Confederate flag in the city more than 35 years ago during her time as mayor.
Forbes reported that the city intends to rename as many as 44 schools in an attempt to purge any link between racism and slavery to the Bay City. Due to the inconvenient history of some of America’s founding figures, their names will disappear from school buildings in the city.
Abraham Lincoln is persona non grata for ordering the execution of 35 Native Americans after the Sioux Uprising of 1862, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Theodore Roosevelt is cited for his opposition to civil rights. George Washington is scorned because he owned slaves.
Lincoln, Roosevelt, Washington — Feinstein?
Has the left’s revered feminist, pro-abortion icon really joined the likes of Lincoln and the other “oppressors”?
No, Feinstein wouldn’t have been qualified to hold Lincoln’s jacket had he removed it while viewing the devastation following the Battle of Antietam. But she apparently fit the same criteria for cancelation as Lincoln to the San Francisco School Names Advisory Committee.
“The criteria for renaming included ‘anyone directly involved in the colonization of people,’ ‘slave owners or participants in enslavement,’ ‘perpetuators of genocide,’ ‘those who exploit workers/people,’ ‘those who directly oppressed or abused women, children, queer or transgender people,’ ‘those connected to any human rights or environmental abuses,’ ‘those who are known racists and/or white supremacists and/or espoused racist beliefs,” will no longer be honored in the city with schools, Forbes reported.
So how does the 87-year-old Feinstein, the liberal icon from San Francisco, fit any of these criteria?
In 1984, just before she publicly divulged law enforcement secrets about wacko serial killer Richard Ramirez, who was on the lam at the time, she had a Confederate flag replaced after it was destroyed by vandals.
The Associated Press reported: “The committee that selected the names included Feinstein on the list because as mayor in 1984 she replaced a vandalized Confederate flag that was part of a long-standing flag display in front of City Hall. When the flag was pulled down a second time, she did not replace it.”
So, as mayor in 1984, Feinstein, in her official capacity, ordered that something that was destroyed be replaced. The AP did note that she did not have the replacement flag restored after it was taken down.
Not to defend Feinstein, but the country looked much different during that time. In 1984, the penultimate season of “The Dukes of Hazzard” was airing on CBS with the iconic General Lee Dodge Charger helping to drive ratings, “The Terminator” was showing in theaters and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the year at 1,211 points.
It was a time when the country still had its wits and people as a whole weren’t so offended by historical imagery. Lincoln was a hero; Steve Perry, untethered by Journey, was just beginning to sing about Sherrie on the radio; and the Confederate battle flag represented unity for some and heritage for others.
Feinstein was running a city that was dealing with being the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic. She replaced public property that was damaged and then apparently cut the city’s losses and opted to leave the flag down.
But cancel culture is retroactive, and Feinstein angered leftists during the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett last fall when she embraced GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Never mind that she has spent decades fighting for leftist causes such as gun control, abortion and illegal immigration.
She did her duty as mayor 34-plus years ago by replacing a flag — not knowing that the politics she espoused would one day snowball into a fascist culture where people can become un-personed years after their actions can be gawked at, at out of context, by mouth-breathing Marxists.
There are plenty of reasons not to name a school after Dianne Feinstein. Her reported order to restore city property in 1984 is not among them.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
