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Bombs, Brains, and the Bay Area

OHC

deep green blue collar rainbow
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Little Beirut
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A small and ghoulish POD here. In December 1976, Dianne Feinstein - then a San Francisco supervisor - was targeted by a bomb hidden in the flower planters outside her apartment. It misfired and was found later by a maid. The New World Liberation Front claimed responsibility in a communique demanding better conditions at local jails. What if it had gone off as planned and she'd been killed?

First of all, there would probably be a bigger manhunt for the NWLF; as is, it's one of the murkiest and most obscure of the New Left militant cells. Despite setting off more bombs than any other group of the era (almost all in Northern California and focusing not on big causes like US imperialism but specific local issues like prison conditions and high utility prices) it's still unclear whether it was a real underground group or just a label used by different groups of bombers - or both. One of the few people ever linked to NWLF bombings was a mentally disturbed cannabis farmer named Ronald Huffman, who was arrested in 1979 on unrelated charges of murdering his girlfriend with an axe and cutting out her brain. (The further you get from the sixties, the more the political stuff just blends into the true-crime stuff.) So morbid historians like myself would have more to go on.

Alright, but what are the real consequences? There's a decent chance a supervisor's assassination would result in no Milk/Moscone killings, either through increased security or sheer butterflies. Feinstein was a member of the conservative bloc on the board; were she replaced by a liberal, Moscone and his allies would have a majority, meaning more social liberalism and less commercial development. Enough less development to make the Bay's dystopian housing crisis even worse by 2018 ITTL? Maybe, although due to geography it's probably inevitable that the area would have terrible rent problems without some very smart urban planning or no tech industry. On the other hand, Moscone and Milk wanted to build more social services, care facilities, etc. so if those are in place by the 00s and 10s there could be a stronger safety net for those plowed out of the way by Silicon Valley.

As mayor, Feinstein vetoed America's first domestic partnership ordinance; that likely would become law ITTL. (So yes, San Francisco could be even gayer.)

It might be a little too far out from the POD to easily guess who would take her place in the gubernatorial and Senate races down the line - or who would take her place as champion of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.
 
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I know barely anything about Cali politics but Matt Gonzalez is one of my favorite AH Bay area progressive figure. To actually add unto the scenario, isn't Bay area Democratic machine controlled by a few families; Pelosi, Brown (Willie, not Jerry), and Feinstein? I highly doubt the early demise of Feinstein would have a massive impact, but Gavin Newsom, I think, got into politics working under Willie Brown. Say, the San Francisco Democratic machine weakens a tiny bit, and Gavin Newsom loses 2003 mayoral election, that'd be really interesting.


Biafra '79!

Edit: Come to think of it, it'd be interesting to imagine Californian Greens becoming more viable opposition. There seems to have been real momentum behind them in the early noughties but nothing really came out of it. I don't think it'll go full-British Columbia, but Democrats facing a real left-wing challenge in the bay area and more liberal cities like Santa Barbara would be an interesting TL.
 
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Is this from Days of Rage? I have the book and I keep meaning to read it.

If this is December ‘76, Milk hasn’t been elected yet, although I think it’s practically a certainty that he’ll win eventually - he had the ambition for it by then, after all. Dan White probably wins by a bit more (ew) on a ‘law and order’ platform, and, frankly, White and his style of politics might well be the benefactor of all this.
 
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Is this from Days of Rage? I have the book and I keep meaning to read it.

If this is December ‘76, Milk hasn’t been elected yet, although I thibk it’s practically a certainty that he’ll win eventually - he had the ambition for it by then, after all. Dan White probably wins by a bit more (ew) on a ‘law and order’ platform, and, frankly, White and his style of politics might well be the benefactor of all this.

It is! A good read even if you're not as fascinated by fringe movements and by the 70s as I am.

Yeah I kind of handwaved Milk being elected as I assumed Feinstein's death wouldn't drastically change the dynamic in his district. You're right about White possibly benefiting - and with Feinstein out of the way he'd have a shot at leading the Democratic right...

@aurinoko that might be a way to get your Green strength or Jello Biafra in office but I'm not sure Mayor Dan White would be worth it!
 
San Francisco’s my hometown, but there’s not a whole lot I can contribute to the convo, seeing how @BClick has done a wonderful job discussing the butterflies of the bombing.

The lack of Feinstein’s pro-development policy wouldn’t actually impact the severity (imo) of the housing crisis, just how it gets there. Strict zoning and the litany of Catch-22’s making up local law will still fuck over regular people, but gentrification won’t be as bad.

In smaller effects of the bombing, the 1984 DNC won’t take place in the Bay due to Feinstein lobbying the hell out of Democratic big-wigs. Willie Brown might actually make the jump to state-level politics with Feinstein out of the way, and Jello Biafra would still lose and go back to making music.
 
I wonder if you can have Milk manage to solve the housing crisis another way by just Doing a Vienna and building a lot of noncommercial subsidized housing.
 
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