The Politics of Revenge: Revanchist Populism in San Francisco and the United States

Abstract

This article offers a conjunctural analysis of revanchism in San Francisco across scale. Over the past decade, conservative politicians, media, oligarchs, and organisations have emphasised immigration, homelessness, bureaucratic inefficiency, the opioid epidemic, diversity initiatives, and criminal justice reform to frame San Francisco as a weak and lawless city. This coalition's vengeful rhetoric and retaliatory action seek to create a new “common sense” about spatial governance, justifying a more authoritarian approach to both city and nation. Different scales are entwined as the discourse of urban decline is used as a national appeal, while nationalist rhetoric serves to promote urban reform. We argue this articulation of actors, forces, and ideas across scale represents an emergent historical bloc of revanchist populism. Moreover, our case study furthers the theory of urban revanchism by revealing the discursive deployment of the “failed” city in a broader hegemonic struggle.