Byline: Arnold Hamilton
SAN FRANCISCO _ Just around the corner from Castro Street's rainbow banners, bars and shops, Keith Schroeder doesn't hesitate to assess President Bush's reign.
'I think George W. Bush is a war criminal,' the 56-year-old photo shop owner said, 'and belongs on trial.'
Three blocks away, amid the towering trees and steep grass-covered hills of Mission Dolores Park, Herbert Anthony Jackson III wears only a shiny, black thong as he soaks up the brilliant noonday sun and offers his take on American politics, 2004.
'What is the (nation's) direction?' the self-styled socialist asked rhetorically, between puffs on a hand-rolled, uh, cigarette. 'There is no direction. We've forced ourselves into a never-ending guerrilla warfare.'
Radical viewpoints? Not in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's 8th Congressional District, a Democratic stronghold that many campaign experts regard as the bluest of the 'blue' areas in America.
As a new book making the rounds here puts it: 'Conservatives are from Mars (Liberals are from San Francisco).'
'It is very difficult for San Franciscans to understand how people can look at the same set of facts and come away with hopelessly divergent views,' said former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown Jr., a Texas native.
Here, most hold fast to several bedrock political principles that would be an anathema in Republican-dominated 'red' districts like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's, such as a woman's right to choose and a gay or lesbian couple's right to marry.
Even everyday life is night-and-day different: Sport utility vehicles? They're scarce here, not only difficult to park in hilly, urban terrain, but also expensive in a town that often endures the nation's highest gasoline prices.
San Franciscans are among the leading purchasers of gas-efficient hybrid vehicles, reflecting deep environmentalist roots. They frequently walk or usemass transit.
There isn't a house of worship on most corners, either.
'Pelosi almost never talks about religion,' Ben Tulchin, a Democratic consultant and pollster, said of the congresswoman, who is Catholic. 'Almost no candidate in the Bay Area does.'
Yet, he said, San Francisco trails only Washington, D.C., in the number of nonprofit headquarters: 'It's a different way of expressing one's values.'
Mix one of the nation's most active gay communities, a long history of political activism, especially unionism, and the gentrifying influence of nouveaux riche dot-commers, and San Francisco yields a progressive culture that four years ago gave Democrat Al Gore three-quarters of its vote.
Here, bumper stickers rarely ridicule liberal media or tax-and-spend Democrats. Instead, the slogans include 'The Emperor Has No Brains,' 'Impeach Bush,' and 'Attack Iraq? No.'
Pelosi, who has represented the district since 1987, doesn't conceal her disdain.
'Bush is an incompetent leader,' Pelosi, 64, said recently. 'In fact, he's not a leader. He's a person who has no judgment, no experience and no knowledge of the subjects that he has to decide upon.'
Anne Marie Jordan, a native San Franciscan and registered Democrat, isn't as hard on the president, but she worries the war in Iraq is a 'quagmire' with potentially long-term negative consequences.
'Some of my friends can't wait until he gets kicked out of office,' said Jordan, 60, who lives in the picturesque Marina district near the Presidio and Golden Gate Bridge. 'They think he's stupid.'
Her husband of 34 years, John, calls himself the 'designated Republican' on the block.
While he supports Bush _ and applauds the invasion of Iraq _ he believes 'we seriously misapprehended the situation before we went in there.'
As he sees it, he's probably not the same kind of Republican that permeates DeLay's district.
'I have no problem with abortion,' said the 63-year-old retired newsman. 'I don't think there is such a thing as gay marriage. I'm opposed to the death penalty.'
Schroeder, who operates the photo shop in the predominantly gay Castro area, moved here with his partner of more than 30 years in 1974 because of the city's collective tolerance.
'This is not at all a homogenous city or neighborhood,' he said. 'You're not as apt to be a bigot when you know blacks or gays.
'It's easier to demonize what you don't know. Out here, people see a lot more of the other than what they see in the mirror.'
Anne Marie Jordan, though, said she suspects San Franciscans aren't all that different from the suburban Houston residents.
'I bet I have a lot in common with those people,' said the kitchen and bath designer and writer. 'I value the family _ my mother lives right above us. I don't believe in promiscuity, in premarital sex.'
The problem, she said, is that so many seem 'so dogmatic and rigid. That's where we begin to separate.'
'I'm willing to listen to both sides. I think we need to find harmony.'
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