San Francisco’s attempt to make red states acquiesce to their idea of tolerance is the latest – and probably most embarrassing – failure in this regard. The question is: Will these progressives finally learn their lesson?

The City by the Bay back in 2016 began developing a list under its 12X law that would prohibit the city from doing business with companies located in states that have passed or were entertaining legislation they felt was unacceptable. Liberty Nation reported:

The city was determined to bend conservative states to its will, imposing a certain level of morality for those outside the rainbow bubble. Accordingly, elected officials created a list of states that would not be welcome to bid for city-sponsored business. That list included all manner of contracting services and employees of San Francisco city and county are forbidden from doing business with companies from the states on said roster – all thirty of them.

Now, the city’s Board of Supervisors seems poised to make an about-face. Opponents of the policy argue that it has not accomplished its objective of compelling legislators in the targeted states to do away with laws that got them on the list in the first place.

Go figure.

The City Administrator’s Office sent a 16-page memo to the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 10 responding to a request from five of its members to review the policy. The administrator’s office informed the Board that it “was not able to find concrete evidence suggesting 12X has influenced other states’ economies or LGBTQ, reproductive, or voting rights.”

This is a more diplomatic way of saying “this whole thing was a total waste of time and energy and you people are flaming imbeciles for even considering the possibility that such a braindead plan would actually yield any real results.”

But it gets even worse.

The office’s review found that the city’s policy “created additional administrative burden for city staff and vendors and unintended consequences for San Francisco citizens, such as limiting enrichment and developmental opportunities.”

Basically, this sham of a policy did more harm than good – to the residents of San Francisco. Finally, it seems the city’s government is going to shut down the policy – at least most of it. District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, one of the members who asked for the review, drafted the ordinance last November to get rid of the failing policy even though he originally voted to enact it in the first place.

District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey agreed with his colleague, but also expressed support for ending the travel ban, which prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for employees to travel to the offending states.

“There has been a lot of frustration over the years about how cumbersome and expensive and labyrinthine our contracting processes can be. I am convinced if San Franciscans had any idea how much money, how much of their taxpayer dollars we are wasting on processes and the performative things we do with our contracting, they would be furious about it and rightfully so,” the official said.

The memo indicated that the precise cost of 12X “is difficult to quantify,” the analyst pointed to “a loss in competition is likely to increase the city’s contracting costs by 10-20% annually. These costs could continue to increase and compound overtime as the city’s potential contractor pool shrinks if the list of banned states grows.”

This story is quite surprising, right? Who would have ever concluded that a city like San Francisco lacked the power to compel lawmakers in red states to turn into California Gov. Gavin Newsom?

All kidding aside, it must be noted that the fact that San Francisco would even attempt such a move is indicative of the type of thinking that is pervasive on the hard left. It is not enough for them to allow people to live under the type of governance they prefer – they must inflict their backward values on the rest of us whether we like it or not.

The fact that this effort failed does not mean progressives in other areas of the country won’t stop looking for ways to force everyone else to abide by their woke demands. Indeed, they have already been trying to use the federal government to do just that. The Biden administration has seen no problem with using the influence of the state to pressure social media companies into censoring dissenting views on the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines. The president seemingly has no qualms with using the Justice Department to target pro-life activists.

Not all of the left’s attempts to control the rest of us are as laughable as what happened with San Francisco, which means those who value liberty must continue to be vigilant about pushing back against these machinations. The last thing we need is for these nutjobs to catch us slipping, right?