It is possible to both overstate and understate the recall of Chesa Boudin in San Francisco.

On the one hand, Boudin’s overwhelming removal by indisputably lefty San Franciscans shows the limits of what even the most left-wing constituents are willing to tolerate. On the other hand, Boudin was a uniquely far-left ideologue (he literally worked for Marxist tyrant Hugo Chavez and his campaign stupidly touted support from Marxist clown Angela Davis in the last month) and that probably didn’t help him.

It’s also probably true that Boudin’s being scapegoated for San Francisco’s eternal problems with homelessness, blight and quality of life issues. But those problems have always been there for San Francisco politicians to deal with and Boudin, a San Francisco politician, clearly tripped up somewhere along the way.

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But whatever the final analysis is of the Boudin recall, the criminal justice reform movement is bigger than Boudin or even George Gascón in Los Angeles. The nationwide movement to bring down America’s overreliance on mass incarceration and harsh penalties hasn’t been a left or right issue. Efforts on the left and right (in particular the Right on Crime initiative) have led to meaningful sentencing reform, prison reform and enhanced focus on crime prevention and rehabilitation across the country.

The repudiation of Boudin in San Francisco will obviously send a strong warning to the progressive prosecutor and criminal justice reform movement not to get too ahead of itself. And that’s not a bad thing.

Boudin’s recall will put pressure on reformers to focus on actually building public support for what they’re trying to do and maybe think a little harder about the risks and benefits of particular efforts. In the long-run, the project of amending America’s status as the world leader in incarceration is a just and necessary one.

Sal Rodriguez can be reached at [email protected]