I’m going to start with this because I don’t want to mislead people with where I’m headed with this one: I am not a particularly big Gavin Newsom fan.
I know, you’re shocked.
We will get into why momentarily, but I wanted to get that out in front before I start singing praises.
That being said, Gavin Newsom’s approach to handling Trump has piqued my interest, to say the very least.
Moreover, it’s catching the eye of Democrats all over the country.
To a certain extent, I feel like for the first time, maybe ever, but at least since 2016, Liberal voters feel the same kind of excitement that Trump voters felt voting for the guy that would cut their bosses’ taxes.
A guy that (verbally) whacks the bully in the mouth. Lets him know his tactics are not only bad for voters, but are outright antagonistic towards large swaths of the public.
Newsom mocks Trump’s way of tweeting and talking in a way that is so spot on that Conservative media companies are making a fool out of themselves trying to attack him for doing it.
As someone who has the mouth of a sailor myself, I’m kind of glad that Conservatives have lost the ability to pearl clutch over naughty language, and fully intend to use that to my advantage for the rest of my career.
Watching Republican talking heads try to feign outrage after what we’ve heard over the last 10 years has been hilarious to watch.
It’s almost the same thing as expressing your support for a cop that got hit with a sandwich, while pardoning 100s of people who physically put cops in harm’s way.
It would require that much of a lack of self-awareness.
I’ve enjoyed all of it. I hate myself for enjoying all of it, but I do.
I’m a 1st generation online gamer. We INVENTED trolling. Most of us grew up to develop skills and our sense of humor has matured, but it’s in us. What I’m saying is all of you reading this are Batman, and I’m Bane.
You guy’s inherited the darkness, but I was born in it.
I say all of that to say, the world of norms and strongly worded letters needs to trend in the same direction as the dodo. This is the first step toward reclaiming the narrative.
The FIRST step…
Where I get nervous, is that I’m not sure there’s much in the way of a step 2-infinity.
Democrats want fighters. Then NEED fighters. Not just fighters that push back against the over-the-top identity politics adopted by the right, but someone fighting to approve material conditions.
That’s why I believe Newsom is providing the template for how to fight fire with fire, but we need to see a commitment to policy to round out the approach, and I’m just not sure that he has it in him.
We’ve all watched the authoritative moves in Washington D. C. the last couple of weeks, and if you’re a reader of this publication, it’s safe to assume that you’ve been watching on in horror.
We’ve watched as the Trump administration is moving closer to making the act of being homeless illegal and most liberal minded people are pissed about it.
Newsom, in true moderate Dem fashion, is not moving to outlaw homelessness, he’s just trying to pass city ordinances to ban public camping. This wouldn’t be the end of the world if the state had fleshed out alternatives, but they don’t.
We’ve watched as Donald Trump and the Republican Party has moved to reduce access to Medicare and Medicaid in the name of letting 7 or 8 people have all the money.
Newsom, in true moderate Dem fashion, is not moving to eliminate social programs, and he’s never outright vetoed a Medicare for all bill, but instead he is backing gradual reforms that could evolve into a single-payer system.
It’s not the end of the world, but in a state like California, that state could be the incubator for the American population to finally catch up to every other industrialized nation on the planet. We, instead, get the milquetoast approach.
I’m sure you all see the point I’m making here.
There are parts of what Governor Newsom is doing that Dems should absolutely aspire to emulate to get people back on board with the message. Then there are other parts that Dems should ABSOLUTELY ignore and try to remove from the party entirely.
The question I ask you is: Do you think they’ll latch on the right parts?
There’s time, and midterms will be a great barometer, but as it stands right now, I’m not holding my breath.
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