Gavin Newsom is the Ultimate"Pick-Me Politician"
Who knew all it took to become the 2028 Democratic presidential frontrunner--good god, we are going to have 3 LONG YEARS of campaigning--was to aggressively troll Donald Trump on social media?
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a run-of-the-mill Democrat, who is neither too far to the right, and certainly not too far to the left, has never inspired the kind of enthusiastic fervor that has left me as a Californian thinking, "Thank goodness for Gavin."
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For one, Newsom and his fellow Democrats are the reason West Coasters do not have a state-wide single payer health care system, in spite of their party enjoying a legislative supermajority for years.
For another, Newsom has tackled the crisis of homelessness by leaning into law enforcement and criminalizing the poor--a Republican-lite solution that mimics Donald Trump's federal approach to attacking the unhoused rather than tackling housing inequity.
And, he has piled on to the Republican bullying of transgender children and people of color by repeatedly echoing dangerous rightwing talking points and flirting with white supremacists.
It's true, Newsom's mirroring of Texas's blatantly unfair redistricting could help his party preserve its seats in Congress, and is likely good for democracy in the short term. But in the long term, if the best that Democrats can do is to say, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," then our democracy is in deep trouble. Already Republicans in the state of Missouri announced they too would seek to redraw district lines to favor their party. Where does it end?
Gavin Newsom what some have called a "Pick-Me" politician.
Like many centrist Democrats, Newsom has often been more worried about alienating the right than winning over his own base, that he has felt the need to balance out liberal policies with right-wing approaches. Now, he's become the very thing he claims to hate.
Take Newsom's recent interview with Kara Swisher in New York Magazine's Intelligencer where he admits that his decision to troll Trump came out of a strategy to see what'll stick:
“Let’s see what works.” That’s why I went on Fox. That’s why I did the debate with Ron DeSantis. That’s why I was one of the first Democrats to go on Truth Social. That’s why I started a PAC a few years ago and only went to red states and started raising awareness and resources in parts of the country where I feel the Democratic Party walked away.
Remember when Democrats' big sophisticated strategy to beat Trump and the Republicans last summer was to call them "weird"? For a moment voters enjoyed seeing extremists being shamed. But, because Democrats didn't actually offer a grand vision of change, that excitement fizzled into nothing by Election Day.
Newsom added in his New York Magazine interview:
Illusion rules. Facts don’t matter. That’s what Fox understands. That’s what Trump understands. He floods the zone, and we’re constantly on our heels and not on our front toes. And so, what we’re trying to do is, yes, fight fire with fire with the redistricting substance and in terms of our communication style.
His new "communication style"--is that really what he's calling his toxic masculinist peacocking, masquerading as a high-profile pissing contest?--has earned him support from the likes of self-proclaimed white supremacist, antisemitic misogynist Nick Fuentes.
Politicians like Newsom are so desperate for people to pick them that they'll go to great lengths to seem palatable, changing positions to suit the times, rather than doing the actual work of earning votes by consistently upholding the common good. Hillary Clinton was a Pick-Me Democrat. So was Kamala Harris.
Voters see through the pandering and posturing so much that a mere 19% of Democrats saying they would support Newsom for President, catapulted him into first place position in the party.
How low our expectations have dropped.
And for that we have to thank pick-me Democrats for consistently disappointing so many voters, that in spite of a majority of Americans having liberal views on things like healthcare, climate change mitigation, Israel and Palestine, unions, and higher taxes on the rich and corporations, the liberal party consistently either wins federal control of Congress and the White House by razor thin margins, or loses them altogether as the 2024 elections demonstrated. It's also why so many people are leaving the Democratic Party IN DROVES.
The most alienating aspect of Newsom is just how badly he seems to want to be President. While some Americans may truly enjoy witnessing a high-level politician beat Trump at his own game, why not try the more direct method of winning over people for things that matter, such as taking strong stands on the aforementioned list of issues from healthcare to taxing the rich?
Why not consider emulating two politicians who in recent years have enjoyed huge enthusiasm from Democratic voters by doing just that: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who is literally the most popular politician in the nation (the same analysis showed the Democratic Party being the least popular), and the New York City Mayoral candidate Bernie endorsed, Zohran Mamdani, whose policies are popular with most Americans? But that would mean being a true public servant.
I'll end with my favorite appeal: Mainstream corporate media is a large part of the problem of Pick-Me politicians, rewarding their bad behavior. Kara Swisher, who interviewed Gavin Newsom for New York Magazine started her conversation saying:
while a lot of liberals are loving this, you have critics on the left who say the Democratic Party needs to do more than be an anti-Trump party. I disagree. I think this is highly effective...
Ugh, really Kara?
P.S. Please read and share my latest monthly column for OtherWords:
Peter Certo
P.P.S. Happy Labor Day! Here's a little history lesson courtesy of the Zinn Education Project. And yes, sadly I'll be working today. Such is the life of a self-employed indie journalist! But I hope you have the day off.
Deborah Menkart