I left my home state of California decades ago, but I’ve retained a keen interest in the state’s politics. I didn’t change my voter registration until I could vote for Gore Vidal in the Democratic Senate primary in 1982. I’ve seen California move from purple to blue in national politics. One thing that has remained constant is the inconstancy of Gavin Newsome. And that is why California Governor Gavin Newsome is malaka of the week.
I dislike going after fellow Democrats BUT Newsome’s new podcast, This Is Gavin Newsome, makes him an easy target. Life is too hard right now to NOT pick low hanging fruit and devour it.
Newsome has had some hardcore MAGA maggots on his pod. Charlie Kirk is the guy in the featured image. Newsome actually asked Kirk what he thought Democrats should do. What do I think? DO NOT ask Charlie Kirk for advice. It’s like Lyndon Johnson asking Strom Thurmond for campaign advice in 1964. In a word: Ludicrous.
Another guest was Steve Bannon who zoomed in from his fortress of malakatude:
Bannon may be one of the founders of the MAGA movement but he’s not a fan of the Trump-Musk wilding. That’s the only good thing I have to say about Gauleiter Bannon.
Cue a Billy Bragg/Wilco/Woody Guthrie song:
I dig that cover. Kitty resembles the late great Oscar.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
What Newsome is up to is mystifying to many. The title of a New Yorker piece sums up the confusion: What Gavin Newsom’s Embarrassing Podcast Suggests About the Democratic Party. The tagline is more pertinent: “There’s a new strategy of disavowal emerging among some progressive politicians—and it is destined to fail.”
I agree with the tagline. Strenuous opposition to the MAGA agenda is the way forward.
As to the article’s headline: This Is Gavin Newsome suggests very little about the Democratic party and a great deal about the thirsty podcaster.
Gavin Newsome is a hack in search of a winning issue. That’s the story of his entire political career. He’s not a conviction politician, he just played one on television.
Newsome is a slick and polished hack but he’s a hack, nonetheless. He’s a lame duck Governor who wants to be president so badly that he’s pandering to people who will never vote for any Democrat. Kirk and Bannon are beloved by the MAGA faithful but relatively unknown to that weird group of Obama-Trump-Biden-Trump voters. Those are the Trump voters who can be converted. The Kirk and Bannon fans are lost souls condemned to political purgatory.
Repeat after me: Gavin Newsome is a hack who specializes in California scheming. And that is why California Governor Gavin Newsome is malaka of the week.
The last word goes to Dwight Yoakam:
My mental image is Newsome hearing the din of Republicans whining that Democrats never reach across the aisle, and they’re so snooty and high-falutin’ that they won’t even listen to the terrible ideas Republicans want to carry out. Thinking this is the ticket to a “bipartisan” run for the presidency, Newsome does just what Republicans say they want Democrats to do, and so he talks to these mean-spirited cruel people whose only fleeting joy in life is kicking down.
Come 2026, Newsome shows off his shiny “both sides” credentials and finds out that the Republicans were lying about that bipartisanship crap all the time, and he no longer has any credibility with Democrats, either. His boss move has made him look like a weak-kneed wimp, and so he is.
We all know what comes in Act 3, which is Newsome noisily leaving the Democrat [sic] party to join the Republicans because the party has already left him.