Gavin Newsom probably won’t be the 2028 Democratic presidential nominee. He’s the current governor of California, and the larger nation thinks the state is mess and the liberals in charge can’t govern themselves out of paper bag.
I tend to think that the Democratic nominee will probably be more right leaning on key issues than Newsom. This is the trend when Democrats experience what is commonly known as an ass whooping. Bill Clinton followed Mike Dukakis. He was overtly pro-death penalty and supported welfare reform. Yes, Barack Obama opposed the Iraq War but by that point, it wasn’t necessarily an exclusively liberal position. Obama also presented as less “stuffed-shirt limousine liberal” than John Kerry.
I get that many liberals don’t like Newsom — his position on trans rights is terrible and he conveys a certain Hollywood slickness that’s more than a little off-putting. He’s like studio executive Griffin Mill from The Player. (Watch below, especially if you have no idea what I’m talking about.)
However, Newsom has an antagonistic style that is appealing right now. It feels more confrontational and authentic than whatever Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are doing. For instance, note Newsom’s response to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s continued refusal to swear in Adelita Grijalva, who was duly elected to a House seat in Arizona weeks ago. It’s a simple, blunt “cowards,” which is both true and obvious. (She’s the critical 218th vote to release the Epstein files.) There’s no need for a Ted Talk about GOP hypocrisy, constitutional principles, or taxation without representation. Mike Johnson and the GOP are a bunch of cowards.
Johnson and other Republican leaders labeled the successful “No Kings” rally a “Hate America rally.” Johnson said last week, “You’re gonna bring together the Marxists, the socialists, the antifa advocates, the anarchists, and the pro-Hamas wing of the far left Democrat Party. That is the modern Democratic Party.”
This is a far more contemptuous dismissal of half the country than any (correct) statement Hillary Clinton made about Donald Trump’s “deplorable” supporters. It demands another blunt response — one perhaps involving a four-letter word whose Anglo-Saxon roots would guarantee a warm welcome from this administration. Instead, Hakeem Jeffries rambled on fecklessly:
“The notion that the No Kings rallies are anything but a patriotic act consistent with the First Amendment right to express yourself and petition the government for change in policy continues to reveal that Republicans are clueless as it relates to the Constitution, or they continue to lie for political reasons.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The Democrat Party’s main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.” (This is literally the sort of inflammatory, dehumanizing rhetoric Republicans claim directly inspires political violence.)
Yet Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s response was peak Fred Rogers.
Most Republicans are good people. Most Democrats are good people. The White House says outrageous things to make you hate your neighbor. Your neighbor isn’t the problem. The White House is.
I really miss when Walz would rightly call Republicans “weird.” I understand that Democrats can’t actively denounce Republicans — not just because of the so-called Murc’s Law but due to basic numbers. Democrats need to flip more than a few Trump 2024 voters if they hope to win back the House (if that’s still mathematically possible once the Supreme Court kills the Voting Rights Act). However, when Republicans are collectively smearing Democrats as straight-up terrorists and the deranged sitting president is posting videos where he takes a poop on Americans, it’s time to take the gloves off.
Maybe we can generously argue that most Republican “voters” are decent people, even if they voted for outright indecency in exchange for cheaper eggs. (Jack traded his family’s only cow for a handful of beans, but at least they were magic, and the cow wasn’t liberal democracy.) However, it’s fair to say that Republicans who hold elected office, especially in Congress, are not good people. At their best, they want to deny millions health care, like the good old days of the 1990s, and at their worst, they’re OK with Trump sending troops into Democratic-run cities. The White House isn’t the sole problem. Trump’s evil is only maintained through active support of a MAGA Congress and Supreme Court. That’s the message Democrats should hammer consistently — especially considering that Trump isn’t on the ballot next year. It’s mainstream Republicans. Walz should save the high-minded pastor rhetoric for Sunday school.
While dressing down the sad sack salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin’s character shouts in frustration, “Get mad, you son of a bitches, get mad!” This should replace “when they go low, we go high” as the new Democratic Party mantra.
Fortunately, Jeffries demonstrated some normal human fire when responding to Leavitt’s Riefenstahl rant: “You’ve got Leavitt, who’s sick, she’s out of control,” he said. “I’m not sure if she’s just demented, ignorant, a stone cold liar, or all of the above.” (Watch below.)
Alas, Jeffries started off well there, but he meandered off into his usual vagueness. He’s not “sure” if she’s “demented, ignorant, a stone cold liar, or all of the above.” He doesn’t need to wait for the results from a personality test. He can just say that she’s clearly a demented, ignorant liar.
Then he made his appeal to the norms that Republicans easily shattered because they don’t matter that much to average voters.
“But the notion that an official White House spokesperson would say that the Democratic Party consists of ‘terrorists, violent criminals & undocumented immigrants,’” Jeffries said, as if Leavitt has failed to live up to the noble example of Jen Psaki and C.J. Cregg, one of whom is fictional. “This makes no sense that this what the American people are getting from the Trump administration in the middle of a shutdown.” It actually makes perfect sense, because the Trump administration is a fascist criminal organization. This is what it does.
Once again, let’s compare this to Newsom’s more direct and straightforward response:
Spreading hatred is the only thing the Trump Administration seems to be able to accomplish.
The government is SHUT DOWN.
Millions of Americans are about to lose their healthcare. Our troops are not going to be paid. And they are busy trashing Dems on TV. It’s pathetic and un-American.
I don’t presume that Newsom is naturally a better communicator, but he does employ a more effective communications team, which outclasses current Democratic leadership on both social media. He is also better in off-the-cuff remarks. He doesn’t hide his contempt for Trump and the GOP. He presents as someone willing to fight the Republican Party that actually exists not the one from old West Wing episodes.
This is not an endorsement of Newsom. I think Democrats can do better but that requires more Democrats taking his lead. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzer is even tougher against Trump. However, we need congressional leaders who talk like they do if we have any hope of winning next year.
ENOUGH IS FUCKING ENOUGH.
This is where I think Democrats are going through their 2016 moment. In 2016, Republican voters worked themselves into a lather over Obama, who they thought sneered at them and ran roughshod over their GOP reps—whether this is accurate ant the point, they believed it. So when their candidates for 2016 were pushing themselves as “super conservative” on various issues, or very experienced at governing or legislating, the voters rejected them in favor of the guy who bluntly told them their enemies were scum and he’d fuck them up. Complaints from his opponents that Trump wasn’t conservative on key issues or even fit to govern fell on deaf ears—here was a guy who was pure id impulse and spoke to their rage. No one else seemed to capture that, certainly not as well.
Democrats I think are ready for someone who recognizes that Republicans are scum, and hits them above, below and through the belt. They won’t care even if the person isn’t that liberal (“oh but it matters to me if they favor single payer healthcare”, you say—but a growing plurality of Dem voters figure policy positions won’t matter if our side doesn’t win, and any Dem in office will at least be game for negotiation on liberal policies), or particularly experienced (Obama had barely any experience in 2008). A smart candidate will follow Newsom’s lead here, and push rage, humor and fight in social media, public appearances, and interviews. Everyone else would come across as Jeb Bush.