Gavin Newsom just told his own party it needs to be "more culturally normal" — and Democrats are not happy about it
Over the last few months, he has been obliterating Trump on the international stage, or at least trying to, while pandering to minorities and going against some key Democrat agenda narratives, such as transgender individuals.
Now he is really going to have the party upset, insisting that it has gone too far when it comes to identity politics.
After the 2024 election cycle had been completed, Newsom was among the Democrats who thought that maybe the party had pushed the transgender issue too far.
During a podcast with Charlie Kirk, Newsom addressed biological men playing women’s sports, stating, “I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair.”
He also addressed a campaign ad by Trump against Harris, which stated, “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”
Newsom responded, “It was devastating. And she didn’t even react to it, which was even more devastating.”
While Newsom had backed off the identity politics of Democrats, he was all-in on the bad orange man narrative.
During the World Economic Forum in Davos, Newsom did something most elected officials in this country avoid… he trashed a sitting president on the world stage, and did it with a vulgar insinuation.
He stated, “People are rolling over. I should have brought a bunch of kneepads for all the world leaders. It’s just pathetic.”
This was Newsom trying to beat Trump at his own game, but it did not go over very well with people on both sides of the aisle. Some Democrats and media personalities even warned the governor that if you emulate Trump too much, you just might become him.
Newsom has taken a far swing left lately, and his polling has shown that it is simply not working, so now he is going back to what got him there, and that is blasting the narratives of his party.
Regarding identity politics, he stated, “From the prism of purely politics, there’s no doubt that the Democratic party needs to be, dare I say, more culturally normal. I believe that.”
He continued, “Less prone to spending disproportionate amount of time on pronouns, identity politics, more focused on tabletop issues, things that really matter—the stacking of stress in terms of the electricity bills and childcare costs and health care and obviously housing costs, and how easily we get trapped in that.”
Newsom is clearly slipping in polling, and I think he has recognized that and is now trying to slam on the brakes. But the real question here is, if he is taken out of the picture, where does the party go? It has spent the last two years building him up, and now this crash. Kamala clearly is not the answer, nor is Buttigieg, which is why I believe we will see someone like Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) rise as we get closer to the primary and wind up atop the ticket.
