Newsom and his team have successfully tapped into the need that many rank-and-file Democrats have for adopting a confrontational approach to Trump and his policies. But few people outside of California know much about the governor’s actual record — and many Democratic voters will be turned off to learn that his fervent opposition to a billionaire tax is part of an overall political approach that has trended more and more corporate-friendly.
A year ago, Newsom sent about 100 leaders of California-based companies a prepaid cell phone “programmed with Newsom’s digits and accompanied by notes from the governor himself,” POLITICO reported. One note to the CEO of a big tech corporation said, “If you ever need anything, I’m a phone call away.” While pandering to business elites, Newsom has slashed budgets to assist the poor and near-poor with healthcare, housing and food – in a state where seven million live under the official poverty line and child poverty rates are the highest in the nation.
…
“Governor Newsom’s reluctance to propose meaningful revenue solutions to help blunt the harm of federal cuts undermines his posture to counter the Trump administration.” The statement said that the proposed budget “will leave many Californians without food assistance and healthcare coverage.”
So far, key facts about Newsom’s policy priorities have scarcely gone beyond California’s borders. “National media have focused on Newsom as a personality and potential White House candidate and have almost completely ignored what he has and has not done as a governor,” said columnist Dan Walters, whose five decades covering California politics included 33 years at the Sacramento Bee. “It’s a perpetual failing of national political media to be more interested in image and gamesmanship rather than actual actions, the sizzle rather than the steak, and Newsom is very adept at exploiting that tendency.”
Also see https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/10/gavin-newsom-presidential-candidate-democrats
Like Trump, Newsom breaks promises, serves billionaire interests and mistakes social media theatrics for leadership. Is that really what American voters will want in 2028? After Richard Nixon, Americans chose Jimmy Carter. After George W Bush, they chose Barack Obama. After Trump, they’ll likely want change – authentic, strong, moral leadership, a leader with competence and vision.
He is slightly left of Bush a few issues.
Vote in the primary and STFU, the constant division and derision is infuriating.
Gruesome Newsom WILL lose the Democrats the election. They keep putting up milque toast corporatist candidates then wonder why no one left of them really wants to vote for them. I’ve been whipped on by them so long to “Vote Blue No Matter Who” I’m going to tell them to pound dirt if they select Newsom. This entire “voting for the lesser evil” bullshit is so old. When we had a chance to get someone decent in office they pulled the rug out from under him to put in Hillary. Nope, not playing that game anymore Neo-Libs. You’re just as bad as the Republicans to me now.
Keep posting this headline. I’ll keep upvoting it.
When the governor launched his podcast “This Is Gavin Newsom” a year ago, he began warmly showcasing extremist bigots by featuring Charlie Kirk as his first guest. And when Kirk was assassinated in September, Newsom lavished praise on him. “The best way to honor Charlie’s memory,” he tweeted, “is to continue his work:
Two years away. Useless to even talk about this. Everyone remember desantis? Yeah, see how that turned out.
Relax and vote in every election, especially primaries. But yeah… Relax.
Pelosi is pushing Gavin Newsom, which is why people are not happy.
Pelosi has a lot of political clout amongst the establishment Dems. And she’s going to absolutely lose it for them if she continues.
After throwing 2024 to push both Biden and Kamala she should not have any clout left, but she does. Which indicates a larger problem with the Democrats than only Pelosi.
Like all neo-liberals, they’re 10 degrees left of center at the best of times, 10 degrees right if it affects them personally. Love them, love them, they’re a liberal.
And we wait two years and people say oh well let’s pick the safe option and we have the most corporate candidate shoved down our throats again for the fourth time (Hilary, Biden, Kamala, and I guess Newsom)
We can’t wait, our problems are too large in this country. We need significant changes, fdr level.
If we elect another corporate candidate then our fate is sealed, pretty much proves magas point and we leave room for fascism.
Scratch a neo-liberal a fascist bleeds. I see no difference between them now and yeah, I’m with a friend. If Gruesome Newsom ends up being the pick for the Dems I’m abstaining. This “lesser evil” election mantra isn’t working anymore.
Newsome is a DINO.
libs in this thread, having already settled for mediocrity 2 years before there’s an election lol
like yea guys, keep putting shitass unappealing candidates and blaming their loss on scary internet communists who, as we all know, actually account for most of the non-voting population in the US. it worked so well the last checks notes 2 times.
Last 3x, and it’s the same strategy they’ve been running for 36 years, since 1990 with Bill Clinton, Epstein super friend. Total coincicence I’m sure that the democratic party was captured by a faction of the ruling class right when the israeli honeypot operation ensnared them all in child fucking blackmail, and god knows what else they have them on.
It’s not just about Israel is the thing. It’s a lot of the same billionaires with designs on the US to follow in that direction. And we don’t know who all got copies of what blackmail they accumulated over three decades.
Democrats when they lose: “This is all the left’s fault!”
When they win: “We didn’t need the left at all!”
It’s really really simple folks. Vote your conscience at the primary. Vote pragmatically in the general. Primaries are for changing your party from within. The general is for winning.
Anywhere else in the country, Newsom would have run as a Republican.
Genuinely, if Newsom is selected by the Democratic party in 2028, nothing will change and we’ll be staring down the barrel of
trump 2.0the next fake populist/fascist in 2032.There are only two ways for the Democratic party to be relevant at this point:
- Support politicians who bring actual change to improve people’s lives
- Actually punish Republican politicians for all of the crimes that they are doing in broad daylight right now.
But the Dems showed in NY how they feel about #1, and are refusing to do anything with #2 in Minnesota (and completely fumbled the opportunity they had over the last few
yearsdecades nationwide)Edit: for the pedantic twats that couldn’t infer my meaning
the further left we go the better
revolution is coming
shut down the country until the mods of hexbear are made leaders
they will save the world
i don’t want to endorse this as i don’t want to get banned or arrested but the further left we go we are headed to a utopia
i see it now
Have you seen Hilary making the rounds? Its fucking sick.
The only thing I’ve seen is her saying proudly that Bill and Obama were able to deport more people than trump “without killing people”
Which was pretty jarring. I don’t really understand who that rhetoric is supposed to appeal to.
I disagree with this. He has a quintessentially non-GOP and Progressive LEAN. It’s just he grew up rich, became MORE rich, then got into politics young, so the other half half of him is a piece of shit.
He likes to think he USED to be a piece of shit, but he’s still at least half a piece of shit.
Slicked back hair. Glass House. White Ferrari. Live for New Year’s Eve. Sloppy steaks at Truffoni’s. Big rare cut of meat with water dumped all over it, water splashing around the table…
If you think he’s progressive you must not live in California. We have a pretty progressive legislature and he vetoes EVERYTHING that upsets shareholders or techbros. He literally let PG&E get away with murdering 800 Californians, he allows PG&E to not buy back power from solar panels and he allowed 6 rate hikes last year so they could continue to make record shareholder profits. Now he’s fighting the one time 5% billionaire tax proposed by our legislators. He created a task force to hunt down teachers that teach the correct history on Palestine and under the guise of “antisemitism”. He also has time for a podcast somehow and he literally platforms Nazis and Zionists and agrees with them it’s disgusting. He’s Pelosi’s nephew and he’s basically a neoliberal republican
Geez you can’t jump scare me like that
Lol, sorry. Thread needs a TW
Oh no, now all the comments on this thread are going to read out in my internal voice artificially fast and it will make everyone sound smarmy af.
I don’t know what a watery steak is about? Can I have more information please?
All the not-Republicans need to pick a leader now. Before one is picked for them.
Jon Stewart or AOC. Right now I see them as the only viable options.
Sawn Fein, UAW boss for the late entry, Stewart and Fein and whatever else protest votes consolidate to one and endorse each other this time before any super tuesday type deal. Don’t let elizabeth warren types play spoiler this time. Our supposed progressive champion knowingly throwing the presidency to Biden, that I knew was going to fail, but she somehow didn’t?
Didn’t Fain pivot to supporting Trump at the last minute when he promised auto tariffs?My mistake, this was after the election
No.
He praised one set of Trumps tariffs last year.
Tariffs are a union issue, and I support tariffs on countries that undercut us on labor and environmental as well. Not supporting that, and rather supporting wall street exporting our jobs, our factories, and our technology, to China and the like, signing 99 year leases and building their factories for them, to be able to enslave their populations, forcing them to work 6-12’s, 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, for starvation wages, and dump their toxins in the ditch, then bring it back here and undercut our remaining industry, forcing everyone to follow suit or go out of business, has led to a race to the bottom, both in labor and environmental regulations and in quality of products.
Only a fool wouldn’t support tariffs as such frankly. Not that the president could be trusted he is bad faith, but if the democrats didn’t abandon the working class the president wouldn’t have been able to do an end run around them, he never would’ve won 2016 without the trade issue he co-opted.
Just because the right co-opts something, do you oppose everything about that all of a sudden? If the republicans accuse you of stealing elections, just as a random hypothetical, while themselves stealing elections, do you defend all elections as safe even as they cheat? Do you not support laws that could provide safeguards against cheating, like giving a ticket with a number to a voter on request that could be referenced to make sure the vote was accurately counted after the fact? Because something has to be done, both because they are cheating, they are projecting that cheating, and the public on both sides doesn’t trust the elections anymore.
Same with trade, we all know globalism, neoliberalism, sold out the working classes, in the developed world, and most of all in the developing world being enslaved for the ruling class in those countries to develop, to use the greed of wall street to supplant those countries, to turn the inventors of the technology into consumers and not producers of those products it used to export, and cheap versions that break early at that.
As Bernie Sanders said when the president was elected in 2016, he was ready to work with him on trade on issues to protect the working class, even as we acknowledge he’s not in good faith and will not do it equitably. But evening the playing field to prevent selling out the working classes with tariffs is a Union Issue.
That’s my mistake, I thought that happened before the election.
Idk. I’m not going to hold that against Fain, there are obvious reasons to need to support Tariffs given his position.
We never pick a leader, that’s a role exclusively delegated to the party. We have the illusion of choice with primaries but in the end the party always gets their pick
Only because we don’t do it. That’s the entire point. If we let the party do it as before we get Newsome, we lose and if by a miracle he wins nothing changes and he hands it back.
The party establishment’s biggest fear is losing control of the party from the donors’ tools, to popular reformers. That is behind everything they do electorally, in office everything they do also includes extracting money from the federal government for their donors, but winning is not their motivation, it’s keeping the left out.
If their early primary polling doesn’t have their chosen candidate leading they will have the others pull out and endorse who they want like they did Biden.
2020 was one of the few elections where the winner of the California primary didn’t get the party nomination because they forced Biden through by having everyone else backing out and endorse Biden
What is to stop us from doing this to them this time? Split the vote with a conservative democrat, but one on our side ultimately that won’t drop out. Agree with the moderates to drop out, but then change their mind and stay in the race at the last minute.
It’s for their own good. They can’t win.
We already have Trump 2.0
I think they mean whoever the next fascist is to become President once Trump is gone.
The shitlibs are desperate for the next fascist to be Newsom. If he won, then after his one and only disastrous term, we will get full blown Handmaids Tale in retaliation. If he loses — which is more likely — we just go straight to Handmaids Tale.
The only way this cycle is broken is by filling government with leftist reformationists and aggressively hunting and punishing every last Republican nazi. If a candidate isn’t a member of the DSA or something similar, they must be crushed by any and all means.
I have to assume at this point that anyone defending Newsom as a viable, reasonable candidate is a foreign agent.
Unless you’re referring to conspiracy theories about being replaced by a clone, I’m pretty sure it’s still the same guy
yes, trump 2.0 usually refers to this being his 2nd term. lets stay in reality please, its bad enough with out adding conspiracy theories.
Trump is still Trump, he has a second term, but he is still the same trump. No one calls the same person in their 2nd term “2.0” Trump 2.0 will be whoever the person that replaces Trump will be. He’ll be younger, and possibly more dangerous.
I got what you think the phrase ment but it has ready been taken to represent his second term.
By whom? Do you call FDR’s last term Roosevelt 4.0?
No, because no one called him that the way the internet, here in the real world, called Trump 2.0. Thanks for joining us.
progressive credentials
He’s only progressive if you squint a little, really want very badly to see him as progressive, and then pretend his actions line up with his progressive speech. And even the left-most of his speech is really milquetoast progressive, like elevator muzak rock and roll.
That caught my eye too. I didn’t think anyone thought he was progressive.
At this point, I would vote for an upturned mop painted with lipstick for president.
Any sane person would, but these kids would have you believe the perfection is out there waiting to be voted for.
Not looking for perfection, I just don’t want the second coming of Ronald Reagan.
Lol sure grandpa. Citation requested. What a shit comment.
Sadly better than their others in this thread. Still low bar
Rheori can’t help but defend Blue MAGA and then wonders why people call them Blue MAGA. Dude is in his 50s and acts like a 20 year old.
Which also describes anyone else like them or those still calling anything critical of dems Russian bots
And that they would actually turn up and vote instead of finding some other purity test to justify staying home.
He does fine as a thorn in Trump’s side. But that’s it.
You mean he does fine as the WWE kfabe opponent to Trump who performs the character of a resistance fighter on stage right?
For a corporate Dem like Newsom, that’s the most we’re ever going to get is theatre. So yeah.
To this post’s point, hell no on rallying behind him in ‘28. There are those who claim the DNC leadership has evolved and won’t be captured by corporate interests this time around. I think whether they attempt to shove Newsom down our throats is the perfect test of this theory.
Unfortunately, so much hangs in the balance of that decision. Really hate the two party trap we’re living in, at times like this especially.
The DNC is as arrogant and misguided as ever. They didn’t admit they made a mistake, they blamed the left for the loss, as always. They hired influence agencies to be shitty to us online even. They were backed up by right wing influence operations pretending to be us to push their doomed to fail candidates in primary season, too, or annointment season as 2024 was. As we only had 4 plus months, how could we possibly run a challenge in that time? /s Think of all the missed fundraising opportunities! That was their actual argument at the time.
If Newsome was presidential material, he would’ve stood up and taken the presidency in 2024 when we needed someone that could win. He can’t win now. Now that it’s his turn with the party establishment.
The cycle may be broken this year anyway as the feds will be indicting democrats on false vote rigging charges probably the fall after this one. Newsome will be their main target as he’s the likely contender as they see it, just as Hillary was known to have the agreement with the weak democratic party somehow all sewn up after Obama made a deal with her to stand down (after Obama already won in 2008, there was no reason to make a deal, and it’s not his place to make a deal, and no one in the party should respect such a deal, where is the ambition? But that is where we are at.) So they focused on attacking her. After the president’s first term biden was known to be the frontrunner, assumed the weak democrats would make sure that unpopular old bitch got the nomination, and they spent their time attacking him.
We’ve election thievery to deal with this time, 7 new ways from sunday, on top of whatever else they are already doing. States, counties, and the feds, all cheating in every way they can, and the national party gearing up to simply not recognize the popular vote if it goes against them. Not recognize the popular vote to decide who gets electors I mean obviously. And many states have given their state legislatures back the power to award them in defiance of their States’ popular votes, including GA, WI, and AZ, and a bunch of the shitholy(er) ones.
Newsome won’t prevail against that, only an aggressive populist reformer with an organized citizenry could.
Blah blah both sides.
- See who the viable1 options are and their plans
- Pick the least-worse option
- Repeat
1 can they actually get in?
if they are neolibs, then no.
The people you think are viable are the non viable ones. Maybe the ivy league suits that tell you who is electable are actually playing you?
But don’t let me tell you the democratic establishment is playing you, if you haven’t figured it out now you never will, and it’s why we already lost choosing newsome, the electable candidate according to the Ivy League experts you likely listen to.
I think he’s blue MAGA fascist scum who should be tarred, feathered and barred from government if he survived. I remind others of this constantly. He must never be tolerated as a candidate again. If he were to somehow steal a nomination he is not to be voted for, revolution will be the only chance we have left.
bUt mUh bLuEMaGa!
Jesus Christ, show us your melodramatic and hyperbolic side, please. 🙄
I hate to downvote someone with such a high personal upvote score from me, but if you think I’m being melodramatic about homeless-torturing, bigoted, transphobic, nazi-felating, genocide-denying, surveilance-state supporting, openly corrupt cartoon villain that is Gavin Newsom then you have not been paying attention.
I hate to downvote someone with such a high personal upvote score from me
A what?
Some apps, like Voyager, keep track of the total votes you have personally given to others.
I’m guessing they have something that tracks your upvotes and downvotes for each user, and that the person they are replying to has a high count of upvotes.
The tarred and feathered and barred from govt thing. You should have just said what was in your response to me to be illustrative.
We don’t tar and feather people anymore for a reason. That’s both melodramatic and hyperbolic because of this fact.
We also don’t tax the super rich anymore for a reason, it doesn’t mean it’s a good reason. It’s time to bring back the classics, and some good tar and featherings are in order to preclude more final interventions if for no other reason.
Women and children are in concentration camps on US soil.
Seems, I dunno… kinda serious?
How could Kamala do this
So…your rationale is that Donald Trump and his cronies are acting like Nazis, so now Gavin Newsom is also responsible?
Shit, bro. You better just go after everyone that doesn’t have the legal capability to do anything about that. Seems like you’re maybe distracted by the wrong thing and not able to think of how to attack those problems aside from blaming absolutely everyone and doing nothing about it in the end.
Responsible? No, God no. I don’t think Trump being POTUS and raiding homes is anyone’s first idea but Trump’s and maybe his puppet masters.
buuut… is he…
Complicit? 100%
Paid off? 100%
Collaborated? 100%
I don’t think it is wrong to feel this existential about things, especially with someone as dangerous as Gavin Newsom who seems to be able to blatantly do evil shit but still get a hall pass from liberals because he had a good retort to Trump on facebook or something.
This inability and unwillingness to understand political leaders and have basic policy literacy about them will absolutely be terminal to our democracy if Gavin wins the next election just as much as it will be if Trump or one of his goon’s do.
If one more damn liberal tells me “Now is not the time!” one more time my brain is going to leak out my ears and I will begin hysterically crying/laughing.
If you were given a microphone in front of a huge crowd of people, started detailing all the reasons why you think he shouldn’t be a candidate for president, and then closed with “YEAH, LET’S TAR AND FEATHER THIS FUCKER, THEN LET’S BAN HIM FROM GOVERNMENT!!! HYAAAAAA!!!”
You think those people would be likely to be still think you’re to be treated seriously and still follow your suggestions?
We need people to speak strongly, but not be insane.
We need people to speak strongly, but not be insane.
We need people to speak to the urgency and existential nature of this moment. Yeah I don’t literally support tar and feathering Gavin. Yes calling for violence is bad, fine I disagree with that but that is a five alarm fire moment so I’m less inclined to clamp down on that phrasing in this context. I am far more scared of the implications of Gavin playing a spoiler in this election.
