I never would have imagined in a million years that Democrats would be this upset with California Gov. Gavin Newsom – but here we are.
Folks on the left are not raging at Newsom because of his policies, of course. Instead, they seem to be baring their fangs at the governor because he is illustrating exactly what is wrong with the Democratic Party.
Newsom recently launched a podcast called “This Is Gavin Newsom,” in which he dialogues with various political figures. He ignited anger on the left for daring to sit down with well-known conservative figures such as podcasters Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. This unpardonable sin has placed Newsom square in the Democrat Doghouse.
CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski laid into Newsom during a broadcast earlier this month. He savaged Newsom for recognizing the term “Latinx” is ridiculous and for opposing biological males being allowed into women’s sports.
Newsom has repeatedly used the term “Latinx,” a gender-neutral term referring to people of Latin American descent. He’s also supported a number of policies over the years expanding transgender rights, including those for undocumented immigrants and even signing into law a bill acknowledging prisoners’ need for gender transition medical care. Now, in the aftermath of the 2024 election, with the Democratic Party facing record low favorability numbers, Newsom appears to be disavowing some of these positions as he wrangles with conservatives on his new podcast.
Newsom recently responded to the criticism that Democrats have leveled at him, noting that it shows how “toxic” the party’s brand has become. He told The Los Angeles Times, “I did what I said I was going to do” and, “I said I was going to have, not debates with people I disagree with, I said we’re gonna have people on we disagree and agree with to have civil conversations to try to understand each other at this time of such polarization.”
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The governor explained that he already said he “was going to specifically meet with members of the MAGA movement. And then we did it and people were shocked.”
Newsom further rejected the notion that he is trying to rebrand himself as a moderate as he prepares to seek the presidency in 2028. Instead, he blasted the party for not learning from its mistakes during the 2024 campaign. “Because our party’s getting our a** kicked,” he said, further stating the “Democratic Party brand is toxic.”
Because people don’t think we make any damn sense. They think we make noise. They don’t think we support them. You fill in the generic them. They don’t think we have their values. They think we’re elite. We talk down to people. We talk past people. They think we just think we’re smarter than other people, that we’re so judgmental and full of ourselves.”
The only thing more embarrassing than Bill Maher begging Gavin Newsom to run for President is Gavin Newsom pretending he’s not running for President pic.twitter.com/QU2xCN1pic
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) March 29, 2025
Newsom is not the only one to call out his own party for its toxicity. The New York Times editorial board recently published an op-ed taking the party to task for failing to learn its lesson.
Even today, the party remains too focused on personal identity and on Americans’ differences — by race, gender, sexuality and religion — rather than our shared values. On these issues, progressives sometimes adopt a scolding, censorious posture. It is worth emphasizing that this posture has alienated growing numbers of Asian, Black and Latino voters. Democrats who won last year in places where Mr. Trump also won, such as Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, adopted a more moderate tone. They were hawkish about border security and law enforcement, criticizing their own party. They did not make the common Democratic mistake of trying to talk about only economic policy and refusing to engage with Americans’ concerns on difficult social issues.
Democrats are evidently allergic to reality. Newsom is right, and they are wrong. The party actually became toxic decades ago – but lately, it has injected itself with even more poison.
With its obsession with identity politics and trying to use the government to force unpopular ideas on the public, the Democrats have relegated themselves to irrelevancy. But they don’t seem to realize it yet. The backlash against Newsom shows they still don’t get it and probably won’t for a long time.
