Newsom

I was at the gym yesterday afternoon and Fox covered Gavin Newsom’s latest presser about redistricting. The chyron said “Newsom: Trump doesn’t play fair” or something like that. This is just one example of Newsom’s success in getting attention by fighting Republicans on redistricting and shit-talking at Trump.

Newsom is getting attention for being unconventional and interesting. I mean, look at this weird shit:

Trump just put a bunch of federal troops and agents in the nice neighborhoods of DC, and the standard, canned, tedious Democratic response is that it’s a distraction from the Epstein files. That’s OK as far as it goes, but it’s only half an answer, and I’d argue that it’s half an answer because Democrats are afraid of being accused of not being tough on crime. This is similar to the way they’ve responded on immigration, on LGBTQ+ rights, and even on abortion. When an issue comes up where there might be an attack ad cut about their response, they fall back to weak “distraction” rhetoric.

Trump is all about flooding the zone with shit. Yes, a lot of it is distraction, and it’s not wrong to call it out. A strong response on the bullshit of the day, and then a pivot to “distraction” is a sensible response. Just saying “distraction” to Trump’s DC deployments doesn’t make you a strong alternative to any voter who’s listening. It misses the opportunity to point out the crime rate in the red states sending National Guard troops to DC: Cleveland was #5 in homicides per capita in 2024 — why isn’t DeWine sending the Guard there? And it also misses an opportunity to tout Democratic success such as the amazing drop in crime in Baltimore. Steve M has a good post on this point.

Back to Newsom: I can’t see any way that I would vote for him in the 2028 presidential primary. He’s wildly opportunistic and has no clear deeply held beliefs. He threw trans folks under the bus as part of the panic that overtook the Democratic party shortly after Trump’s inauguration. He’s a vain, slimy dude, but he’s fighting and getting attention for it. That’s what we need right now. This is politics — we don’t need to like the guy to like what he’s doing.

With that in mind, here’s what I like about his press account (X link):

• He’s talking about many things, not just one thing: immigration, colleges capitulating to Trump, redistricting, etc.

• He’s following up talk with action. I believe he’s going to redistrict. I don’t believe Kathy Hochul will.

• His team is posting a lot — not just a post or two a day. They’re flooding the zone.

• He and/or his team are pretty good shit posters:

Some prominent Democrats have good social media styles that differ from Newsom, but most of them treat social media like a way to push out press releases, or repeat the company line. His account reminds me of KamalaHQ during her campaign — fast and smart. We need a lot more of that.