I’m a Californian First - An American Second
Today’s recall election in the biggest state in the union brought it home for me — again. I’m a Californian first and foremost. So I voted no. No on Trumpism, climate denial, public health selfishness, scientific ignorance, racial bigotry, misogyny… in short, all the “values” that animate Red State America. Seventy-four million Americans voted for Donald Trump in 2020. He only lost reelection — after everything that Americans knew about him — because of a record turnout for Joe Biden. That’s why I can’t proudly call myself an American.
It’s true that California, once you leave the deep-blue cities, is also Trump territory. And we had to suffer through a Republican recall campaign — another assault on our electoral system — because of California’s wacky populism, despite the fact that Republicans are becoming as extinct as the state’s once mighty grizzly bear. But Gavin Newsom is going to win BIG today, because a lopsided majority of my fellow state citizens embraces facts and progress, instead of the shibboleths of the past.
Look, Gavin Newsom will NEVER be a hero of the left. He will never place PG&E under state ownership no matter how many wildfires that the big utility sparks through its mismanagement. He will never crack down on Airbnb and greedy landlords, no matter how bad the homeless crisis and evictions become. He will never do the research on the RFK assassination case that would prompt him to uphold the parole of Sirhan Sirhan. But he is still more advanced than any other state leader in America.
Back in 2017, when I was writing a column for the San Francisco Chronicle, I did a pointed interview with then Lieutenant Governor Newsom, pushing him hard on his cozy relations with the wealthy elite, his soft spot for Big Tech, and his reputation as a lightweight (or “haircut in search of a man,” as some critics unkindly put it). Newsom held his own, and after the column was published did the smart political thing by texting me. “Appreciated the balance in today’s article — good/tough questions,” he wrote.
As a media entrepreneur and San Francisco journalist, I had known Gavin over the years and always found him interesting, even when wanting. Back in 2004, when my publication Salon threw a party at the Democratic Convention in Boston, every party bigwig in attendance — including openly gay Rep. Barney Frank — snubbed Newsom, not wanting to be photographed with the San Francisco mayor who had given George W. Bush and Karl Rove a big wedge issue by legalizing same-sex marriage. My political editor Joan Walsh and I, feeling sorry for Newsom, greeted him and had a drink with him, or he might have been left all alone at the party. Sometimes Gavin does the right thing, even when it’s not the political thing.
That’s why I replied this way to his text in 2017: “I’m rooting for you to be the JFK/RFK I know is inside you.” I knew that would mean a lot to him — his dad, a state politico, had worked on Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 presidential primary campaign. And Gavin clearly was touched by what I texted. “I appreciate that, seriously!” he wrote back.
I’m still rooting for Gavin. Yesterday, on the campaign stump in Long Beach, he found his voice. He connected with his audience in a much more visceral way than the sometimes wonky, dyslexic politician has in the past. I want him to crush the Republican recall — as he probably will. Then I want him to continue making California a beacon of national enlightenment, as the governors of Texas and Florida and Red State America drag their citizenry backwards to a dark past.
I no longer expect big things from America. Joe Biden’s incremental opposition to our massive social and ecological collapse is about as good as we’re going to get in my lifetime. But I do expect California to keep lighting the way forward. We need to keep Gavin Newsom in office. And we need to keep pushing him to do the right thing.
