Gavin Newscum

That's the name Donald Trump gave the current governor of California.  And these days, alas, it fits him.

Gavin Newsom, long considered a presidential possibility in the Democratic Party, has branched out into podcasting as his administration becomes a lamer duck by the day.  Smart idea - podcasting is in these days, and it's a great way for anyone to get their names and reputations out in public.  And Newsom has always been politically savvy, having pretty much destroyed Ron DeSantis' political ambitions in an on-camera debate with the Florida governor on Fox News.

But when Newsom launched his podcast with its debut episode, his own political ambitions were smashed like DeSantis'.  And again, it was Newsom who did the smashing.  Newsom's strengths as a Democratic politician have always been his support for environmental causes, gay rights, and other issues dear to the hearts of mainstream Democrats and progressives.  So imagine how many jaws in the anti-Trump left dropped when Newsom featured as his first guest on his "This Is Gavin Newsom" (clever title, huh? 😛 ) the right-wing flamethrower Charlie Kirk, whose misogynistic and homophonic remarks have made him one of the biggest rhymes-with-glass-poles in America.  And if that weren't bad enough, his next guest was Steve Bannon, the architect of the xenophobic, authoritarian MAGA movement.  

What Newsom has done is give a platform to two of the most dangerous voices against the democratic system.  I mean, sure, he's trying to expand beyond his Democratic echo chamber, and he wants to understand what makes MAGA tick, but that should not be the objective.  We shouldn't care what drives MAGAts; the fact that they're there and a threat to our system of government should be enough for us to understand and oppose them.  Now is not the time for reaching a hand across the table to the other side when the other side is a fascist plot to take over America.  Newsom seems to think he can charm MAGAts into thinking things through and realizing what fools they've been for embracing Donald Trump.   That's just the sort of politician - a guy who wants so much to be liked by as many people as possible - you should avoid.

And so, Gavin Newsom has gone from being a potential future President to being the Gary hart of the 2020s.  By that, I don't mean that Newsom is this decade's suave, sophisticated Democratic A-list politico from a Western state.  I mean he's self-important and reckless, and he just ended his own political career with an egregiously dumb move.  Having Kirk and Bannon on his podcast suggests what you'd get if the leader of a rising star in the German Social Democratic Party of the 1920s had a radio show and invited Adolf Hitler as a guest to promote "Mein Kampf."

Remember when Gary Hart said that the Western states represented the future of the Democratic Party and America?  Uh, yeah.  First Hart's own Bimini affair, then the complete disappearance of Montanans Brian Schweitzer and Steve Bullock, then Kamala Harris' failed presidential campaigns, now Newsom . . . do Western Democrats have a future left?  Or Democrats from any region of the country, for that matter?