Gov Newsome triangulating again.

[Shipwack]

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) thinks Democrats need to rein in some of their cultural politics if they want to win over more voters.

“I think there’s a broader narrative that we ought to address,” Newsom said Wednesday at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit. “We have to be more culturally normal. We have to be a little less judgmental.”

The California governor didn’t spell out what he meant by “culturally normal,” but he has recently been a critic of what he calls “woke culture.”

I guess he feels the need to move toward the “center” again to stay relevant…

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gavin-newsom-tells-democrats-culturally-normal_n_6931dfa1e4b0824b6df8a368

[leftstreet]

1. WTF is "culturally normal?"

Ugh, he is so impossibly 90s centrist

[Nixie]

14. I would say this is a great example of what he's talking about.

Centrist is a fringe idea of some kind of slur against normal people.

[LudwigPastorius]

15. Code for "don't talk about trans or non-binary rights"?

[Deuxcents]

2. I think he's saying we need better messaging to get our values out..more on point

[Silent Type]

3. Can't say at this point whether that's right or wrong AS FAR AS winning some states we need in 2028. I hate

we are in the position that some candidates— not just Newsom — believe the same thing. It’s sad, but plenty of election postmortems said the same.

There are places like NYC who will laugh at his “woke” awakening, but other places where it might make a 5% difference over next few years.

[Blasphemer]

4. He's swinging to the center way too soon

IF we have elections in 2028, the GOP will be in tatars. It will be like 2008 (if not worse) for them. I'd hold off on making presumptions about what messaging will work 3 years from now. I suspect Dems will have great leeway in the kind of platform that can be successful.

[maxsolomon]

64. 2026 comes first.

You don't take a seat from a Repuke incumbent by running to the left of left.

Obama didn't win by running as far left as possible. He won with charisma and unifying, aspirational rhetoric.

[Raven123]

5. Ok. What is culturally normal?

[maxsolomon]

65. You know what it is.

We all know what it is.

[usonian]

6. First, please spell his name right.

Second, I have been watching the wildly successful anti-oligarchy tour by Bernie and AOC.

It's not the cyclical economy, it's the concentration of over 90% of wealth in America by a few people.

And that's on the marquee.

At each rally issues of rights always come up and are well-received, even in red states.

The GOP is very much into what-about-ism, distracting from the (pardon the expression) elephant in the room. Oligarchical ownership of this country, its business and politicians. Like so.



EYES OFF THE PRIZE.

EYES OFF EPSTEIN.

So, I would say that he is urging the party to lead with the one biggest issue, that causes economic hardship, and which gets the oligarchs to manage the discussion away from it by making elections all about IMPORTANT social and rights issues, but using them as triggers for rage, their political operating system.

When you play back a Bernie-AOC rally, you get the impression that they are attacking the prime cause as job one, and are still extremely strong on social and rights issues.

The point is to win, and then good things come with winning.
You can't change their nuked "hearts and minds" but you can win and pass legislation for the betterment of society.
At that point. "It's the law"

In an early post, I quoted Ibram X. Kendi.

https://democraticunderground.com/100216524810

This is from the epilogue of "Stamped From the Beginning", by Ibram X Kendi.

Protesting against racist power and succeeding can never be mistaken for seizing power. Any effective solution to eradicating American racism must involve Americans committed to antiracist policies seizing and maintaining power over institutions, neighborhoods, counties, states, nations—the world. It makes no sense to sit back and put the future in the hands of people committed to racist policies, or people who regularly sail with the wind of self-interest, toward racism today, toward antiracism tomorrow. An antiracist America can only be guaranteed if principled antiracists are in power, and then antiracist policies become the law of the land, and then antiracist ideas become the common sense of the people, and then the antiracist common sense of the people holds those antiracist leaders and policies accountable.

And that day is sure to come. No power lasts forever. There will come a time when Americans will realize that the only thing wrong with Black people is that they think something is wrong with Black people. There will come a time when racist ideas will no longer obstruct us from seeing the complete and utter abnormality of racial disparities. There will come a time when we will love humanity, when we will gain the courage to fight for an equitable society for our beloved humanity, knowing , intelligently, that when we fight for humanity, we are fighting for ourselves. There will come a time. Maybe, just maybe, that time is now.

Lead with your strength, pound it in mercilessly, and good will come when you win.

Social betterment is the end, if not the means, in a corrosive environment.

Eyes on that prize. But you gotta win first. Got to get a little dirty to beat fascism and bigotry?
You bet.

EAT THE RICH
Watch "Specialty of the House" by Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Spoiler article
https://thecannibalguy.com/2023/03/26/speciality-of-the-house/

Video here until taken down.
https://ok.ru/video/6896593865414

I tried NBC but nothing came up.
https://www.nbc.com/alfred-hitchcock-presents/video/the-specialty-of-the-house/9000245744

[awesomerwb1]

44. What is "wildly" successful?

Are they bringing in new voters or just preaching to the choir?

As a centrist myself, center left, I would never vote for the right. But I know a few Bernie bro friends who voted for trump in 2016 (and possibly 2024) because they wanted to show the "establishment Dems".

[usonian]

46. Bernie Sanders Packed an Arena in ... Utah

The senator's Fighting Oligarchy tour alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is drawing massive crowds — even in red states

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/bernie-sanders-aoc-crowds-red-states-1235316890/

https://archive.ph/qOZ7S

Bernie and AOC strongly supported Joe Biden during his presidency and campaigned vigorously for Harris and Walz.

There are outliers in any distribution of voters, and I strongly discourage "whataboutism". It's the favorite tool of the GOP.

Think "Willie Horton"

[awesomerwb1]

48. That's great

But the Dems have voters in every state including Utah. My question remains, are there a good number of new voters in those crowds, or just Dems/Bernie/AOC voters.

[usonian]

50. You have to ask them.

[awesomerwb1]

54. It would be interesting data to have

Doesn't mean much if they're just preaching to the choir.

[usonian]

63. I caught some videos of the tour, and people said they were flipping.

Bernie's not into fake interviews.

Of course, no statistics were taken.

Proof is in the voting, which has seen gains in red states.

Would like to see lots more.

[awesomerwb1]

66. "Proof"?

So you're attributing these gains in red states to Bernie?
There are cults on both side I guess. Hi ignore feature. Click

[Justice Brandeis]

7. I see his point

Many voters who would be willing to vote Democratic don't much care for pronouns, land acknowledgements and having to say "pregnant people".

It just doesn't play well with a lot of voters and it's not worth losing elections over.

[Bluetus]

8. Exactly the point. We don't have to shove people's noses

in our cultural issues. A lot of Americans would be willing to go along with "live and let live". We do more harm than good when we demand that people embrace our favorite cultural causes, repeating our mantra on a word-by-word basis.

We need to learn how to take "yes" for an answer. Or more accurately, to take "I can live with that" as a victory.

[gulliver]

11. Most of those things aren't even popular among Democrats

We really need to pay attention to Democratic voices. These things are not core issues. These so-called cultural issues distract us from our core mission as Democrats. Newsom is right.

People need health care. People need education and good nutrition. The climate needs to be addressed. These fringe issues need to get exactly the attention they deserve based on one person, one voice, one vote. Not "extra" attention based on a minority of extra loud types trying to portray themselves as sweetie pies. Attention equal to their democratically valid priority within the party.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

28. .

People need health care. People need education and good nutrition. The climate needs to be addressed. These fringe issues need to get exactly the attention they deserve

So is trans health care a health care issue or a fringe issue?

[JI7]

13. A lot of those things are exaggerated by the right wing

they also pick out the most exteme bizarre types on social media and many of these types don't even support Democrats but they make it seem as if that's the position or view of most Democrats.

I think what Newsom is doing is taking control of the narrative.

[uponit7771]

16. I don't see data on those who don't vote, they're going after swing voters which are expensive iirc

[WhiskeyGrinder]

26. I can't think of a single Democrat who doesn't use pronouns.

[LAS14]

53. Well stated. Sounds like Sunday morning at my church.

One doesn't have to pick these issues out to lead with in order to vote or act on the right side when they come up. But my church leads with them. All three.

[Skittles]

9. N E W S O M

please.....thanks

[Skittles]

10. *WE* have to be less judgmental???

yeah OK

[JI7]

12. We have to do whatever we need to win

[Niagara]

17. His surname is spelled Newsom

If an OP wants to accuse him of triangulating while misspelling his name I can't take the OP seriously.

The HuffPost also is NOT a credible source of news.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/huffington-post/

These media sources are moderate to strongly biased toward liberal causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports, and omit information reporting that may damage liberal causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy.

I'm going to insert Newsom's entire statement so anyone else can't pick and choose what context they want to share or dissect.

“I mean, I — you know, we could talk about why Kamala lost, which is separate. I mean, it’s part derivative of the larger narrative, but issues around inflation scars. We don’t talk enough about interest rates. We didn’t talk about incumbency. Issues related, you just had Bibi on, related to Israeli politics. Immigration, the border in particular, you could talk about all those things, not just 107 days, not just talk about Biden’s determination or lack thereof in terms of passing the baton. But I think there’s a broader narrative that we ought to address. That is, we have to be more culturally normal. We have to be a little less judgmental. We have to be a party that understands the importance and power of the border substantively and politically.”

You know what else Newsom said at The New York Times DealBook Summit?

"I need to wake everybody up," Newsom said at The New York Times DealBook Summit. "This is the normalization of deviancy, and it was becoming socialized, normalized."

"Call someone the R-word or 'piggy' and somehow it's just Trump being Trump," Newsom went on. "There's nothing normal about this. He's a man-child. It's unbecoming of the President of the United States. He's dressed up as the pope. He's acting like he's Superman. This is not normal."

If “we don’t democratize our economy, we’re not going to save democracy,” Newsom said.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. I applaud the OP for posting the Huff Post article in GD

and am amazed that anyone on DU could be annoyed enough by that to go to the bother of looking up a website's opinion on it.

"Liberal" is good, here.

[Niagara]

20. There's sources posted here that are not reliable at all

To me it's important to have reliable sources. It always has been. It's not annoyance, it's called facts.


What Newsom said was taken out of context. At least insert his entire statement.


It's not helpful to the Democratic party if people pick and chose what context they want to share. Then the RW go with those talking points.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. I don't see that the bit you added before excuses what he said

Simply, it's the right wing that are judgmental (of minorities, immigrants, LGBT - especially trans). Newsom saying "we have to be a little less judgmental" is giving in to the lies of the right wing.

[Niagara]

24. Oh, only RW'ers are judgemental on issues?

There's been zero Democratic/progressive/liberal supporters/voters that are judgemental af.


Got it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. In the grand scheme of things, yes, only Republican politicians are judgmental.

If you extend it to supporters/voters, then Democratic supporters or voters may be judgmental, but Republican supporters/voters are racist, misogynist, insane and murderous - as well as judgmental. But when Newsom is talking about what "we" should do, he is obviously talking about what the Democratic party and its candidates should do.

I hope you do get it. Newsom's remark does not help. He's wrong on this. It is indeed triangulation - giving in to the right wing attempt to shift the American center towards the fascism of Trump and Trumpists.

[Blues Heron]

29. We are judgmental of Nazis and fascists, nothing wrong with that. They are judgmental of non whites- big problem

[Jose Garcia]

19. Presidents Obama and Clinton triangulated. President Biden did not.

Clinton and Obama were elected to second terms. Biden was not.

[Blues Heron]

32. Biden stepped down after being hounded out by Clooney et al

[BannonsLiver]

38. And a litany of party leaders.

George doesn’t get all the credit.

[Blues Heron]

39. Et al

[Jose Garcia]

41. He was on his way to a lanndslide loss

No President with approval ratings that low has ever been reelected.

[Blues Heron]

42. He would have won -he's the only one to defeat Trump. Giving up incumbency was highly stupid.

The voting booth is very different than some push poll with an agenda.

[GreatGazoo]

22. Dems need to find 80/20 issues they can hammer on

It sounds like Newsom is saying that he doesn't want to defend some of the issues the GOP has attacked (?)

What is needed IMHO is a steady pivot toward new offense. "Trump is Hitler" will hit its expiration date in 2028, if not sooner. What is needed is for Dems to find the 80/20 issues and framing that put the GOP on defense and then to ride those to victory.

[mainer]

23. All my lefty family members are tired of the pronoun thing

We include 2 lesbians, a Democratic socialist and two old baby boomers. The whole "get my pronouns right or else" thing broke us. My son the college teacher got chewed out for forgetting a student's preferred pronouns. This demand for left wing purity ends up castigating those who have the best intentions but make mistakes. I understand where Newsom's coming from.

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. Which Democratic candidates were demanding that?

Name names, please.

[mainer]

43. I'm not referring to particular candidates

I'm talking about "the liberal purity test" and how we Democrats need to firmly shut down conversation about which candidate is pure enough to support. MAGA has used it against us, and it's stirred up anger because people feel beleaguered about having to adhere to such strict standards. Certainly it's a problem on college campuses where teachers like my son got called into the administrative offices because he refused to add his pronouns to his email signature.

[muriel_volestrangler]

47. So this is not about Democrats, ie what Newsom was talking about.

It's about an administrator on that college campus. And if it's about that administrator, why call for censoring ourselves? What has "which candidate is pure enough to support" got to do with the administrator?

If MAGA spread lies when they "used it against us", then stand up to the lies - say "that's not 'us', that's an idiot administrator, and his name is X - the Republicans are lying that this is a Democratic policy". Don't fall for the Republican BS - fight against it.

[BannonsLiver]

35. ...

[NoMoreRepugs]

30. Culturally normal another way to say the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few??

[BannonsLiver]

33. He's not wrong.

🤷‍♂️

[Emile]

34. So is he pushing a purity test for the party?

[BannonsLiver]

36. The opposite, actually.

[Emile]

37. LOL, I don't think so!

He's the one who brought it up.

[BannonsLiver]

40. If you say so.

Last edited Fri Dec 5, 2025, 11:25 AM - Edit history (2)

Real purity tests might be something like getting pressured into giving an answer to a question that could end up featured on a damaging TV ad, or other form of messaging down the road because it was so out of step with the mainstream, even if the person giving that answer had good intentions.

[Nixie]

45. He's saying to drop the purity tests.

He is saying to quit pushing purity tests.

The purity tests have alienated voters, Then we lose. So he is saying to not be so judgmental over purity tests and alienating voters.

[Emile]

49. I guess it depends on which side of the political spectrum

your on.

[Nixie]

51. He's definitely not on the spectrum that alienates voters with

purity tests.

The resistance to this common sense suggestion is very noticeable in this thread where people want to attack him for not being pure enough.

[Emile]

52. As I said, it depends on what side of the political spectrum your on.

[Nixie]

55. We've all seen enough of this insistence and labeling of

politicians that is based on nothing but purity tests.

[LAS14]

57. See my post #56. nt

[Emile]

58. Purity tests, on which side of the spectrum are you talking about?

The one that keeps insisting we can't win in red districts unless we run a centrist?

[Nixie]

60. Centrist is really the obvious purity test. A way of smearing our candidates

for not being pure enough.

[Emile]

61. Then if centrist is a smear, why do some politicians call themselves centrist?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrats_(United_States)
https://www.centristdems.com/

[LAS14]

56. Curiosity here - not trying to make a point.

For sure members of the left (my church, see post up thread) can be characterized as leading with issues like pronouns and land acknowledgement, but what public Democrats do? I think even AOC and Bernie lead with economic issues these days.

So where does the whole party get this reputation? If it's not based on fact, how can we fight it?

As I said, genuine question, not a position in an argument.

[muriel_volestrangler]

67. I think Democrats should make your point - that public Democrats are not leading with those issues

or indeed making them minor issues (that is, saying other people should be paying more attention to them; I'm sure many Democrats have "specified their pronouns" somewhere, but there's a difference between that and saying that everyone ought to do it).

When a MAGA talking point is not based on fact, say so - say they're making stuff up. And say that means they are not trustworthy.

[justaprogressive]

59. Gov. Newsom has been left behind in his judgement of what's "Culturally Normal"

[MustLoveBeagles]

62. He's buying into RW framing again

And he was doing so well