Trump’s victory in November seems to have knocked leftism into a state of pandemonium–at least for now. Had he only won the electoral college, they likely would be unanimously doubling down on their message. But, since he won both the electoral college and the popular vote, they fail to see eye-to-eye with each other on what is next. So, when you read this column, try to keep track of the tangled web of conflicting strategies Democrats across the country are currently trying out.
Last week, the architect of America’s coastal dystopia, California Governor Gavin Newsom, sat down with conservative pundit Charlie Kirk for the first episode of his new This is Gavin Newsom podcast. They spoke for more than 80 minutes about politics, culture and other topics.
Now, just the act of “platforming” Kirk opened Newsom up to criticism from the left. But Newsom stated in the conversation he is doing long-form media conversations with people on the right because he thinks it would be ill-fated to let conservatives dominate the mainstream conversation. He specifically criticized Democratic Strategist James Carville’s recent call for Democrats to “play possum” and “sit back.”
The talk was pretty civil and not too serious. They covered a bunch of ground and moved around fairly quickly. Less than half an hour into the discussion, Newsom opted to comment on arguably one of the biggest cultural issues of the last election: boys in girls’ sports. His brand-new revelations on the issue are stunning.
He outlined what ought to be regarded as his campaign strategy for the 2028 presidential election. Newsom admitted that defending this issue is politically disastrous for Democrats. Then he said that he agreed with Charlie that it is not fair to allow men to compete in women’s sports. Quite a convenient time to change his tune.
This managed to cause quite a stir for some Democrats. In California, several lawmakers expressed their outrage. State Senator Scott Weiner from San Francisco called it a “gut punch.” The California Legislature’s LGBTQ Caucus publicly condemned the comments. Even officials across the country spoke out. Former Chicago Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, criticized the remarks, calling them “disgusting” and claiming transgenders would feel hated by the governor. House Minority leader Hakeem Jefferies, in response to the comments, claimed laws preventing boys from competing in girls’ sports would somehow “unleash” sexual predators on girls nationwide. Seems not all Democrats agree on the future of their platform.
Making things worse for himself in the eyes of the self-righteous, this week, Newsom has continued to hold more conversations with the right, including conservative commentators Michael Savage and Steve Bannon. They covered a lot of the same points as the Kirk discussion. The criticisms for these sit-downs, however, have become largely drowned out by a sea of more party members publicly trying to bail water from a sinking ship.
Tim Walz broke his silence on the election loss, now claiming the big problem was how scarce they all made themselves. He insists the reason for their loss was because their message didn’t reach enough people. If only we could have seen more Harris appearances on The View, the entire country would have considered the previous four years as just water under the bridge. Senator Elissa Slotkin, who recently delivered the Democratic response to President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, went on The View this week to weigh in with a more critical view. She admitted that Democrats have been “on their heels” and ought to admit they have a problem. She correctly understands that ignoring their severe and pervasive issues is a recipe for more losses.
Where else are Democrats battling one another? Well, ten Democrats dissented from the rest of their party and voted to censure Congressman Al Green, who was removed during Trump’s address to Congress for persistent disruption. Even on the matter of an extremely insignificant vote, they couldn’t muster some unity one way or the other.
The optics of all this disunity are bad, but most people probably aren’t paying that close attention. The real issue is what message Democrats end up putting forward in future elections, which will likely be a product of these battles. There is going to be nothing but troubled waters ahead for the Democratic Party if they can’t get their story straight.
