Mathews: Fighting culture wars won’t make Newsom president

If Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are going to create space for hate and human rights violations, then why should anyone complain about California Gavin Newsom creating spaces that protect the rest of us?

That’s the question that should be posed to California pundits who have responded with knee-jerk cynicism to Newsom’s many interventions on behalf of Trump’s targets. These pundits describe the governor’s forays into national disputes over abortion, immigration, and LGBTQ+ rights as political ploys — performed in service of presidential ambitions.

The truth is the exact opposite. Whether he’s trumpeting a maximalist pro-abortion stance on out-of-state billboards or banning state-funded travel to places hostile to LGTBQ+ people, Newsom is actually throwing away whatever chances he might have had of being president.

Getting elected president, if you’re a Democrat, is about soft-pedaling divisive issues, and building broad, diverse coalitions. That’s how Barack Obama and Joe Biden won the White House. But Newsom’s constant blasts into cultural politics divide the country and make enemies.

While picking fights with Trump and like-minded governors might be good politics, Newsom is also calling out national Democrats, including Biden, for not being combative enough. And his national battles are hurting his presidential chances, particularly in battleground states like Arizona and North Carolina (to which California has banned state-funded travel).

So why is Newsom, of all people, sacrificing his chances?

I think there are three possible explanations — two that are peculiar to our very peculiar governor and one that stems from California’s growing estrangement from the U.S.

The first explanation is that Newsom simply can’t help himself.

The governor has always lacked discipline, ignoring basic rules of political communication.

He uses three big words when one short one will do. He’s often a witness against himself, volunteering arguments against his own policies. He offers too many details, like an overeager waiter at his restaurants, telling you about all the specials when you just want to order.

At times, Newsom’s self-indulgence has verged into personal recklessness — he had an affair with a top aide’s wife and dined maskless at the French Laundry during the pandemic.

That’s the ugly side of Newsom’s undiscipline. But there is an admirable side to it, too — which leads me to the second explanation. While wise politicians try to avoid fights, Newsom tends to jump into disputes and draw fire to himself. Why? I can’t read his mind or put this child of divorce on a psychiatrist’s couch. But, reviewing his speeches, I believe that Newsom often intervenes when he feels someone needs protection.

Just go back and look at his endless budget press conferences, where he explains almost every expenditure in defensive language. He is constantly protecting — the climate, the environment, the homeless, children, this community, that interest group.

This protective instinct is why he’s jumped into national politics. If media are going to give the Trumpists space to spew hate, attack democracy and spread fear among women and immigrants and gay people, how can he sit on the sidelines?

His recent decision to place billboards — paid for with his campaign money — in seven states that eliminated abortion rights is a perfect example of the Newsomian mindset. The billboards tell women that California will protect their right to bodily autonomy and to abortion. If such boards turn off Ohio and Florida voters — whom a Democratic presidential contender will need someday — so what?

Let me be clear: these interventions don’t make Newsom a hero. Here at home, his national blasts are good politics, feeding his base. And contrary to critics who say Newsom’s national forays distract from his duties to Californians, the governor’s national fights actually help him do his job. How? By keeping him in the spotlight, which has allowed him to make a public case for his wildly ambitious agenda of new policies and programs in health care, child care, housing and homelessness.

But Newsom’s California supremacy is poison in the other 49 states where Americans can’t accept the truth that we really do know better.

That’s one reason why Newsom is not sacrificing that much when he throws away any White House prospects he might have had. A Californian doesn’t have much chance at the presidency anyway, much less a Californian with Newsom’s baggage. And Newsom is demographically wrong for a Democratic Party that desperately needs to nominate more women and people of color.

But Newsom is perfectly cast to call out while male political bullies and call in his fellow Democrats.

And who knows? While he’ll never be president of the United States, he still could lead a nation someday. If our state and the rest of the country continue to grow apart, it’s not hard to imagine Newsom as the first president or prime minister of an independent California Republic.

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.

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