The Tamesis
Let’s get that out of the way: He was embarrassingly handsome, with silver hair, and he took his prominence in stride as he delivered his final State of the Union address. “In Washington, the president believes that might makes right,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “Secret police, raiding businesses, smashing windows, detaining citizens, citizens shooting, Masked men robbing people in broad daylight…” His tone was gentle, but the words echoed in the state Capitol chamber, the solemn backdrop for his speech. “Funding the pockets of the rich; crony capitalism unimaginable Scale,” he continued. “Take back your rights… rewrite history. Newsom shook his head, looking more sad than angry. It looked like, yes, president. “None of this is normal.”
This must be driving Trump crazy. Newsom: Light, enthusiastic, energetic, with an optimistic twinkle in his eye; Kennedy-esque. Add to that his amazing wife and four adorable children, and the executive mettle of a self-made millionaire, and he’s spent the past seven years presiding over a country large, complex, and rich enough to be its own country. And then there’s what Newsom did is doing. Forced the president to abandon plans to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles. Block a Republican redistricting coup in Texas through the recently passed Proposition 50, a recently passed ballot measure that could give as many as five California House seats to Democrats. These tweets, or whatever they’re called now: “Fox hates me for being America’s most popular governor (the “Rating King”) saving America – and Trump can’t even conquer the ‘grand’ stairs of Air Force One anymore!!! … Thanks for your attention. – GCN.” There’s a photo that’s been circulating online from time to time of the governor on the tarmac at LAX pointing his finger at the president’s chest. Bodyguard body language, e.g. Hey man, not so fast. Over the past year, it sometimes seemed like the only thing standing in the way of Donald Trump’s will for power was Gavin Newsom. They make great foils: both are masters of modern media; both, in their own way, know how to star in “Political Show.”
Whatever you do, get people talking. Comment, repost, debate, dissect. We are all part of the show and the show is always going on. “Newsom understands this,” MS NOW notes All in Host Chris Hayes talks about the distortions the attention economy is having on politics in his recent book Call of the Sirens. “He’s shown a useful shamelessness in attracting attention — that’s part of Trump’s power.”
Newsom’s latest topic of conversation is his new memoir, Young man in a hurry. This is not a manifesto per se. You do get a vague sense of Newsom’s politics, given his impending announcement of a 2028 presidential bid – a shrewd taint. The book describes him as A man who can fight, A man with big dreams, A person who pays attention to details, A person with a desire to serve. These are not fixed ideological views; they leave room for maneuver. The memoir’s primary function is to convince you that Gavin Newsom is a human being with weaknesses and failures. A man who must find himself. “When you lose language, your identity disappears. You start trying on clothes to see if they fit,” he writes of his childhood struggles with undiagnosed dyslexia, a source of confusion about who he was and his place in the world. By Newsom’s own definition, he became a poser. While discussing the book, he explains Oscar Wilde. “What’s the saying? ‘First you pose, and then…'” He shrugged demonstratively: Who knows? Like, once you peek behind your mask, who knows where you’ll go. Newsom said that’s what he set out to do when he wrote the book.
