Newsom is their guy for 2024

The menace of Blue Caesar

Joe Biden is on the ropes. Recently there have been several op-eds in the major liberal papers of record stating that Biden is simply too old to run. The latest polling suggests that this view is supported by the general public. Biden does seem to pretty clearly have dementia or some other form of serious cognitive decline. His bizarre public outbursts and physical frailty are increasingly hard to conceal.

So, if Biden goes. Who’s next? One natural thought would be Vice President Kamala Harris, but she appears to be more widely disliked than even Biden is. Many Democratic commentators are already proposing dropping Harris from the ticket, proposals which are only being half-heartedly swatted down by Biden’s backers.

Many eyes have fallen on California Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom is handsome, charismatic, and has been taking vocal positions on national issues from gun control to letting little kids look at blow job cartoons in the school library. He’s even agreed to a debate with Florida governor and former presidential contender Ron DeSantis. The debate seemed unlikely to occur because DeSantis, awkward and somewhat abrasive when interacting with others unscripted, is requesting a more formal debate structure with pre-prepared segments while Newsom insisted on a live and free-form debate. However, the two governors just reached an agreement. The showdown will be held on November 30. I have no doubt it will be a disaster for DeSantis.

Conservatives are dismissive of Newsom’s chances. After all, Newsom has presided over one of the biggest and fastest declines in quality of life in California history. The state has been hit by massive inflation (particularly for essentials like housing), devastating natural disasters stemming from government incompetence, a huge increase in brazen robberies and public disorder following “police reform” and the election of activist pro-crime prosecutors in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd riots. In fact, Californians are leaving California in droves due to this mismanagement.

Newsom himself has said he is not running. Last week he sent a clear message to anyone who expects him to run against Biden or Harris: “Time to move on.”

For me, this latest statement is the strongest evidence that Newsom will run in 2024. Over the last few years, Newsom has spent great effort in establishing himself as a good soldier for the Democratic establishment. He has raised an enormous amount of money for Democratic candidates in Republican states, and been a steadfast supporter of Biden through the President’s most embarrassing scandals. Newsom has made it abundantly clear that he is a team player who will not attempt to profit from other Democrats’ missteps.

To compliment his team player persona, Newsom is also working to solve the most visible problems his regime created. Late last Friday night, he vetoed a bill that require judges to remove children from parents who didn’t affirm their child’s “gender identity,” a move that likely angers radicals but makes him seem relatively reasonable. He recently announced a $267 million effort to crack down on the many organized shoplifting rings operating in California after state legislators essentially legalized theft with Newsom’s support. He’s even vowed to tackle California’s disastrous homeless problem, spending more than $15 billion to combat the vagrants visible in most public spaces and speaking out against activist federal officials who are blocking homeless encampments from being cleared.

Republicans might say that Newsom would be a terrible candidate, but I’m not so sure. The issue with the country isn’t really that this or that policy is popular or unpopular, but rather that there is a large and growing segment of the population that can be convinced to support virtually anything, no matter how obviously insane or unacceptable it is, presented to them by the liberal media.

During the COVID hysteria, over half of Democrats stated in a poll that they would support legislation to prevent unvaccinated people from leaving their homes at all. Nearly half of them said they thought prison time or fines would be appropriate for people who questioned the efficacy of vaccines.

This extends to militant behavior. Supporters of sexualized performances for children are regularly able to gather dozens of armed paramilitaries to “protect” these events, even in deep Red states. “Moderate” political figures like Biden and Newsom are 100% in lockstep behind procedures that just a few years ago no one but the most radical and disturbed activists would defend.

There is an enormous segment of the public that is simply easily manipulated, to the point of absurdity. They would be overjoyed to support Newsom despite the obvious issues he has created for this state. This support would be greatly bolstered by the fact that Newsom is able to charismatically lie about these issues. In an interview with Sean Hannity, he simply denied that the well-documented exodus of citizens from his state was occurring. The public follows strength. Newsom’s willingness to stick to his guns against all evidence without shame will benefit him substantially.

He’ll also be able to benefit from solving problems that are easy to solve. The crime and homelessness problems in California, which were created in large part due to policies Newsom supported, are actually pretty straightforward to fix. It involves simply resuming basic government functions that Americans enjoyed for most of their lifetimes. The issue has never been that stopping this behavior was difficult. The wall of activists, officials, and other bad actors who deliberately halted these functions can disappear just as quickly as it went up. They’re just waiting for permission.

A charismatic figure like Newsom, who’s willing to aggressively advocate for whatever position he’s taking at the moment, is the perfect person to give that mental permission. I honestly think that it will work, and that Newsom will soon be praised as a political magician and moderate for solving the problems he helped to create. He’ll be able to cast himself as an enemy of the radical liberals that normal Americans despise in ever growing numbers. People will look at you like you’re crazy when you point out the behavior that led up to him taking “leadership” on this issue.

As a radical with the aesthetics of a moderate, Newsom will present the same challenge to Republicans as Biden. However, Newsom will be that much more dangerous because he’s obviously not a mere puppet. He’s a younger man full of vitality. Although many people have speculated about the prospect of a Red Caesar in coming decades, I think Newsom acting as a Blue Caesar is a much more likely scenario. If Newsom can give liberals mental permission to support things like arresting black criminals or clearing out the homeless or not stealing children because their parents don’t support the trans fad, he could definitely give them permission to support even more radical suppression of conservatives.

The good news is that the situation isn’t hopeless. President Trump is leading polls by a substantial margin in every swing state. I think that if Trump makes it to election day without going to prison, he stands a very good chance of winning. Even if Trump is somehow jailed and a successor candidate who promises to end the chaos and pardon Trump steps up (I think Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is just inoffensive enough to break through to braindead suburban moderates even if he decides to become a vocal Trump supporter), Republicans stand a good chance of winning.

However, Republicans have no chance of winning if before the election even happens, they internalize defeat. It really is all hands on deck. Although there’s always a path forward no matter how bad the situation is, a loss in 2024 would I think create a cycle of demoralization and lead to the general collapse of the conservative opposition across the country. As much as people deride the idea of “just voting Republican,” if people aren’t willing to even meet that low bar, they’re certainly not going to be willing to pursue some of the more extravagant proposals that many people think are a near realization.

No matter what happens, rain or shine, people need to go to the polls on election day. That should be the only message. Talk of fraud should be confined to efforts to prevent fraud. I think talking about the likelihood of fraud before the election happens, without anything else, is demoralizing conservatives and diminishes turnout. Republicans were consistently demolished in special elections this summer. People didn’t show up. Trump has a massive lead among Americans who are unlikely to vote. That is a pretty disturbing figure. Now, more than ever, people need to know that their problems are solvable if they have the will to solve them.