California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a symbol of how Democrats lost the will to fight | Opinion
There is a scene in the 2005 animated film, “Madagascar” that sums up what Democratic leaders are choosing to do in the face of Republicans’ swift takeover of the government.
As penguins in the film attempt to escape the New York City Zoo, they suddenly freeze in place when they almost got caught.
“Just smile and wave boys, just smile and wave” the lead penguin tells the others.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s submission to the Republican Party and conservatives tells liberals, leftists and everyone in between to just smile and wave while billions in federal funding is cut, while Medicaid is at risk and while vulnerable communities are subjected to hate.
Newsom had right-wing populist Steve Bannon on his latest podcast episode, where Bannon didn’t simply want to challenge the governor on his beliefs, but change them.
“The purpose of why I want to do is is I want to convert you to be a tariff guy also. This is apart of the process to unwind you from being a globalist to make a populist nationalist.”
“This is a part of the deprogramming isn’t it?” Newsom chuckling, as if anything was funny. Newsom also didn’t say a peep when Bannon repeated the lie that current President Donald Trump really didn’t lose the 2020 election when he really did.
Newsom seems to have lost faith in his party and each episode exemplifies the slow unraveling of a Democratic Party failing to give voting Democrats any semblance of a counteroffensive to Trumpism. We saw this loss of belief when Sacramento Congressman Ami Bera voted to censure a fellow Democrat who spoke out against Trump on national television, And we’re seeing it it in Senate Democrats who seem poised to cave to Trump in negotiations to prevent a government shutdown.
But this lost belief doesn’t have to be our own.
It’s time we get some spine.
Stand on your values
Progressive personality Sam Seder willfully surrounded himself with 20 Trump-loving conservatives to debate hot button topics on YouTube. All the debates came to their predictable stalemates, but it was refreshing to see a progressive articulate his beliefs in a way that left conservatives speechless at times.
In one episode, young conservatives make the case for cutting Medicaid and getting rid of Social Security altogether. Their reasons centered on the idea that the government failed them. Their views are disconnected from the real consequences of the current assault on the federal government by the Trump administration.
The DOGE’s website lists 64 potential lease terminations to offices located in all parts of California.
Americans place all blame of the division in our country on the values that each person has. The logic is that the never-ending slobber knocker political match between liberals and conservatives depletes the will of liberals to engage.
Government is our backbone. Let’s act like it.
The frustration with government is valid but resentment is not a reason to reject or tear it down. Aside from firing thousands of people from their federal jobs, millions of borrowers paying off student loans are now in limbo, potentially facing much higher payments.
Gutting Medicaid would hurt millions of vulnerable people.
A lack of awareness of what the Department of Education does, how Social Security works, what Medicaid does puts our democracy at risk.
When you consider the cuts to vital programs needed by everyday Americans and the trillions in tax cuts Trump wants, we see the destruction of government as a stabilizing force. Billionaires do well in this system, not common people.
Trump’s election and his appeal is the result of our loss and understanding of what are system of government and its institutions do and mean. Newsom is representative of Democrats who are too timid to make the case against what Trump is doing.
We have to find our courage again to get our country back on track.
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 11:25 AM.
