California conservative: Gavin Newsom can’t relate to broad swaths of the state he governs

Kara Swisher, a liberal opinion writer and podcaster who lives in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., recently made a striking observation about California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“People are pretty OK with him,” Swisher said during an appearance on the New York Times podcast “The Argument.” “They don’t necessarily love him, you know. But they don’t dislike him. And that is what I think is interesting.”

It is interesting how so many people feel emotionally detached about Newsom. Sure, he won the battle of the recall, but he is not relatable to average Californians.

He seems too programmed and perfect. His posh restaurant group is not only backed by big investors, but it also got a big bailout from the federal government last year. Newsom owns a fancy vineyard, gets $200 haircuts and has a privileged family lineage — not to mention the $12,000-$15,000 bar tab he ran up at the pricey Napa Valley restaurant the French Laundry, which helped fuel the recall.

We were suffering in a pandemic. Newsom was living his best life.

Good for him, but what about the rest of us? While still accounting for about 15% of the U.S. economy and the national leader in job creation, the Golden State isn’t so shiny anymore.

The California where I live, in North San Diego County, is comfortable, well-heeled and a tad entitled. But my family and neighbors are still familiar with stress and struggle. They worry about losing jobs, falling behind on mortgages, the delta variant, caring for parents with dementia and whether a year of remote learning wrecked their children’s study habits.

The California where I was raised, in the Central Valley, is rural, blue-collar and hardscrabble. It’s also about 50% Latino. The people who live there — who I consider “my people” in the same way that the writer J.D. Vance sees white, working-class folks in Kentucky as his people — rise early and grind out the day. They do it just to chase “enough.”

In my hometown of Sanger, folks think a lot about the concept of enough. Some worry about not having enough food to feed their families, especially in winter, when the packing houses stop humming and work dries up like raisins in the sun. They worry about whether the region has enough water, or whether they’re spending enough time with their kids as they hold down two jobs, or whether the education that their children get from local schools will be good enough.

Newsom doesn’t seem to know this California exists. Worse, he has never seemed the least bit curious about it. He has no interest in escaping his comfort zone — San Francisco, where he served as mayor from 2004 to 2011, and Sacramento, where he lives and works now — and seeing how the other 99% lives.

Of course, just because you live in privilege doesn’t mean that privilege has to live in you.

It’s offensive that, in his victory lap remarks after surviving the recall, the governor invoked Robert Kennedy.

“I’m humbled, grateful, but resolved in the spirit of my political hero, Robert Kennedy, to make more gentle the life of this world,” Newsom told supporters.

Is Newsom humble? Not so much. Life on Easy Street doesn’t teach humility.

The late politician of Irish ancestry from Boston — who my grandma called “El Bobby” — came from money and power, but he connected with the disadvantaged and downtrodden. He wore their anguish on his face, and he carried their struggle in his heart.

Governor, you’re no Bobby Kennedy.

Swisher is right. Californians don’t “necessarily love” Newsom. They barely know him, and they certainly can’t relate to him. Sadly, the feeling is mutual.

This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 6:00 AM.