California Gov. Gavin Newsom couldn’t be bothered to show up at the state Capitol in Sacramento Tuesday to deliver his State of the State address; instead, for the fourth year in a row, he aired a pre-recorded message. Appearing somber, his speech was anything but uplifting, and like Joe Biden, he painted his political opponents as dangerous zealots who hate progress. He tried to depict the Golden State as some sort of utopia despite the crime epidemic, the explosion in the number of homeless people, and the unaffordability of the state.
He obsessed over abortion, as that is one of the few issues that Democrats believe they can win on. However, since he will be termed out in 2027, his heart didn’t really seem to be in it and he lacked energy.
Ignore all California’s very real problems, Newsom seemed to say, and instead let's focus on the evils of the conservatives:
Repeating familiar tropes of past political speeches, Newsom cast the state as a force of light against dark conservative forces and boasted about California’s work to protect civil rights and the rights of women and LGBTQ+ communities.
“Our values and our way of life are the antidote to the poisonous populism of the right, and to the fear and anxiety that so many people are feeling today,” Newsom said. “People across the globe look to California and see what’s possible, and how to live and advance together and prosper together across every conceivable difference.”
He returned to his familiar rhetoric regarding abortion, in effect saying that it was California’s number one issue:
The governor used the speech to attack conservatives nationally over reproductive rights, an issue Democrats have tried to capitalize on in the 2024 election. He described them as “telling a woman she’s not in charge of her own body.”
“When it comes to reproductive rights, their lies are designed to control,” Newsom said. “Their draconian policies are driving women to flee across state lines, as fugitives from laws written by men more than a hundred years ago. Some even go so far as to force victims of assault to give birth to their rapist’s babies.”
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Where Newsom really went off the rails, though, was when he tried to make differences of opinion into some sort of “Star Wars” scenario where the armies of the Good must use The Force against the battalions of the Darkness:
“We are presented with a choice between a society that embraces our values and a world darkened by division and discrimination,” Newsom said. “The economic prosperity, health, safety and freedom that we enjoy are under assault. Forces are threatening the very foundation of California’s success — our pluralism, our innovative spirit, and our diversity.”
That last line was possibly his most laughable, “The economic prosperity, health, safety, and freedom that we enjoy are under assault.” What economic prosperity, health, safety, and freedom are you talking about, Governor? The state is an absolute disaster, and people are leaving in droves. The assault you describe is the one that you and your one-party rule have sicced upon us.
Newsom seems to have pretty much lost interest in the job and clearly is angling for a position on the national level—perhaps in Biden’s Cabinet, or maybe even as a presidential candidate in ’24 (depending on whether Biden lasts) or ’28. In the meantime, he’s headed to Atlanta to be at the presidential debate Thursday night. He’s expected to do interviews before and after the event, during which he can be counted on to further attempt to gaslight the public about what’s going on in California and continue to describe anyone who doesn’t agree with his extremism as a “threat to democracy.”
But the reality is, Gov. Newsom: the state of the state is very, very bad.
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