by 
Gavin
Newsom’s
new
podcast
reveals
not
only
a
media-savvy
politico
seeking
more
exposure
to
a
bigger
audience.
It
also
reflects
a
concerted
drive
by
the
onetime
self-anointed
leader
of
the
#Resistance
to
reinvent
himself
as
the
unique
progressive
breaking
through
to
MAGA
World,
as
evidenced
by
his
decision
to
invite
Right-wing
firebrands
like
Charlie
Kirk,
Michael
Savage,
and
Steve
Bannon
as
his
initial
guests.
This
shift
away
from
liberal
orthodoxy
has
shocked
Newsom’s
long-time
progressive
allies,
who
see
it
as
an
act
of
treachery.
Yet
if
they
had
been
paying
attention
to
Newsom’s
career
—
above
all,
his
willingness
to
morph
into
whatever
identity
best
serves
his
quest
for
power
—
this
wouldn’t
be
so
surprising.
Conservatives,
too,
will
discover
that
Newsom
isn’t
a
tool
of
the
progressive
Left,
or
a
typical
California
progressives
with
“communistic”
policies,
as
one
conservative
outlet
described
them.
On
the
contrary,
Newsom,
unlike
his
predecessor,
Jerry
Brown,
has
been
a
committed,
shameless
sniffer
of
political
winds
throughout
his
career.
That’s
not
to
say
that
Newsom
doesn’t
have
a
lodestar.
He
does:
namely,
the
monied
elite
of
the
Bay
Area,
particularly
the
Getty
family.
It
explains
his
ease
in
discarding
Left-of-centre
dogmas
on
law
and
order,
and
likewise
why
he
has
emerged
as
an
unofficial
political
spokesman
for
the
“abundance”
agenda,
which
is
how
neoliberal
Democrats
are
rebranding
themselves
these
days.
(In
a
display
of
virtuoso
flexibility,
however,
Newsom
in
his
conversation
with
Bannon
called
out
Trump
for
his
closeness
with
the
tech
oligarchs
—
talk
about
the
pot
calling
the
kettle
black.)
His
oligarchic
allegiance
has
funded,
and
shaped,
Newsom’s
career.
He
projected
himself
as
a
relative
moderate
as
mayor
of
San
Francisco.
Later
in
2011,
as
lieutenant
governor,
he
challenged
the
rigid
Brown,
suggesting
pro-business
reforms.
That
year,
amid
a
weakening
Golden
State
economy,
he
travelled
to
arch-rival
Texas
to
discover
the
secrets
of
the
Lone
Star
State’s
boom
—
much
to
the
consternation
of
progressives.
Then,
as
the
winds
shifted
to
the
Left,
Newsom
decided
to
re-centre
his
appeal
to
progressives
in
California
and
nationwide.
He
became
a
fervent
advocate
of
such
things
as
early
transgender
treatments
and
banning
schools
from
informing
parents
about
their
own
kids’
sexual
identity
issues.
His
heiress
wife,
Jennifer
Siebel,
made
a
documentary
film
embracing
the
transgender
cause.
As
governor,
he
could
dispense
the
blessings
of
full-spectrum
progressivism
thanks
to
a
massive
accumulation
of
capital-gains
revenue
during
the
tech
boom.
The
economy,
about
which
he
repeatedly
bragged,
may
have
hurt
the
middle
and
working
classes,
but
it
allowed
Newsom
and
his
legislative
allies
to
build
a
vote-catching
“blue
welfare
state”,
as
The
Nation
magazine
enthused.
Read
the
rest
of
this
piece:
UnHerd.
Joel
Kotkin
is
the
author
of
The
Coming
of
Neo-Feudalism:
A
Warning
to
the
Global
Middle
Class.
He
is
the
Roger
Hobbs
Presidential
Fellow
in
Urban
Futures
at
Chapman
University
and
and
directs
the
Center
for
Demographics
and
Policy
there.
He
is
Senior
Research
Fellow
at
the
Civitas
Institute
at
the
University
of
Texas
in
Austin.
Learn
more
at
joelkotkin.com
and
follow
him
on
Twitter
@joelkotkin.
Photo:
California
Governor
via
Flickr
under
CC
2.0
License.
Go to Source
Author: Joel Kotkin
