Below is my column in The Hill on the declaration of Gov. Gavin Newsom that he is now officially “evolving.” However, unlike more modest objectives like opposable thumbs over eons, Newsom wants to accomplish a full transformation in one election cycle to appeal to the surging far left of his party. It is a cautionary tale for Democrats who want their party to reposition toward the political center.
Here is the column:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wants you to know that he is evolving.
Newsom is facing a rising radical movement among Democrats, including a surging contingent aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. He is struggling in polls and therefore eager to show the skill identified by Darwin that allows certain species to thrive in their environment: adaptation.
Newsom has recently declared capitalism a failure. He is now joining his competitors for president in offering up the Supreme Court and its independence to the far left. His free fall into rage politics is a cautionary tale for those who want to return the Democratic Party to more centrist positions.
Often called a “political chameleon,” Newsom seems to be morphing into the actual species that evolved to adjust to its environment, including more nimble feet.
Although natural selection takes place over many years and even eons, Newsom does not have the luxury of time. He does not want to be eliminated by the more politically fit opponents to his left.
Polls continue to show he receives more media support than public support. He trails Kamala Harris by 15 points in recent polling and is nearly tied with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Harris and Buttigieg quickly turned their backs on the norms governing the Supreme Court to support court-packing. Harris dismissed those of us in opposition as engaging in mere “nostalgia.”
Newsom had previously tried to offer a sane alternative to these voices. But he has now found himself their quiet companion in a primal scream session. As he began to vanish in political polling, he decided he would not be outcrazied by Democratic opponents.
With candidates like Texas’s Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico calling for the “dismantling” of capitalism as an “oppressive system,” Newsom finds himself needing to cater to the mob. He has now declared that “nostalgia is not working” while adding that “capitalism as we know it doesn’t work either.”
Newsom has recently been campaigning in blue states such as New Hampshire, repeating his mantra that capitalism as “not working.”
But these days, it is not enough for socialists and the far left merely to oppose the most successful economic system in the history of the world. Newsom is still being labeled as an establishment politician. So he has tried to dispel that impression with his signature toothy grin and astonished demeanor, claiming that he is really undermining the system from within as “an established insurgent.”
Again, that is not enough for the current political environment. So this week, he changed his position on the Supreme Court to say that he is now “open” to court-packing.
Packing the court is considered essential today for any viable Democratic candidate. Some are openly calling for the imposition of a litmus test for all candidates: As they put it, it is a choice between “packed or sacked.”
Even moderate figures such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) have now yielded to the mob in expressing a willingness to pack the Supreme Court.
So Newsom wants the far left to know that he is yet again evolving: “My initial instinct — me, a year ago, I would have said no out of concern that it will continue to be expanded. … I’m finding myself evolving on it.”
The question is what Newsom and his Democrat opponents will offer next in their political adaptation. These candidates have shown that no institution or value is more important than their securing power. At this rate, we will be fortunate to have anything more than the ship itself after the race to toss institutions and “nostalgic” values over the side.
The danger for Newsom — like the danger of any fast-tracking of evolution — is that the environment can change, leaving you with an adaptation that makes you even more likely to be eliminated. Newsom knows that attacking our constitutional or economic systems will not play well in the general election, but he also knows he will never see the 2028 general election if his opponents on the left outflank him.
Moreover, offerings like the Supreme Court or our economic system are unlikely to satiate the far left. As I discuss in “Rage and the Republic,” history shows that establishment figures rarely survive the mob politics they seek to use for their own advantage.
In the meantime, because of the cynical calculations of leaders like Newsom, we face a growing threat of doing lasting harm to our constitutional system. The framers warned us of these voices of “mobocracy” that would tear apart the contemporary revolution in France, which became known as “the Terror.”
The danger is that, while the majority opposes court packing and socialism, the new majority in Congress could force changes without amending the Constitution. That certainly can be done with court packing. Once a new liberal majority is secured, there would then be little barrier to achieving many of the objectives of a radical agenda long discussed by professors and pundits. Some have argued that, with control of the court and radical constitutional changes, Republicans will not be able to win another election.
In other words, the radicals hope to change the environment to prevent further adaptation and future competition.
Kurt Vonnegut once said, “Evolution can go to hell as far as I am concerned. What a mistake we are.” After watching the chameleonic Gavin Newsom, it seems that we may be on the cusp of precisely such an evolutionary mistake.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.“
Newsom is the creation of Gordon Getty, a billionaire who never worked, thanks to Gavin Newsom’s father. He was appointed to a Superior Court by Jerry Brown (in a region he didn’t live in) and vaulted to State Appeals level 3 years later just in time to rule in a precedential case that Getty got a share of oil magnate JP Getty’s estate (most of it funded the Getty museum in Malibu) though he was not named in a will or ever worked it the business. The twisted tale is told in a video “The 4 Families of California” (Browns Newsoms Pelosis Gettys) that was deleted from YouTube but is still on Rumble. Nancy Pelosi is Newsom’s aunt by marriage.
When Newsom was mayor of SF and Harris was DA the city was coaching illegal alien criminal MS-13s how to use their “no name” status to pretend they were juveniles to escape prosecution. The city paid for them to go back to El Salvador to see their families (recruit more gangs) and their returrn trips. One of them who went by “Edwin Ramos” shot and killed a father and 2 of his sons on their way home from mass on a Saturday afternoon for no apparent reason. (Search for story of “Bologna family killings SF”) Ramos had just been in a car used in a drive-by shooting with the gun still in the car but SFPD could not tie the gun to anyone so they all went free. SF was “sanctuary” on steroids by policy and procedure even then not long after 9/11. Harris’s debut as DA had been marked by the machine gun murder of Officer Isaac Espinosa by a 19 year old gang member, Harris immediate response was to announce that the case would not be tried as a death penalty.
I’m in California, the state is a crime scene. The “high speed rail” boondoggle has been an orgy of spending and they have no train nor even a clear plan where the route will start, finish, or where the stations will be. Perhaps you saw the tale of Nick Shirley who knocked on a few doors in LA where they are “managing” hospice and in-home health care service and found tens of millions in unaccounted for money being distributed to people who provided no services. Federal cases and arrests soon followed as the State AG proclaimed he was on top of it though it turned out the State Auditor had handed Newsom a report warning of the loose or non-existent financial controls 2 years before. Newsom did nothing. The legislature promptly passed a new law to stop citizen journalists from doing what Nick did. Recent guilty pleas by close associates of Newsom have drawn little media coverage. It appears he enjoys a large degree of media “protection” considering the repeated episodes of murders committed by illegal aliens in a state that refuses coopertion with federal immigration enforcement. Last week a Venezuelan let in by Biden’s policies was released by a Newsom appointed judge in Martinez despite repeat offenses and qualified as “deportable” under federal law. The next day the criminal stabbed a man to death working his own garage, apparently a robbery attempt. Newsom released a statement blaming the federal government. Just this weekend we get the local news coverage in Sacramento of an illegal from India let in by Biden who stalked and threatened a woman for years and murdered her as she left work, though she had obtained a restraining order after he broke into her residence. He suicided after a police pursuit.
The Democrats built one-party rule by promoting “State Dependency” where people are cultivated like slaves on a plantation except they don’t work. They get fat and sick in large part to a Frankenstate that subsidizes food that causes obesity and diabetes (17 R states tried cut off SNAP for junk food by TDS judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled they must be restored). Key to the majority was “motor voter” and DLs for illegals who are auto-registered to vote at the DMV they are supposed to “opt out” but if they don’t they’re “in”. The almost ineffably corrupt state government won’t investigate anything and the DAs in locales like SF and LA are if anything even worse.
This November Voter ID is on the ballot (I’m in a Congressional district where the Democrat won the last election by 110 votes due to undocumented colleges students bused to the polling place castng in-person “provisional” ballots with no ID) polls show the Democrats opposed it 88%-12% so it will fail. No Republican can win anything at the state level and have not for 20 years nor will they ever again. The remainder of the better wake up fast because the state is rapidly contaminating adjacent states into the same condition, incredibly those fleeing California look to still vote for the same idiotic policies that turned the state into a Third World country outside a shrinking number of exclusive enclaves.
ANON=WASTE
Imagine having all of the eduction, experience and intellect of Professor Turley regarding the law, and instead of enlightening his readers on the greatest legal matters of the day, being a shill for a political party full of cowards, lackeys and criminals. What a waste.
It’s funny Turley isn’t writing columns about AI and the potential destruction it might cause. AI has been dominating the news for much of this year. Surely the professor must have opinions on the issue. Why is he keeping them secret??