XPost: alt.politics.democrats.governors, sac.politics, alt.politics.immigration XPost: alt.society.liberalism, ca.politics
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/05/19/gavin-newsom- president-2028-california-failures/83645633007/
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is angling to be the Democratic
presidential nominee in 2028 by trying to appeal to voters outside his progressive base. But he's not fooling anyone.
Newsom, for example, has proposed limiting health care coverage for
migrants who entered the country illegally. He's told local leaders in California to clear homeless encampments, which are a bane for urban
dwellers from San Francisco to San Diego. And he's even engaged on his
podcast in thoughtful, cordial conversations with conservatives like
Charlie Kirk, cofounder of Turning Point USA.
But Newsom can't escape his record � or the record of other California Democrats who've tarnished the Golden State's reputation, squandered its resources and sunk its quality of life.
California is the land of bad ideas
California is the place where bad ideas go to find acceptance. Take, for instance, the California State Assembly's recent heated debate on the
sex trafficking of children.
Based on her experience as a prosecutor, Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, coauthored a bill that would have made it a felony to
solicit 16- and 17-year-old minors for sex. It's the kind of commonsense legislation that should have attracted bipartisan support.
But Krell's fellow Democrats gutted the legislation, despite the fact
that Newsom supported it. The bill, which Krell wrote with a Republican legislator, was an attempt to fix loopholes in Senate Bill 1414. The
Assembly passed that bill last year, making it a felony to pay for sex
with minors � with the exception of 16- and 17-year-olds.
In debating the bill, Assembly members also argued vehemently about how
to clean up a mess of their own making - the real-world fallout that
occurred after they enacted a law that decriminalized loitering while
selling sex on the streets. A local news report noted that the law has
led to "vast swathes of urban areas in California" becoming "open
prostitution zones."
It's ordinary citizens who often have to suffer the unintended
consequences of so many progressive ideas.
After a public outcry and a nudge from Newsom, Krell's bill, resurrected
by a fellow Democrat, has now passed the Assembly and awaits action in
the state Senate.
But it's frustrating and sad to see California progressives waste so
much time and energy fighting legislation that would protect children -
and yes, a 16-year-old is still a child, legally and developmentally -
from the horrors of sex trafficking.
Homeless crisis another sign of failed progressive policy
When visiting Los Angeles, I am always saddened by the extraordinary
number of people in the city - more than 45,000 - who are struggling
with homelessness. I also think that a state that boasts the largest GDP
in the country - and the fourth-largest economy in the world - surely
has the financial resources necessary to get Californians in need back
on their feet.
Yet, progressives in California, Newsom included, have tried for decades
to reduce homelessness in the state. They have failed - badly and
repeatedly.
Even Newsom admits that failure. In a May 12 press conference commenting
on the homeless crisis, the governor suddenly sounded tough. "I'm not interested anymore, period, full stop, in funding failure," he said.
Newsom might not be interested in funding failure any longer, but that's precisely what he's done for years. Since Newsom took office in 2019,
the state has spent more than $20 billion on efforts to reduce
homelessness. The result? The number of people without a home to call
their own has gone up.
If he does run for president, Newsom will have a hard time explaining
away that debacle to voters in Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas who will
rightly wonder if he'll waste their tax dollars on expensive failures.
Newsom may fool some moderate Democrats with his sudden shift to the
middle, but the rest of us won't forget the long history of progressive failures that have hurt Californians under his watch.
--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.
Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
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