Gavin Newsom knows the popular image of him is of a smooth talker with slicked-back hair, the wealthy liberal who co-owns a vineyard.

He knows, regarding the presidential ambitions he’s hardly hiding, that the biggest question he would face out of the gate is whether he could sell Americans on wanting California to represent their future rather than seeing it as the place where the wackiest liberal dreams go to run wild.

The redistricting fight that Newsom and the state legislature are launching Monday could, he and his inner circle believe, give him all the rebuttals he needs.

  • AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    8 hours ago

    He’s a POS, but I’ll take any opposition to the GOP right now. We can deal with the remnants later, but we need to be able to even get there.

  • ileftreddit@piefed.social
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    15 hours ago

    He’s definitely gunning for the top job, but he is hardly a progressive, sadly

    Edit: at least he is a fighter, something the dems have been sorely lacking

    • zbyte64@awful.systems
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      14 hours ago

      He fights for a certain set of billionaires who happen to be less destructive than the other set of billionaires. But don’t be fooled into thinking he is going to fight for anyone less privileged.

      • PacketPilot@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        Well to be fair, he did sign into law a $20 minimum wage and labor standards for the fast food industry. That’s not nothing.

        • zbyte64@awful.systems
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          11 hours ago

          He didn’t fight for that law though, we dragged him to do the right thing, and we sacrificed carve outs to get it signed.

        • frostedtrailblazer@lemmy.zip
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          11 hours ago

          I’ve agreed a lot with Newsom over the years and I’ve disagreed with him just as much. At this moment, I would say he’s got the right intentions to do good here. He would not be my personal primary choice, but he would at least would be willing to press states for better standards and would help stand against corruption. In California he’s at least pushing for the state to use more electric vehicles.

          • PacketPilot@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            He’s definitely not my first choice either, but I like his brutal mockery of Trump and his willingness to fight dirty. I think that’s sorely needed right now.

    • Oxysis/Oxy@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      14 hours ago

      He’s not a progressive at all, he wants to throw my people (trans folx) under the bus as hard as republicunts do

      • frostedtrailblazer@lemmy.zip
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        10 hours ago

        I think he’s left-of-center leaning, but postures in a way that is throwing trans people under the bus to win votes from bigots that may lean left, center, or right. Do I think he personally would push for any trans sports ban? Not really, but he is playing it up to win over the voters that for some reason are treating trans people in sports as a hardline issue they are against.

        It’s one of several reasons I wouldn’t want him specifically to win the 2028 primary; since I would like to believe our country still has enough kind people that we don’t need to step on each other for us to all get ahead.

        • Oxysis/Oxy@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          10 hours ago

          If he wants to appeal to fascists it’s gonna end the same way it has before. He’s gonna lose because why would fascists vote for the fascist-lite when a full fledged fascist is right there. All he does in the end is make it more acceptable to strip my people of rights.

          Maybe something on the level or worse than the pandemic happens and he can get in on that. But he still did major harm to my people, harm that cannot be undone fully for decades if not longer.

          Either way he is playing with a dangerous ideology that will get trans people killed. Maybe not state sponsored but remember what happened with Nex Benedict, when this toxic hateful ideology becomes normalized it encourages violence.

  • zbyte64@awful.systems
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    14 hours ago

    Can’t wait for him to looselose like Kamala did. Guy probably still supports giving Israel bombs to continue their genocide. Misinformed people will always learn the wrong lessons from elections.

    • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      I’ve vote against him in a primary, but will vote for him if the other option is whatever the GOP is doing today.

      • marine_mustang@sh.itjust.works
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        16 hours ago

        Yep. Voting in the primary AND general elections, every other year, is the bare minimum for democratic participation. Not once every four years.

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        14 hours ago

        Man, I’d vote Whitmer over Newsom and I /hate/ Whitmer. Whitmer is good at being a “counter”. She is good at voicing up and objecting to Donald Trump. That’s it. She’s otherwise not particularly outstanding. When Biden was elected and she had to stand on her own, her accomplishments were lackluster at best. Newsom strikes me as more of the same, but worse. All talk, but can’t walk the walk.

        /Harris/ with as many faults as she has, is a better choice than both of them combined and she wasn’t particularly stellar either.

        I’d rather have Tlaib, AOC, Warren (yeah she’ll be like 80 so probably won’t make it out of the primary). If Illinois didn’t have a record of corrupt governors, maybe Pritzker? Warnock might be a better choice.

        Seriously, fuck Newsom dude. That guy doesn’t stand for anything

          • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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            13 hours ago

            I voted Harris and I voted in a garbage democratic senator for my state too.

            I’m not a Democrat or a Republican. Party means jack shit to me. I’d rather vote a well meaning republican (hint: there are none left) than a shit Democrat. I have voted third party for my LOCAL clerk because the Democrat was corrupt as shit.

            I will vote most any democrat at this point in the general, but I have my limits. I’m not voting Newsom. I understand the damage of voting third party, but I cannot vote Newsom. Pick someone else

          • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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            1 hour ago

            I’ll vote third party if Newsom is the nominee. They have good candidates and if they don’t select them over Newsom, sorry.

      • Oxysis/Oxy@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        14 hours ago

        I’d have to pass voting in a general election if he was on the ticket. He’s against trans rights, and I am trans so I won’t be voting to have my rights stripped

        • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          Have you seen what his opposition is doing? Literally stripping trans people of earned retirement to name one. Newsom isn’t great but pick your battles.

          • Oxysis/Oxy@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            14 hours ago

            I’m sorry but the degree of difference between the two is fucking almost nonexistent. One wants to throw me in a wood chipper and the other will happily allow me to be thrown in a wood chipper.

            Sorry that I don’t want to be tossed in a wood chipper but fuck Newsom and fuck republicunts.

            • Oxysis/Oxy@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              14 hours ago

              Once my people’s rights are tossed aside, then the floodgates are open and all of human rights are as good as gone. I will not live to say I told you so because of the way things are going. But when the dust settles Gavin Newsom will be remembered as being a piece of human filth just like the republicunts he opposes.

              Sorry I don’t want to die for you to have your fucking cake.

              • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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                13 hours ago

                US politics is 2 party, and you primary to move a party in the direction you want. not voting is effectively a vote against the direction you want to go. I don’t like the game, but it’s how it’s played.

                • Oxysis/Oxy@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  10 hours ago

                  I’m gonna vote in the primaries for whoever is willing to stand up for human rights, which includes trans rights. If my choices in the general are a fascist who’s gonna strip my rights and another fascist who’s gonna stripe my rights but now in blue, then sorry I’m not gonna go.

                  I actually have principles and morals so I’m gonna stick to it. It’s not worth deciding what color the wood chipper that’s gonna kill me is. I shouldn’t have to accept that I won’t live to see my thirties, accept that I likely won’t live to see the end of the decade but here I am. That’s the reality I have to accept because of people like you.

                  It’s sad that people like you think I should just roll over and give up my rights and accept death. It’s sad that you want to use my people and then toss us aside like a used tissue when we aren’t politically expedient.

          • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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            13 hours ago

            Okay how about this? I don’t like trans rights being singled out. These are HUMAN rights. Newsom is against human rights. Doesn’t sound so good to toss that aside, now does it?