The Governor Who Won’t Stay Quiet
If the current political climate were a diagnostic chart, Governor Gavin Newsom would likely write “code red” on the top in bold ink. On his recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Newsom offered a stinging critique of former President Donald Trump, going so far as to question whether the U.S. would even hold a presidential election in 2028 if the “authoritarian creep” affecting American politics continues unchecked. That’s a grave assessment—one that should jolt any citizen who cherishes democracy’s fragility.
“I never imagined the day when we seriously debated the prospect of elections themselves being at risk,” Newsom confessed to Colbert, his frustration and anxiety simmering just below the surface. His concerns are rooted not in hyperbole, but in firsthand experience challenging Trump-era policies—and suing the federal government no fewer than 41 times to protect Californians’ rights.
The specter of authoritarianism isn’t a rhetorical boogeyman for Newsom. In June, Trump dispatched over 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines into Los Angeles to quell protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). For Newsom, actions like these betray a dangerous willingness to conflate dissent with disorder and to weaponize federal power against one’s own people. “This is not abstract,” Newsom warned. “These are the seeds of distrust in our local institutions—and it’s happening in plain sight.”
History offers sobering parallels. Princeton historian Julian Zelizer notes that, in moments of national unease, presidents have often tried to leverage military force to reinforce their image of control. “But rarely,” Zelizer notes, “has it been so brazen and nakedly political as what we saw in 2020.” For progressives, the lessons of the past demand vigilance.
California’s Defiance and the Case for Blue-State Resistance
While some Democratic leaders have chosen cautious negotiation, Newsom has become the face of a more combative, unapologetic form of resistance. Under his watch, California has rejected Trump’s rollback of climate protections and invested aggressively in state-level healthcare expansion—often in direct contradiction to federal edicts. The state has pursued bold, progressive measures such as emissions standards that defy fossil-fueled orthodoxy, and an approach to pandemic management that prioritized science over spectacle.
Newsom’s approach isn’t universally beloved—Republicans cast him as a grandstander, while centrists sometimes express discomfort at the scale of the confrontation. Yet his strategy finds resonance in a party still searching for effective ways to counter Trump’s media dominance and his persistent disregard for democratic norms. As Vox political analyst Li Zhou wrote last year, “In Trump’s America, the old playbook has failed. Figuring out how to fight and win when one side ignores the rules has become a central progressive dilemma.”
During his Colbert appearance, Newsom mocked Fox News as “Pravda”—an unsubtle jab comparing the conservative network’s pro-Trumpization to state-sponsored media in authoritarian regimes. Hosts like Sean Hannity and Dana Perino, Newsom scoffed, “are more offended by my tweets than by Trump’s authoritarian overreach. If holding up a mirror offends them, maybe they ought to take a closer look at what’s being reflected.”
“Americans who claim to love freedom should be furious when democracy is threatened—no matter their party.”
Most Democrats aren’t just live-tweeting outrage. Newsom points to his lawsuits—41 in total and counting—against the Trump administration as evidence of meaningful resistance, not just performance art. “If we didn’t challenge these policies in court,” he noted to Colbert, “a generation’s worth of progress on climate, healthcare, and equality could be erased with the stroke of a pen.”
Voter Suppression, Redistricting, and the Battle for 2026 and Beyond
Beyond headline-grabbing rhetoric, Newsom’s most urgent warnings focused on the nuts and bolts of democracy: ballot access and fair representation. He sounded the alarm about Republican-led efforts—including those backed by Trump—to gerrymander Congressional districts in states like Texas. Such maneuvers threaten to stack the deck against millions of voters, perpetuating minority rule under the guise of “election integrity.” According to a 2023 Brennan Center analysis, states with new GOP-drawn maps could lock in partisan advantage for a decade or longer.
Is this just political hardball, or something more sinister? Newsom believes the answer is clear. “Democracy doesn’t die by accident,” he said bluntly. “It’s systemically undermined, one rule and one map at a time.” He’s spearheaded a multi-state strategy to challenge aggressive redistricting, highlighting California’s refusal to mimic such power grabs—solidifying his state as a model for progressive election integrity.
Expanding on this, Newsom outlined how California is actively countering national trends by protecting voting rights and working toward more equitable district lines at home. “Our democracy is healthier when every voter counts equally. That shouldn’t be a revolutionary notion, but lately, it almost feels that way,” Newsom observed. Harvard legal scholar Laurence Tribe, echoing these concerns, states, “Once a faction believes it can never lose power, the Constitution itself is at risk.”
Newsom’s bluntness has cost him few friends among Republican circles, yet the broader public, weary from years of political warfare, may appreciate the clarity. The real fear? The normalization of anti-democratic behavior, should it face insufficient public resistance.
As we look to a precarious road ahead, Newsom’s message resonates: ignoring creeping authoritarianism, dismissing voter suppression, and letting media disinformation go unchallenged only makes backsliding more likely. A broad, informed pushback is the only answer. And if you feel uneasy about democracy’s future, that’s not alarmism—it’s the first step toward defending what’s too precious to lose.
