Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said on Friday that the Democratic brand was “toxic” and that his party had to admit its own mistakes, delivering tough love as Democrats struggle in their fight against the Trump administration....The epsode aired on Friday. Three days earlier, this happened:
“The Democratic brand is toxic right now,” he said, pointing to a recent NBC News poll that showed Democrats with a 27 percent favorability rating, the lowest in at least a generation.
Democrat James Andrew Malone narrowly won a special election for a Pennsylvania state Senate seat in Republican-leaning suburbs and farming communities, scoring an upset in a district that a Democrat hasn’t represented in the chamber for 136 years.A day earlier, this happened:
President Trump on Thursday said he had asked Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, to stay in Congress rather than serve as ambassador to the United Nations, amid concern about the minuscule voting margin that Republicans hold in the House....And now there's this:
It ... highlighted concerns among Mr. Trump and leading members of his party about their ability to win what should be safe Republican seats in districts like Ms. Stefanik’s solidly red region of upstate New York.
Republicans nationwide are turning their eyes and focus to Florida’s 6th Congressional District’s special election, occurring Tuesday, where Republican Randy Fine seeks to prevent an upset victory by Democrat Joshua Weil.Republicans will probably win this race -- they lead in the early vote now. They might be trying to lower expectations so they can say they overperformed if their candidate wins. But as noted above, the GOP won this seat by 33 points in November, and Donald Trump won the district by 30 points. Any victory margin that's significantly short of that is a sign of Republican weakness.
Axios reported a poll from Donald Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio, showing Fine losing to Weil by three percentage points, despite the district being ruby red. Such a result would be a shock.
The 6th District was held by now-Trump National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who won the seat in 2024 by 33 points.
I regularly criticize Democrats. I would have given the party an unfavorable rating if I'd been asked by NBC's pollsters. But I vote Democratic. I give money to Democratic candidates. I've volunteered for Democratic campaigns. My criticisms are different from Newsom's (and those of Rahm Emanuel, James Carville, and John Fetterman) -- I think too many Democrats, especially in leadership, are afraid to assert that the party supports a large number of very popular policies, and are afraid to attack the Republican Party for opposing those policies (and, now, for seeking to destroy a great deal of what's good in America). I think there are many, many voters who are dissatisfied with the Democratic Party -- or at least its leadership -- but who also know we'd be better off with Democrats in charge.
When reporters quote Newsom, why don't they express any skepticism about the Democrats' toxicity? They see the Malone victory. They see how special elections are scaring the GOP. They see the angry crowds at congressional town halls. They see the massive crowds at rallies headlined by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (a Democrat) and Bernie Sanders (an independent who caucuses with Democrats and who's run for president as a Democrat twice). They see Donald Trump's weak poll numbers, especially on issues.
On Maher's show, Newsom said that Democrats are censorious:
“Democrats, we tend to be a little more judgmental than we should be,” the Democratic governor told host Bill Maher. “This notion of cancel culture... You’ve been living it, you’ve been on the receiving end of it for years and years and years. That’s real.”Newsom accuses Democrats of practicing cancel culture, citing Maher, who's had his current successful HBO show for 22 uninterrupted years (and whose previous show was taken off the air after he angered Republicans). Meanwhile, under a Republican president, masked men can arrest and deport you for writing an op-ed, or attempt to deport you because you're a scientist who neglected to declare frog embryos while going through customs, as a cover-up for the real reason, which is that you criticized Russia's war in Ukraine. Can the press put all this Democrat-bashing talk about "cancel culture" in perspective, please?
“Democrats need to own up to that,” he said. “They’ve got to mature.”
Newsom also said that Democrats are condescending:
“We talk down to people,” he said. “We talk past people.”Which of the follow do you think is more likely to talk down to people: Gavin Newsom ...
... or James Malone, who won that Pennsylvania race?
Stop treating these Democrat-bashing Democrats as if they're uttering objective truths. They aren't.
