While I think Newsom would be better than another Trump-like figure, I get where you're coming from. You can't compromise on issues that are core to your being - especially when they impact your daily safety, survival, and right to exist. Also, Dems need to change their playbook and go new.
JB Pritzker looks like doing much better! Not a fuckwad on trans lives either!
I'd even take Beshear over Newsom. He's been dealing with a republican legislature, is still fairly well received, and has said Dems need to not abandon the LGBT community.
This appearance by Newsom is especially hurtful because he goes to a hostile space and uses his opposition to GA care for people under 25 as a credential. This care offers the possibility for trans people to mature physically & socially in their correct gender identity—making it harder to out them.
I got to see my ex-spouse transition and become so much more confident, so much happier, even have fewer seizures. It's amazing what GA care can do for people. And it's not willy-nilly! Psych and Endo signed off on HRT. Psych, Endo, and Plastics signed off on surgery after yr. Politicians != Drs.
Newsom isn't "better than another trump-like figure" he IS the trump-like figure in question
Exactly this. Newsom = Trump. He just wears a different color suit.
The problem is, populist rhetoric without strong uncompromising principles is exactly how we got Trump. People who fit this bill tend to not be very good people once they acquire exceptional power.
Yep. We need leaders who stand for something because they believe in it, not stand for something because it gets them elected. The latter is just power-seeking, not leadership.
I think it will be a lot easier to teach a principled candidate effective populist messaging than it will be to make a populist politician become devoutly principled.