Newsom Rocks. Newsom Trolls

The way forward

Newsom gets it.

A lot more than he gets it I think.

He forced me to throw away my ‘do not lose focus’, stay zeroed in on a single lane decision. It was the way he did, what he did, that made me break my own seal.

Governor Newsom Press Office

DONALD "TACO" TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, "MISSED" THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE "BEAUTIFUL MAPS," THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!). BIG PRESS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WITH POWERFUL DEMS AND GAVIN NEWSOM — YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR — THAT WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR "MAGA." THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! — GN

The MAGA GOP is aggressive by design. That design’s roots are no accident — they draw from the deep, dark soil of an old authoritarian tradition. It began as a seed, grew into a plant, and now stands like a tree, casting its long shadow over American politics.

Authoritarian movements don’t emerge by accident; they take hold under specific conditions — economic anxiety, cultural displacement, and institutional distrust. They grow when supported by media ecosystems that amplify grievance and by political operators who convert resentment into power. Once embedded, they work to entrench themselves deeply enough to survive any democratic pushback. Today, that entrenchment is advancing through state legislatures, court systems, and election infrastructure. What we’re seeing is not political evolution; it’s institutional colonization.

You’ve probably noticed how MAGA supporters stay blind even when confronted with clear facts. They invent excuses, cover for outright lies, and show open contempt for the less fortunate.

This isn’t cognitive failure — it’s psychological self-defense. In authoritarian movements, truth is subordinate to belonging. Supporters aren’t weighing evidence; they’re protecting identity. Challenge the lies, and you’re not disputing data points — you’re threatening their sense of self, their tribal membership, their psychological safety net.

The cruelty toward the vulnerable isn’t an accident; it’s a display of loyalty that reinforces hierarchy. Hannah Arendt saw this clearly: followers don’t believe lies because they’re convincing; they believe them because belief makes them belong. And once a movement reaches this stage, it’s not something you can reason or medicate away. It doesn’t heal with gentle reform.

The only answer is what John McCain said about Putin. It will apply to the MAGA GOP. Now and forever.

You provoke the GOP by not provoking the GOP.

You don’t stop the GOP by preaching. You stop them by confronting them as exactly what they are. That’s what Newsom is doing now.

The failure of liberal opposition isn’t just about tactics — it’s about misreading the nature of the conflict. They keep bringing fact-checkers to a psychological warfare fight, assuming exposure leads to accountability. They believe shame still works as a social regulator. But when your opponent has weaponized shamelessness, moral appeals become ammunition. They’re not weakened by hypocrisy; they’re strengthened by it. To their base, it’s proof they’ll break any rule to win.

Newsom understands this.

He's not trying to shame them into compliance—he's demonstrating power. He's not explaining why they're wrong; he's showing what happens when they act wrong. This isn't moral theater; it's political physics.

This is the only way to keep the GOP from bending the House of Representatives permanently in their favor. Newsom has vowed to counter any aggressive gerrymandering by Republicans — and every Democratic-controlled state should follow suit. Every GOP attempt to engineer outcomes must be met with equal force and precision.

Anything less concedes the battlefield.

The asymmetric warfare problem is killing democracy slowly. While Democrats debate process, Republicans reshape outcomes. While one side argues about norms, the other side rewrites the rules. That's not principled governance; it's strategic suicide.

Gear up for the Midterms

I’ve heard from plenty of readers who’ve confided their fear that the GOP might one day shut down elections entirely. I told them last year: that’s not going to happen. They want to — I have no doubt — but pulling it off before 2026 is impossible.

And now you have the proof to retire those fears.

The midterms are coming, and the GOP is terrified of losing the House by a wide margin. Their panic is pushing them toward aggressive gerrymandering to minimize the damage. This isn’t just electoral fear — it’s existential fear. A political movement structurally dependent on minority rule sees every election as a survival test. The math is brutal: they’re losing population centers, young voters, and college-educated voters. Gerrymandering has shifted from being a tactic to being life support.

That dependency creates a trap: desperate measures stop feeling desperate and start feeling necessary. The party that once claimed to represent “real America” knows real America is increasingly rejecting them. So they’ve made their choice — if they can’t win voters, they’ll redraw districts. If they can’t expand their base, they’ll restrict the franchise. If they can’t win fairly, they’ll rig the rules.

Democrats can’t just sit back, point out GOP corruption, and assume voters will reward them for moral decency. Most Republican voters already know their party is corrupt — but they see that corruption as proof of strength, loyalty, and willingness to fight for their tribe by any means necessary.

This is political trauma bonding:

• the cycle of crisis creation (“they’re coming for your guns/jobs/culture”)

• dependency (“only we can protect you”)

• isolation (“the media lies, experts are corrupt”)

• intermittent reinforcement (occasional wins to keep hope alive),

• and identity fusion (leaving means losing yourself).

You can’t break that with fact-checks or appeals to reason. This relationship is emotional and psychological, not logical. That’s why the “they’ll come to their senses” approach has failed for years — it assumes a rationality that isn’t there.

And that’s why Newsom’s strategy matters. He’s promised to respond to GOP gerrymandering with equal force — and every Democratic-controlled state should do the same. Never doubt the need to follow through.

So yes — go Newsom.

But more than that: go every Democratic governor, state legislature, and official who understands that this moment calls for strategy, not moral posturing. The time for unilateral good faith is over. The time for reciprocal hardball has begun.

The 2026 test isn’t whether Democrats can stop authoritarianism with noble resistance. It’s whether they can stop it with strategic competence — matching authoritarian intensity without abandoning democratic purpose. Fighting fire with fire while making sure the fight is for something worth saving.

Newsom is showing the way.

The question is whether enough others will follow before the clock runs out.