He calls himself a "progressive" (makes me think of Dubya and his "compassionate conservatism.") But Newsome is neoLib and he's going to have to go down with that ship.
...but here's the question, does the progressive left sabotage their own candidates by basically forcing them to adhere to a purity standard that they know doesn't gel with the rest of the country on some of the social issues?
Cenk from the Young Turks was talking about this rather recently (yes, I listen to content from both sides of the aisle).
Paraphrasing: "If you know things like paid family leave, universal healthcare, and stronger workers rights are popular with the majority, and you have a candidate who supports those things and has a somewhat decent rapport with a plurality of voters, why are you sticking your own guy on the hot seat and pressuring them into "saying a thing" that's unpopular with 80% of the voters?"
This is one area where (strictly strategically speaking) the republicans do better than the democrats.
The democrats have developed a somewhat toxic purity standard, where republicans will happily welcome someone into the fold even if they have the most trivial overlap.
I've heard it referred to as "Pitchforks to the left; Welcome mat to the right"
The republicans gladly welcomed in a Joe Rogan (an atheist Bernie Bro who's in favor of universal healthcare, gay marriage, drug legalization, and looser immigration laws) over the fact that he thinks comedy shouldn't be censored and that he agreed with some of them about the covid vaccine. That's really the only overlap he has with them, he got welcomed with open arms. Same deal with RFK, some overlap on the vaccine stuff and some sentiments about the "politicizing of science", but apart from that, he was lifelong democrat who was a pro-choice environmentalist (who was on Obama's short list to head the EPA)
Both of those guys got a "heroes welcome" from the GOP. (despite not really have that much in common)
Meanwhile, the democrats are running people out of town if they dare to deviate on even 1 or 2 issues.
