RUTHFULLY YOURS

The governor of the biggest state in the country has said he isn’t running for president. But there’s no question Gavin Newsom wants to be in the White House. The only question: Is this country foolish enough to elect such a miserable failure?

Newsom has said publicly that he has no presidential ambitions. But it’s no secret that he’s been groomed for White House occupancy by rich, progressive San Francisco elites. And now he’s “picking exactly the kinds of fights that presidential candidates like to pick” and is “clearly laying the groundwork for a presidential run,” in 2028 if not 2024.

California, the “damn state” Newsom swears he loves, was once the destination for those who wanted a better life and were willing to work for it. Now, both residents and businesses are fleeing. They’re fed up with confiscatory taxation, a can’t-do-business-here regulatory regime, an extreme cost of living that’s been driven by public policy, and a prohibition agenda that threatens to ban every consumer convenience Americans have grown accustomed to.

No longer golden, California is the center of the universe for homelessness. At 4.3%, the state’s unemployment is worse than in all but seven states, the poverty rate is higher than in any other state, blackouts are becoming more rule than exception, soft-on-crime policies have shown up in ugly street crimes, a politically created drought has a distinct Third World feel, and personal freedom is on the decline while economic freedom has been near rock bottom for more than two decades.

No, Newsom did not create these problems. But his party did. And as governor, he’s done nothing to solve them, which he was elected to do. He has talked a lot, though, and has yet to see a camera or microphone that didn’t need his presence.

In many cases, the problems have actually become more profound under Newsom’s watch. For instance, he said in 2004 – as homelessness was falling in the city – that as mayor he would solve San Francisco’s homelessness crisis. Yet homelessness in the city has grown since then, and the homeless population across the state grew 42% between 2014 and 2020 even as it fell 9% in the rest of the U.S.

How can the governor of the state that is “home” to almost 30% of the country’s homeless yet makes up only 12% of the U.S. population, who has watched over his state’s decline in so many areas, be a credible candidate for president?

Furthering Newsom’s disqualifications is his “education” from the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders program, which is not as benign as its name suggests. The WEF is, of course, an anti-capitalist organization that is working to “reset” – meaning wreck – liberal economies because its leaders believe free markets are unsustainable. Its founder, Klaus Schwab, provided even greater insight into the plan when he wrote that the COVID-19 pandemic is an “unprecedented opportunity to reimagine our world.”

Having never been asked to participate, we have to assume that what is taught through the Young Global Leaders program, whose “graduates” already infest government and politics in this country at their highest levels, is in line with the WEF in “calling for countless socialist and progressive plans.” Given our bleak national outlook, we’d be much better off with fewer YGL and WEF influences than more.

Newsom is a well-connected narcissist more concerned with his image and his place among progressives, whose approval and praise he craves. As an elected official, he’s useless, and that’s on his best days. Unless he runs for president in 2024, he will be California’s problem for another 51/2 years. Just don’t make him America’s problem for four or more.