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Opinion Gavin Newsom insults voters with clueless pitch   Opinions - Robby's Radar | 1 minute ago

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Gavin Newsom insults voters with clueless pitch  

Why do white liberal Democrats find it so appealing to pretend to be stupid?  

We find plenty examples of this, and here’s another one: Over the weekend, California Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared at an event in Atlanta promoting his memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry,” and tried to make common cause with the audience by insulting their intelligence, and his own.  

Seriously, that was his pitch. And it’s deeply, deeply offensive. 

First of all, I simply don’t believe that Gavin Newsom is unintelligent, or reads poorly, or does badly on standardized tests.  

Moreover, I don’t believe that the people in that audience are unintelligent. Nor do I believe that mutually mockery is a good strategy to earn their respect, their trust, and their vote. 

Now, to be clear, while I was assured by a lot of folks that the audience was mostly black, that idea has come under scrutiny; it looks like there were plenty of white people in the audience, too. Nevertheless, the idea of white liberals trying to appeal to black people by dumbing down their rhetoric is a well-worn trope. As Sen. Tim Scott, a proud black Republican, put it: “Black Americans aren’t your low bar. We’ve built empires, created movements, outworked, outhustled and outsmarted people like you. Stop using your mediocre academics as a way to patronize communities. Its ridiculous!” 

White liberal candidates frequently dumb down their own language because they think for some reason this makes them more appealing to black people — because of their own biases against people of color. NewsNation’s Batya Ungar Sargon called attention to this phenomenon on her show, citing a study that found that conservatives do not do this when they talk to black people.

Here’s what I think is going on: Elite progressives have absorbed the idea that in order to gain power in progressive circles, you need to be marginalized, oppressed or victimized in some way. Obviously, someone like Newsom can’t honestly claim he’s been oppressed — he has had all the advantages that liberals believe flow naturally to a tall, moderately good-looking white man. To overcome this, he must overemphasize some perceived negative quality, like his intelligence, so that he’ll be accepted as a victim in some way.  

Former President Biden did this too, overemphasizing his stutter as some kind of lifelong disability he has worked to overcome that makes him worthy of being considered a victim. In reality, the reason people were having trouble understanding him is that he had gotten too old and was now having trouble forming complete thoughts. 

That also goes to show you how victim status can be used as a smoke screen — to hide the truth from the American people. Are you questioning somebody’s fitness for office? How dare you, you must hate the marginalized! It’s tired, and it’s tedious. 

But at least Biden sort of did have an impediment of sorts. Gavin Newsom — he can obviously read. I don’t what else to tell you. 

Moreover, I doubt very much that this sort of game is appealing to voters, whether they’re white or black or any other color. He’s insulting our intelligence, in more ways than one. 

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary. 

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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