Why Does Gavin Newsom Sound Like a Right-Wing Troll?

Mr. Schmitz is the editor of the magazine Compact.

Not so long ago, the future was female. That expectation was most memorably expressed a few weeks before the presidential election in 2016, when Hillary Clinton posted a picture of her young self on Twitter with the caption “Happy birthday to this future president.” Though Donald Trump’s victory dashed her presidential hopes, it did not end her faith in the direction of history. “I remain convinced that, yes, the future is female,” she later said.

Joe Biden agreed. In the 2020 presidential campaign, he described himself as a “transition candidate” who would serve as a “bridge” to a more diverse and feminine future. He promised to pick a woman as vice president and to nominate a Black woman for the Supreme Court, and he did. The sense of growing empowerment was reinforced by the prominence of politicians such as Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

But if Democratic Party politics are any indication, the future is no longer female. Stung by the losses of Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Harris, many in the party, according to multiple reports, are looking for a presidential candidate in 2028 who is straight, white and male. Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas summed up the prevailing attitude as “Let’s go find the safest white boy we can.”

The vogue for white masculinity is apparent in the enthusiasm for Graham Platner, a hard-bitten oysterman and war vet who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Senate in Maine. It is evident in the rise of James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas who looks like a member of the Moral Majority. It can even be seen in the makeover of Pete Buttigieg, who has acquired a beard, a splitting maul and a taste for flannel shirts.

But nowhere is this trend clearer than in the messaging of Gavin Newsom, the California governor and presidential hopeful. More than any other Democrat, he has embraced an unapologetic, some might say toxic, form of masculinity. Suddenly aggressive, thick-skinned and partial to the macho lingo of the online right, he seems to have concluded that progressive models of manliness — the deferential white male ally, the “girl dad” concerned about reproductive rights — are passé.

His instincts may unsettle progressives, but Mr. Newsom has accurately identified a Democratic weakness. His attempts to address the problem, though often misguided, nonetheless point his party in the direction it must travel to beat back the right.

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