California and the Need for “Order”
In the current political environment, the phrase “law and order” has been entangled with the President Donald Trump’s campaign to clamp down on protestors and its implied racial overtones. But focusing on the second half of the equation, “order,” and what it represents, is becoming a problem for Governor Gavin Newsom and California authorities when […]
Before Calexit, A Final Push to Fix America
“Go to my website or use the hashtag #LetsGetTheCalOuttaHere!” shouts Gwyneth Paltrow in the Netflix series The Politician. Running for governor on a platform of leading California’s secession from the United States, Paltrow’s character wins 98 percent of the vote. This may be fiction, but California independence, is gaining cultural currency and real-world urgency. Our […]
Newsom now owns the COVID-19 pandemic
Just a few weeks ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom was boasting about California’s apparent success in suppressing COVID-19 infections in implicit contrast to other states, such as New York, that were being clobbered by the pandemic. He called it “bending the curve” of the infection rate and decided to reopen vast sections of the economy that […]
Newsom, Trump, Roberts: Politics and Policy
Did Gov. Gavin Newsom dig himself into a hole by first embracing strong enforcement of coronavirus regulations, then easing up, and finally reversing himself? We examine the twists and turns of the governor’s decision making. We also wonder whether President Donald Trump has dug himself into an even deeper hole with his promise that the […]