There’s only one state in America with a dream – the California Dream. It’s a dream built on opportunity, a dream built on pushing boundaries and celebrating, not merely “tolerating,” diversity. That dream propelled us to the front of the pack in the world. Our values and our way of life are the antidote to the poisonous populism of the right, and to the fear and anxiety that so many people are feeling today. People across the globe look to California and see what’s possible, and how to live and advance together and prosper together across every conceivable difference.
That was California Gov. Gavin Newsom in his June 25 state of the state speech. According to the governor:
Across the spectrum, California simply has no peers. Name an industry, and California dominates. Vast, productive farms and ranches that feed the world. In agriculture, tourism, health care, and the life sciences — and art, music, and motion pictures — the best minds in the world call California home because they’re liberated from the constraints of conformity and tradition. This is true freedom — to invent and make the world a better place. California has figured out a way to make it work time and time again, decade after decade.
In a state with a bigger balance sheet than many nations, it’s easy to get lost in facts and figures. It’s easy to forget what values we truly represent, and what we represent to the United States and the world. We are building a future where everyone feels protected, connected, and respected. We are building a state that transforms the world over and over again.
We are the state that launched a farmworker revolution, a free speech revolution, a love revolution, a computing revolution, a biotech revolution, a climate revolution, and a quantum revolution. That’s us: Weird, wild, free-spirited California. A place that can elect Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown — back to back. A place for Ayn Rand and Jane Fonda. For Metallica and Kendrick Lamar. A place that can invent the Internet — and the popsicle, blue jeans, and Barbie.
And so on, for nearly 4,000 words. “Newsom’s speech was very clearly a campaign job application for the rest of the country,” notes Katy Grimes of the California Globe, “which explains why it was his fairytale, accented with fairy dust and unicorns.” See also Bruce Bawer’s review of Newsom Unleashed: The Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power, by Ellie Gardey Holmes. “Inside every progressive,” David Horowitz explains, “is a totalitarian screaming to get out.” Gavin Newsom is out.
