Staff Reports
Watching Gavin Newsom try to reinvent himself on a podcast meant for Black listeners was painful to see — and instructive for every voter who’s tired of political theater. On the “All The Smoke” podcast he painted a sob-story of Wonder Bread and macaroni while slipping into street slang and a tone that reeked of contrived code-switching, a performance picked apart across social media and conservative outlets.
The reaction was immediate and fierce because Newsom’s routine wasn’t relatability, it was patronizing pandering. Critics across the political spectrum mocked his accent and delivery as an awkward, tone-deaf attempt to signal solidarity rather than actually earn it, exposing the gulf between crafted campaign narratives and real voters’ lives.
What makes this insult worse is Newsom’s background — he didn’t grow up in the kind of hardship he now claims, and his family’s elite ties to the Getty fortune make his “hustle” anecdote look like a calculated con. Americans know the truth: you can’t buy authenticity by borrowing someone else’s hardship, and voters—especially hardworking Black Americans—deserve respect, not a performance from a man who benefits from the very establishment that’s failed their communities.
This episode is part of a pattern. On the same circuit Newsom has also argued that opposition to “woke” policies is somehow “anti-Black,” a crude overreach that weaponizes identity politics instead of engaging with working-class concerns. That rhetoric doesn’t unite people; it atomizes them and turns legitimate policy disagreements into tribal litmus tests, all while the political elite dodge accountability.
Conservative voices and independent journalists quickly amplified the clip and the wider pattern of behavior, and even the governor’s online spats with influencers show how thin his populist act really is. The back-and-forth only underlines a truth voters already feel: style and spin can’t paper over decades of failed policies that left California’s cities struggling and families hurting.
Patriotic Americans should be done with politicians who treat voters like props in a political drama. We want leaders who honor every community with real solutions — safe streets, good schools, and accountable government — not elite performers who switch accents to chase headlines. If Newsom thinks hollow shtick will win trust, he’s badly misreading the country; hardworking citizens can smell insincerity, and they’ll remember it at the ballot box.
