Have you ever watched a politician try to convince you he’s “one of the guys” while sitting with his leg folded in a way that would make a yoga instructor wince?
That was the scene this week when California Governor Gavin Newsom took the stage in New York and delivered what might be the most unintentionally hilarious piece of advice the Democratic Party has received since the 2024 election disaster: stop being so weird, judgmental, and elitist. In his words, Democrats need to become more “culturally normal.”
Yes, really.
The Moment Everyone Started Laughing
It’s hard to overstate how perfectly the optics lined up against him.
Newsom, the man who dined at the French Laundry while the rest of California was locked down, who presides over the largest exodus of residents and businesses in state history, who has watched his approval ratings crater, stood in front of a room full of wealthy New York media types and lectured his party on the importance of seeming normal.
And he did it while sitting like he was waiting for a pedicure.
Social media did what social media does best: turned it into an instant meme. One viral post joked that the only time you see an ankle bent that way is when an NFL player just tore his ACL and they cut away before the replay. Another simply said, “Maybe start by not sitting like that ever again.”
“We have to be more culturally normal… We have to be a little less judgmental.”
Gavin Newsom, December 2025
Look, I’m not saying posture is policy. But when you’re telling people to relate better to working-class voters and you can’t even sit like a regular human, the message gets a bit… muddled.
Why Now? Because 2024 Hurt
Let’s be honest: the Democratic Party is in the middle of an identity crisis.
They didn’t just lose the presidency. They got crushed with working-class voters, Latino voters, young men, and even started bleeding support in places they used to own. The map turned redder than anyone expected, and suddenly every ambitious Democrat is trying to figure out how to not be the next cautionary tale.
Enter Gavin Newsom, who has never been shy about his national ambitions. He’s been running a shadow presidential campaign for years, complete with podcast appearances, national TV hits, and carefully staged debates with Republican governors.
Now he’s positioning himself as the guy who can drag the party back to the center, someone who “gets it.” He even admitted something Democrats almost never say out loud: the border actually matters, both politically and practically.
That alone was shocking enough to make headlines.
The Border Admission Nobody Saw Coming
For years, large parts of the Democratic establishment treated border security as a fringe concern, something only nativists cared about. Then the numbers became impossible to ignore: millions of encounters, strained city budgets, viral videos of overwhelmed shelters.
Suddenly, even mayors in deep-blue cities were begging for help.
Newsom acknowledging “the importance and power of the border, substantively and politically” felt like watching a vegan order a steak, in public, on camera.
It’s not that he’s become a border hawk overnight. It’s that he’s finally understands voters have been sending a message for years, and ignoring it comes with consequences.
But Then He Called Trump a “Man-Child”
Here’s where things get deliciously hypocritical.
Minutes after preaching humility and normalcy, Newsom went full coastal elite, comparing a major cable news network to Soviet propaganda and calling the President-elect a “man-child” who says “the R word” and calls people “piggy.”
He even defended his own bizarre social media account that mimics Trump’s style, claiming it’s meant to highlight the “normalization of deviancy.”
So let me get this straight: Trump posting in all-caps is dangerous madness that threatens democracy… but when Gavin does it, it’s brave performance art?
The lack of self-awareness would be impressive if it weren’t so predictable.
California: The Exhibit A of Progressive Governance
You really can’t talk about “cultural normalcy” when your state has become the national symbol of everything voters just rejected?
Let’s run through the greatest hits:
- Highest poverty rate in America when adjusted for cost of living
- Largest homeless population by far
- Businesses fleeing in droves (just ask Elon Musk, among thousands of others)
- Crime policies that turned cities into open-air markets for theft
- Wildfires burning richer neighborhoods while prevention budgets got cut
- Electricity prices through the roof while pushing aggressive green mandates
And yet Newsom wants to lecture the rest of the country on how to connect with regular people.
It’s like the captain of the Titanic giving swimming lessons.
Even Hollywood Is Turning on Him
Perhaps the most surprising moment of the week came not from Newsom, but from someone speaking just before him: Halle Berry.
The actress absolutely torched Newsom for vetoing a menopause research and care bill, not once, but twice. She told the stunned New York crowd that with the way he’s “overlooked women,” he “probably should not be our next president either.”
When even Oscar winners in deep-blue venues are publicly humiliating you, it might be time to reconsider the 2028 plan.
Is This Actually About Winning, Or Just Branding?
Here’s my take, and I’ve watched a lot of these cycles: Newsom doesn’t really believe Democrats need to change their policies. He believes they need to change their marketing.
Say the right things about the border. Pretend to care about working-class struggles. Sit up straight and avoid looking like you summer in Martha’s Vineyard (even if you do).
It’s the political equivalent of a luxury brand slapping “authentic” on a $10,000 handbag.
Voters aren’t stupid. They can smell inauthenticity from a mile away, especially after four years of being told their concerns about inflation, crime, and immigration were just “dog whistles.”
The party’s bigger problem isn’t messaging. It’s that large parts of the base, and the donor class, actually believe the things voters just rejected.
What “Culturally Normal” Actually Requires
If Democrats really wanted to seem normal again, it would mean more than a few focus-grouped lines about loving America and respecting borders.
- It would mean dropping the obsession with policing speech
- It would mean admitting defunding the police was a disaster
- It would mean accepting that parents should have a say in their kids’ education
- It would mean recognizing that biological sex matters in sports and prisons
- It would mean treating religious voters as people, not obstacles
In other words, it would require actual cultural change, not just a rebrand.
And that’s the part ambitious politicians like Newsom will never deliver, because their entire careers have been built on appealing to the most progressive elements of the party.
You can’t spend a decade courting activists and then pivot to normalcy without looking like exactly what you are: an opportunist.
The Road to 2028
Newsom isn’t wrong that Democrats have a cultural problem.
He’s just the wrong messenger, from the wrong state, with the wrong track record.
Voters don’t want a lecture on normalcy from the guy who turned the Golden State into a cautionary tale. They want leaders who never lost touch in the first place.
And right now, that’s not the Democratic bench.
The 2028 primary is going to be fascinating, because everyone is going to try the same trick: “I’m the reasonable one who can talk to real Americans.”
But real Americans have gotten very good at spotting the act.
Maybe next time, sit like a normal person. It’s a start.
