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In this edition of FrameLab: A look at Gavin Newsom's sexist strategy for 2028. A FrameLab book club update. And a gift link to an important Wall Street Journal essay about the ideological extremists battling for dominance in Trumpland.
As Gavin Newsom continues his transformation from Democratic governor into right-wing influencer, one journalist is finally asking the obvious question: Why won’t Newsom feature women on his podcast?
From Robin Epley at The Sacramento Bee:
After two months and a gratuitous 15 episodes — including interviews with far-right talking heads Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, Obama-era Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and New York Times columnist Ezra Klein — guess how many women the governor of California has deigned to interview on his podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom”?
One.
Click to read: “‘No Girls Allowed’? Why won’t Gavin Newsom feature women on his podcast?”
That’s right. California’s governor — who’s found time for extremists like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon — has only brought on one woman. I’ve been calling this out on social media for a while, so it’s good to see a Sacramento journalist pick up the thread.
Newsom is making a deliberate choice to exclude women from his show. And the message seems pretty clear: women’s voices don’t matter as much as men’s. But, as Epley points out, he might want to run that idea past someone at home:
Ironically, Newsom would need to look no further than inside his own $9 million mansion for a good interview: First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s documentary “Miss Representation,” in particular, examines how women in power are habitually underrepresented in media. How embarrassing — has he seen it?
It’s awkward, to say the least.
Newsom’s effort to align himself with the far-right matters — not just because it’s cynical, but because it’s a textbook example of how Democrats lose. They keep chasing a mythical “center” by echoing Republican frames, and all it does is legitimize extremism while alienating the base.
Why Gavin Newsom’s MAGA Play Is a Losing Game for Democrats
Why the California governor’s MAGA pivot won’t work
Gil Duran
At a moment when women’s rights are under relentless attack from Trump’s authoritarian movement, Newsom is mimicking MAGA by strategically excluding women from his platform. That choice says everything. Let’s remember it when he’s asking for support in 2028.
Then again, maybe he’ll be running as a Republican by then. Newsom's most recent guest? GOP pollster Frank Luntz — a man who’s made a career out of helping destroy the Democratic Party. Maybe he’s giving Newsom pointers.
What can you do? Click here to send Gavin Newsom a message.
FrameLab Book Club Update
We are now taking questions of Chapters 8,9 and 10 of The Political Mind.
- Leave your question in the comments on this post. (Note: You may need to log in to FrameLab to do this. Go to the FrameLab homepage, click "log in" in the top right corner and follow the instructions.)
- Email your question to me: gil@theframelab.org. Please put Book Club Question" in the headline.
- Enter your question at the bottom of this Google Doc.
Please submit questions by Monday, May 19.
‘Ideological gurus’ fighting over Trump's MAGA
Donald Trump is surrounded by ideological extremists, but some of them don't like each other.
Will their divisions trip up Trump's authoritarian fantasies? That's the question posed in a recent Wall Street Journal essay:
On one side are tech bros racing to create a new future; on the other, a resurgent band of conservative Catholics who yearn for an imagined past. Both groups agree that the status quo has failed America and must be torn down to make way for a new “postliberal” world. This conviction explains much of the revolutionary fervor of Trump’s second term, especially the aggressive bludgeoning of elite universities and the federal workforce.
The essay quotes me on the influence of Curtis Yarvin, a tech blogger with extremist views that have strongly influenced JD Vance:
Yarvin’s school of thought has been called the “Dark Enlightenment” or the neo-reactionary movement. The “Nerd Reich” is how Gil Duran, a veteran Democratic staffer who is now an independent journalist, describes it.
“These are crazy ideas that should have been lost in an internet chat forum,” Duran said. “But when billionaires decide that they’re good ideas, we all have to deal with them.”
Gift Link: “The Ideological Gurus Battling for the Soul of Trump World”