I am, as most of you know, a supporter of Gov. Gavin Newsom, for a simple reason: he’s doing his best to keep the liberal values of the Democratic Party alive, at a time when they’re under massive assault, not only from the current U.S. administration but large numbers of Americans, especially young men.
By “liberal values” I mean a woman’s right to reproductive freedom, LGBTQ rights, freedom from religion AKA separation of church and state, a free press, a fair, impartial Department of Justice, and an independent judiciary. All of these are threatened with extinction, so no matter how you feel about Newson, you should be concerned.
I was troubled that Newsom had Charlie Kirk on his podcast a while back. After the assassination, when I learned a lot more about the vile things Kirk said about so many Americans, I was even more puzzled. How could Gavin Newsom have liked Kirk, whose views were in stark contrast to everything Newson has stood for politically his entire career?
You have to understand that in reaching my conclusions I’m doing a lot of inferring. I don’t have access to Newsom’s mind or to the recommendations of his political advisors. But I think Newsom is super-concerned that the Democratic Party is losing young White men. The media are positively obsessed with this narrative.
• NPR: Men and boys are “a group that on a national level has been turning away from Democrats.”
• Politico: “Democrats aren’t taking this disaffected and politically alienated voting bloc seriously enough.”
• MSNBC: “Democrats [are] trying to make sense of the 2024 election and, in particular, how they can win back male voters.”
• The New Yorker: “[M]en between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine are leaving the Democratic Party.”
If you assume, as I do, that Newsom is running for President on the Democratic ticket in 2028, this bleeding of young men has got to be keeping him awake at night. Hence Charlie Kirk on his podcast.
I was made acutely aware of this yesterday when, having recovered from surgery, I went to my favorite café for a cold brew and had a chat with my friend the barista, whom I’ll call Tim. I had a book with me (a biography of Edward Snowden) and Tim started asking me about it, including how long it was taking me to read it. I asked him what he’s been reading and he said that he doesn’t read. Not that he’s illiterate, but he just doesn’t enjoy the act of reading. He prefers podcasts. I asked if he has a favorite, and he said Joe Rogan. I asked what he thought about the Charlie Kirk killing, and Tim said it was a shame someone got killed simply for having an opinion. I replied that, Yes, I agreed, but on the other hand Kirk had said some pretty atrocious stuff about wide sections of the American population. Tim didn’t really reply; he had to get back to making coffee.
Tim is about 28, White, very good looking, athletic, straight. Lives in downtown Oakland with his girlfriend. He is, I suppose, a typical Gen Z. I thought long and hard about Tim’s statement that he doesn’t read. As someone who grew up reading and maintains the love of reading to this day (at any given time I’m working on three books simultaneously), and who believes that literacy is at the heart of the development of human culture, I’m somewhat at a loss to understand young men like Tim. There’s a ton of evidence that Tim is hardly alone in not reading. “[T]he tendency for Gen Z men to engage with literature of any kind is dwindling,” according to one study.
This conversation about men-don’t-read-anymore started four years on Reddit when someone asked, “Why don’t men read?” I’m not sure we know the answer, but the fact seems established: for the most part, they don’t. Tim, who is bright and articulate and probably has a high IQ, is just an example of the phenomenon.
Hence the California Governor is trying to understand the Tims of America; hence his original invitation to Charlie Kirk. If you’re a cynic (and many of you are) you’ll conclude Newsom is only doing this to satisfy his presidential aspiration. While that may be part of it, I believe that he—as a good Democrat—is also concerned about preserving liberal Democratic values, as am I; and this makes it vital to understand where these young men are coming from, and what Democrats can do (if anything) to appeal to them.
Incidentally, the incident with Tim got me thinking about literacy and reading in a wider sense. The ability to read (and write) developed rather late in the evolution of our species. For most of history most people didn’t know how to read. It didn’t stop history from marching on. Is it possible that reading may be merely a provisional ability the race acquired for a particular moment in time, but which isn’t really necessary for its continued development? I don’t know, but it’s worth pondering.
Anyhow, I do give Newsom credit for thinking about young men. I hope the Democratic Party can lure men back, but even more, I hope that these young men understand the value of all the things I enumerated above: a woman’s right to reproductive freedom, LGBTQ rights, freedom from religion AKA separation of church and state, a free press, a fair, impartial Department of Justice, and an independent judiciary. If they do, they’ll vote Democratic. If they don’t, well…
Steve Heimoff