Gavin’s Guidance 

Termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom isn’t on the November 3 ballot, but as the election approached the governor let slip helpful advice for voters and candidates coast to coast. 

As Californians will remember, during the Covid pandemic, police arrested a solitary paddleboarder at Malibu for defying the governor’s stay-at-home order. Gov. Newsom now says that kind of policy was “insane in hindsight.” At the time, many Californians thought it was indeed on the crazy side. 

The defiant paddleboarder, and all state voters, should now ask candidates where they stood on shutting down the state in such draconian fashion. Do they now think that was wise policy? And did they challenge the order in any way? 

Children were the least vulnerable to Covid but Gov. Newsom duly closed schools and now regrets not opening them sooner. Californians, and parents across the country should ask candidates where they stood on the school closures, and if they now have regrets in the style Newsom. 

The California governor also shuttered businesses he deemed “nonessential,” with no warning or compensation. Ask candidates across the nation if that was a good idea, and if they have any regrets. As Californians will recall, Gov. Newsom did not regard the French Laundry as nonessential.

After telling Californians to keep your mask on in between bites,” Gov. Newsom partied with lobbyists at that upscale establishment. “Just boneheaded decision,” the governor now proclaims. “Just stupid decision.” Californians, and people across the country, should ask their candidates if they broke any of their own rules. If so, was that stupid, boneheaded, or simply wrong? 

Gov. Newsom’s guidelines for gatherings warned against singing, chanting and the playing of wind instruments. The host was also asked to “collect names of all attendees and contact information in case contact tracing is needed later.” Ask candidates if the rules did any good, and if deploying people as government snitches is acceptable policy. 

To be fair, Gov. Newsom was applying rules first announced by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Dr. Fauci once claimed to represent science, and charged that his critics were only opposing science. Ask candidates if they agree that Dr. Fauci represents science, and if he ever did anything with which they disagreed. The people have a right to know.  

In more than 50 years in the federal government, Dr. Fauci was never once confirmed by the US Senate. Ask candidates across the country if that was wise policy. By all indications, Gov. Newsom never challenged Dr. Fauci in any way. Ask candidates if unconfirmed federal officials always know best and if it’s okay to call them out on the facts. 

As people across the nation will recall, on his last day in the White House, Joe Biden pardoned Dr. Fauci. In California and across the nation, ask candidates for their insight on any crime Dr. Fauci may have committed. Was anybody ever held accountable for the vast suffering, loss, and death during Covid? 

If Californians thought it was nobody it would be hard to blame them. All Americans can be forgiven for believing that white coat supremacy is incompatible with a free society. 

Gov. Newsom failed to cover the $1 billion he spent on masks with a Chinese company that didn’t even make them at the time. Gov. Newsom also failed to indicate whether the $30 billion unemployment fraud scandal was boneheaded, stupid or “insane” in hindsight. 

Even so, better late than never for the governor’s few regrets. If candidates and voters take heed, that could improve the prospects for accountability moving forward.