In a clash of cultures, the super-wealthy, French Laundry-dining Democrat made a brief stop Sunday in Mississippi’s state capital, Jackson, where he attended a church service and visited with Jackson’s mayor, Chokwe Lumumba.
The stop in Mississippi is part of Newsom’s so-called “Campaign for Democracy” in which he is visiting red states – technically blue pockets in red states – to denounce what he calls “authoritarian leaders,” meaning Republican office holders.
In reality, the stops in several red states using campaign money are likely Newsom’s first crack at making new friends for a White House run. According to the governor, his multi-state tour is something akin to a valiant, progressive knight charging into battle against backwoods politicians who want to “ban books” and “kidnap migrants” and “stoke racism.”
“What’s happening in those red states, it’s not who we are,” he said in a campaign video. “It’s un-American. It’s undemocratic.”
That claim comes from a state governor who sent his four children to a wealthy private school, when public schools remained closed across California, and who got caught dining at a $350-a-person restaurant when business owners were losing their livelihoods, during the Covid pandemic. And the books being banned are graphic and pornographic but are available to children; no “migrants” have been kidnapped by governors; and the racism charge comes from a crackdown on white-bashing “equity” indoctrination that is based on Critical Race Theory and its claim of white oppression.
Jameson Taylor, director of policy and legislative affairs at AFA Action, the political arm of the Mississippi-based American Family Association, says Newsom has a different set of values.
“Gavin Newsom is very radical,” Taylor says, “and he does not reflect American values or Mississippi values in any way.”
California leads nation...in former residents
Back in his own state, California remains famous as the most populated state but it has also lost enough Californians to lose two congressional seats. That loss of population has been called "The Great Migration," and the most recent U-Haul survey reports California tops the lists for "outbound" U-Haul rentals.
Among the most popular destinations, red states Texas (No. 1) and Florida (No. 2) top that list even though freedom is supposedly under attack there. Even the state of Mississippi, known as one of the poorest states, ranks No. 34 in the U-Haul survey and thus ahead of beautiful California.
Even though Gov. Newsom called California "freedom's force multiplier" during his inaugural address, his state also lost a U.S. Supreme Court ruling when it forced pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise state-provided abortion services.
In a statement to The Magnolia Tribune, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves “welcomed” Newsom to the state in the name of tourism but he pointed out his far-left record as governor.
“I disagree,” Reeves said, “with his extreme Covid lockdowns; his insistence on letting boys play girls sports; his advocacy for abortion all the way until birth; his enthusiasm for gun control; and his love of high income taxes, among other things.”
