The Newsom Nightmare

Book excerpt: In a time when American politics is at its lowest ebb, and when political leadership is notably absent across the ideological spectrum, one politician stands apart as a particularly unfortunate exemplar of everything that is wrong with our national leadership. Gavin Newsom. In this detailed and infuriating exposé of how big money has corrupted the political process at every level of society, businessman and philanthropist John Cox uses Newsom’s career to analyze how and why the system operates as it does. Politicians are bought and paid for by moneyed interests; media coverage is determined, first and foremost, by financial concerns; and the average citizen is fully disenfranchised from determining electoral or policy outcomes. And nowhere is this more evident—with tragic results—than in Gavin Newsom’s collapsing California. The cost of living is out of control; a homelessness epidemic is on the rise; there’s a shortage of housing, water, and energy; crime rates are at an all-time high; wildfires cause devastation at alarming rates each year; and high taxes make it nearly impossible to start a small business. We’re beginning to see these trends spread throughout the United States. As the old saying goes, “as goes California, so goes the nation.” Our system must be reformed. This book doesn’t just lay out the problems; it posits a workable and easy to implement solution that will work to get this country—and California—back on track. In The Newsom Nightmare, Cox deftly and succinctly provides an alternative that would, if implemented, put the American body politic back on solid ground.