California Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke at a Planned Parenthood after a SCOTUS leak threatened abortion rights.
"Where the hell's my party?" he asked of fellow Democrats, saying conservative causes are "winning."
Newsom has pledged to make California a "sanctuary" for abortion rights if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom excoriated his own party for what he said was a lackluster response to the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade in remarks made on Wednesday.
"Where the hell's my party? Where's the Democratic Party?" the Democratic governor said to assembled press and pro-choice supporters at a Planned Parenthood office in Los Angeles.
In his speech, he called conservative advances in the culture wars a "concerted, coordinated effort" that the left is failing to counter effectively. He cited draconian abortion and education laws in Texas and Florida as examples, Fox News reported.
"Why aren't we standing up more firmly, more resolutely?" he continued. "Why aren't we calling this out? This is a concerted, coordinated effort and yes, they're winning. They are. They have been. Let's acknowledge that. We need to stand up. Where's the counteroffensive?"
His speech echoed the protests that formed outside the Supreme Court soon after the leaked draft opinion was published on Monday, where people shouted: "Democrats, do something!" Politico reported.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke out soon after the leak, calling the draft opinion an "abomination" and one of the "worst and most damaging decisions in modern history."
But efforts to codify Roe v. Wade into US law would likely be filibustered by Republicans, as Insider's Brent D. Grffiths reported. A nationwide constitutional amendment is also exceedingly rare in US history, as Insider's Dave Levinthal reported.
In his Wednesday speech, Newsom had particular ire for the Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, as well as Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who said on Tuesday that he would not end the filibuster in order to codify Roe v. Wade.
Newsom has vowed to turn California into an abortion "sanctuary," a promise he repeated after the leak by saying he would put forward a statewide constitutional amendment protecting reproductive rights.
"We'll be presenting that to the voters this November as an affirmative step to codify California's leadership," he said Wednesday.
"Pay attention, America. They're coming after you next," he said. "That's not hyperbole. It is not hyperbole. Watch this space if privacy is not constitutionally protected, this opens up a panoply of issues. So this is a profound moment. And yes, we're not going to be defeated."
brierrat on May 6th, 2022 at 15:28 UTC »
So I had a thought last night. We think of voter engagement all wrong in modern times. Republicans are engaging their voters all the time. All this fuss about books and drama about school boards and masks and pedophiles and gays and even abortion. It's not really about the "issues"; that's abstract. It's about the stories. Think about that for a second.
Yes, it hurts people, and Democrats are right to point that out (this can be used to form their own stories, should they choose to go that way; they toy with it, trot out examples during speechifying, but largely haven't when push comes to shove). But not my point for the moment. It's about the stories that engage their voters.
Republicans engage their voter though their media though these pants-on-fire stores. They are literally campfire stories. Over dramatic. Engaging. Exaggerated. Swaggering. With a good guy and a bad guy. They don't engage their voters with emails and texts asking for donations. That's what Democrats do. They engage their voters with stories. Classic stories of good battling evil and wrap them with modern people in modern context.
And then their politicians, behind the scenes, do whatever the fuck they want. Including building an empire to reverse court decisions and setting up a favorable tax code (and, like, actually evil things). And their voters vote for whoever and whatever they are told to vote on. Their voters actually wait for the messaging to come out before responding with a unified story.
Democrats tend to laugh about how "technically unsophisticated" the Republicans are when it comes to outreach, but that's just because when it kicks into high gear near an election, they tend to use college kids writing ads every 15 minutes without proofreading. But their system is way more complex than the Democratic machine and it's engaged all the time.
You see it loading up now. Republicans will come out with a response to the Roe v. Wade criticism but they are currently formulating it. They are quiet now. Next week, they'll be loud and unified.
PolicyWonk365 on May 6th, 2022 at 13:42 UTC »
Time to pass legislation that effectively makes California tax dollars unavailable to anti-abortion states. Block grants from California taxes heavily support many of these ass backwards states.
Shnazzytwo on May 6th, 2022 at 13:27 UTC »
They are introducing a bill. The fucked up part is how can the democrats NOT vote unanimously on protecting roe v wade? Even worse, how can not a single republican senator not be willing to protect it as well? What short leashes the party keeps on the GOP.