MCCAIN: Wokery, poverty, blackouts… it's time to take horror of 'President Newsom' deadly serious 

2024 may be the most consequential presidential election in a lifetime.

America better be ready.

I'm not talking about Biden vs. Trump the sequel. Two octogenarians taking a second lap around the Oval Office wouldn't change the status quo.

I'm talking about Gavin Newsom vs. Ron DeSantis. The ultimate showdown of progressive wokism vs. common-sense conservativism.

It's long past time to settle this.

Over the past four years, California and Florida have presented two distinct visions for America. One is failing. The other is thriving.

The Golden State has embraced experimental, boundary-pushing, heavy-handed leftism and The Sunshine State has returned to time-tested principles of the right.

Make no mistake about it, Newsom, termed-out as governor, has his eyes on Washington, DC.

Just listen to his final inaugural as governor speech last Friday. 'California is the true freedom state,' he declared. 

It was a battle cry for liberal America.

Sure, Democrats insist Biden's the guy for 2024. But I don't believe it. There are a dozen factors that could derail his run, like a dismal approval rating, Hunter Biden, his age, or maybe, a special counsel investigation, to name a few.

And I'm not the only one to doubt the inevitability of Biden 2024.

Newsom is quite clearly positioning himself as the liberal savior, who steps up when the wheels fall off the Biden administration.

That's why it's time to take slick-haired, 90s action hero, Gavin Newsom dead serious, evaluate his record and ask ourselves: Do we want to 'California' America?

Just listen to his final inaugural as governor speech last Friday. 'California is the true freedom state,' he declared. It was a battle cry for liberal America.

I'm talking about Gavin Newsom vs. Ron DeSantis. The ultimate showdown of progressive wokism vs. common-sense conservativism.

Short answer: Hell no! California is a liberal dystopia of debt and decline. And don't just take my word for it.

In California, the San Francisco Chronicle notes, 'wealth inequality is vast, the poverty rate is high, housing is unaffordable and less than half of students are proficient in reading.'

Under Newsom, California has cemented its status as the posterchild of left-wing, progressive politics run amok. If states are the laboratories of democracy, then Newsom is Victor Frankenstein.

Shall we start with the energy shortages?

Hot summer weather in 2022 overwhelmed a state energy grid, which is crippled by regulation, over-reliance on green renewables and rejection of gas-burning power stations and nuclear.

It got so bad Newsom pleaded with residents not to charge their electric vehicles, something Cal Fire Battalion Chief Isaac Sanchez urged people to ignore because of wildfire evacuation warnings. 'Life safety is a priority. At least it is to us,' Sanchez said.

Hysterically – or more accurately – pathetically, Newsom also signed a bill to ban gas-powered vehicles in California by 2035. You'd better hope the next decade isn't too warm – an electric car with a dead battery won't do you much good.

Then there's the state's tax scheme, the country's most progressive. West Coast liberals may whine about America's wealth gap, but it's their lifeblood.

When the bottom fell out of the stock market in 2022, so did the net-worth of the Golden State's Silicon Valley sugar daddies and then bye-bye tax revenues. The state swung from an estimated $100 billion surplus to $22 billion deficit in 2023. Not exactly a stellar record of fiscal stewardship. And as U.S. national debt continues its march past $31.3 trillion, Newsom's hardly the captain you want steering the ship.

California's homelessness crisis continues to spiral out of control.

Newsom identified it as a major public problem and dedicated billions to tackling it, only for the plan to fail. Today, there at least 161,000 homeless people in California – the highest number in the nation by far - despite having the world's fourth largest economy.

Official poverty, which doesn't account for the impact of social programs, increased from 10.5% in 2019 to 11.6% in 2021.

During the pandemic, the unsheltered population increased by 6.2% - another nation record. There are vast homeless encampments that authorities routinely raze. So much for progressive plans to spread the wealth and care for the vulnerable.

Cities like San Francisco have only recently re-started arresting drug dealers and users – what a novel idea – after they realized that addiction may have something to do with this. As America stares down an epidemic, I think I'll pass on the California-method.

Just last month, Newsom popped up for a photo-op on California's border with Mexico to announce that his state's immigration system was on the verge of collapse.

Where the heck have you been, Gavin? Are you starting to rethink California's sanctuary policies that welcome illegal immigrants and help shield them from deportation? As a model for America, do you think we should encourage more undocumented people or less during an historic border crisis? I think I know your answer.

Yes, when it comes to woke, it's hard to outdo the Golden State.

Newsom's Reparations Take Force has called for every eligible black person in the state to receive $1 million. If that's not a straight line to national bankruptcy and decades of racial division – I don't know what is.

In October, Newsom announced that California was the first state in the nation to create a sanctuary for transgender youth seeking gender-affirming medical care, while most of the rest of the world places restrictions on these experimental procedures.

And finally, recall how Californians lived during COVID. They suffered under the nation's longest pandemic closures. Small businesses were crushed by Newsom's nearly year-long stay-at-home orders. The U.S. Supreme Court knocked down Newsom's pandemic ban on indoor religious worship. And the 'rules for thee, but not for me' hypocrisy was appalling.

A video posted by outraged restaurant owner Angela Marsden went viral after she filmed her shuttered outdoor eatery, while a Hollywood film crew worked next door. Newsom notoriously attended an indoor dinner in Napa Valley, at one of the world's most expensive restaurants with a group of unmasked friends while he was urging everyone else to mask-up and lockdown.

Newsom's Reparations Take Force has called for every eligible black person in the state to receive $1 million. If that's not a straight line to national bankruptcy and decades of racial division – I don't know what is.

'Freedom is who we are,' Newsom said on Friday. Who is he kidding?

He's delusional if he thinks he can drop the word 'freedom' into a speech and erase his appalling record.

It's no surprise people are fleeing the state in record numbers. California lost about 360,000 residents in 2021, up from about 275,000 from the year before. The population shrank by 113,000 people. It's been so bad California lost a congressional seat in 2020 for the first time in the state's history.

Newsom is the polar opposite of Ron DeSantis. The anti-DeSantis if you will, and he's proud of it. But in a sharply divided nation, a contest between them may be close.

Liberals in America believe that when it comes to schools, teachers and administrators know best. Conservatives want to empower parents.

Liberals believe the more migrants the merrier as long as they don't end up in Martha's Vineyard. Conservatives want secure national borders.

Liberals believe that pronouncements from the public health establishment should be followed up in lockstep. Conservatives wants to learn from the obvious failures of mandatory masking, school closures and lockdowns.

Liberals seek influence through Hollywood, the mainstream news media and woke corporations. Conservatives want to return power to the people.

These are competing visions and America may have to choose one. Don't turn the country into another left-wing Newsom nuthouse.