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Will the Real Gavin Newsom Stand Up? Politics, Performance, and the Dangers of Cosplaying Authenticity

  • George Greenidge
  • 2 days ago
  • 5 min read

We’ve seen these performances before in American politics, and if we’re honest, many of us have winced or rolled our eyes along the way. Bill Clinton playing the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show to signal that he’s relatable. Al Gore dancing awkwardly to appear approachable. Howard Dean shouting into a microphone — a moment at a rally that would define him for years. Hillary Clinton described herself in an ABC interview as “dead broke” after leaving the White House, struggling to pay for mortgages and her daughter’s education. Elizabeth Warren cracked open a beer with her husband to signal ordinariness during her online campaign kickoff announcement. And most recently, Kamala Harris recounted a culturally familiar story about cooking greens to signal an African American connection. These gestures are meant to humanize, to say, “I’m one of you.” And sometimes, they land. But all too often, they feel like costume changes in a long-running political performance—calculated moments of relatability rather than genuine connection.


Recently, I watched a clip of California Governor Gavin Newsom on stage in Atlanta with Mayor Andre Dickens. Newsom leaned into the microphone and said, “I’m not trying to impress you. I’m just trying to impress upon you that I’m like you. I’m no better than you. I’m a 960 SAT guy… You’ve never seen me read a speech, because I cannot read a speech.” The audience laughed. The room felt warm. Social media, however, did what social media does: it split into defenders and critics overnight. Supporters pointed out that Newsom has dyslexia, a common form of neurodivergence that affects reading and language processing. And that is important. Dyslexia is real. It is not a character flaw or a punchline. Many of my students are neurodivergent. Many of my friends are. I have watched them labor over texts and then dazzle in discussion. I have watched them struggle with organization and then build extraordinary careers. Neurodiversity is not a deficit; it is part of the rich variation of how human minds work.

But this is where the human story meets structural reality. A 960 SAT score does not exist in a vacuum. Neither does dyslexia. Newsom may have struggled academically, but he also grew up with access to elite networks and capital, including long-standing ties to the Getty family, one of California’s wealthiest dynasties. That matters. It does not erase his challenges, but it contextualizes them. When someone who has had significant structural support says, “I’m just like you,” many people hear something different. They hear a flattening of experience. Like whom?


For families navigating underfunded schools, generational debt, housing insecurity, and no safety net, struggle is not anecdotal; it is structural. A friend of mine, a Black high school teacher raised by white adoptive parents, responded to the controversy by saying, “It wasn’t a Black audience. It was a normal audience.” That word—normal—stayed with me. In American politics, “normal” is often coded in ways we rarely interrogate. It frequently implies a middle-class baseline insulated from generational economic fragility. When politicians compress inequality into personality traits—“I wasn’t a great student,” “I can’t read speeches well,” “I’m no better than you”—they risk turning systemic disparity into a branding exercise.

I have heard white colleagues in academia speak casually about not paying for college because their grandparents covered tuition, or about receiving tens of thousands of dollars annually from family trusts, while insisting they are “just like everyone else.” They believe it. (The old Horatio Alger troupe) That is what makes it powerful. And that is what makes it sociologically revealing. The gap between lived structural advantage and perceived sameness is where trust erodes.  (Last week in Cambridge, MA, I attended a new book talk with political science professor Hélène Landemore.) In her latest book, Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule, she argues that democracy has drifted too far toward professional political classes and away from genuine citizen participation. Her call is not for better optics. It is for deeper inclusion—bringing everyday people, especially those from the margins, directly into decision-making. That shift is not about perfect messaging; it is about power.


We have seen leaders whose biographies are rooted in material struggle, not staged relatability. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez worked as a bartender to help her mother fight foreclosure before being elected to Congress. Zohran Mamdani rose through housing advocacy and tenant organizing before assuming executive office as Mayor of New York City. Their stories resonate not because they are polished, but because they are grounded.


This is not about disliking Gavin Newsom. He is charismatic, intelligent, and politically skilled. It is about something larger: the growing distance between political performance and structural honesty. Voters do not expect perfection. They do not demand flawless SAT scores or seamless speech delivery. They do expect acknowledgment of how race, wealth, geography, and family capital shape opportunity. When liberal politics substitutes vibe for redistribution or humility theater for material reform, it unintentionally feeds cynicism.

Democracy does not need politicians pretending to be average. It needs leaders willing to tell the whole truth about how they arrived where they are—and how they intend to expand opportunity for those without similar scaffolding. The public is not asking for cosplay. It is asking for candor, participation, and policies that reflect lived reality. The question is not whether Gavin Newsom is likable. The question is whether our politics can move beyond performance toward structural honesty that respects the intelligence and experience of everyday people.


Sidenote: NewsFlash on February 25, 2026: Out of nowhere (yeah right!), his autobiographical book drops. Gavin Newsom's new book, Young Man In A Hurry: A Memory of Discovery, hits the stands this week. Let's see if after reading his book, we see the real, authentic person who wants to be the Democratic nominee and the next President of the United States.

All eyes are on him. 

(Tell him Tupac!)  



George "Chip" Greenidge, Jr. is a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and Executive Director and Founder of the Greatest MINDS, a nonprofit dedicated to creating a new generation of civic-minded leaders in Boston. 

You can reach him at george.greenidge@gmail.com or IG georgegreenidgejr. or his website www.georgegreenidge.com.


Photos In Action: 


Orange County Register Article: "Gavin Newsom's Keeping it all in the family." In this June 3, 2004, file photo San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, left, Gordon Getty, center, and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, right, enjoy a pre-dinner glass of wine during a hospitality event of the Napa Valley Wine Auction at the PlumpJack Winery in Oakville, Calif. Plumpjack was co-founded by Newsom with financial backing from Getty, the heir to an oil fortune. Newsom, the front-runner in the race for California governor, is adamant he won’t sell his interests but is otherwise deferring decisions on how to handle potential conflicts until after the election.


September 30, 2021: Picture & Article from LA Times: Bruce’s Beach can return to 

descendants of Black family in landmark move signed by Governor Newsom.


October 2024: Gavin Newsom's TikTok picture for "Casual Fridays" showing off his Jordans sneakers.


Forbes: October 2025 Article: Inside Gavin Newsom’s Multimillion-Dollar Business Empire: With help from a billionaire benefactor, California’s governor built a hospitality company even as he gained power in America’s largest state.

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Politicians in Action & Authenticity

 


George "Chip" Greenidge, Jr. is a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and Executive Director and Founder of the Greatest MINDS, a nonprofit dedicated to creating a new generation of civic-minded leaders in Boston. 

You can reach him at george.greenidge@gmail.com or IG georgegreenidgejr. or his website www.georgegreenidge.com.

 
 
 

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