Gavin Newsom Fails California's Children ... Again
Governor's opposition to banning youth tackle football, restricting labels on cannabis products that attract kids shows that he's not progressive enough when it comes to the best interests of children
Those familiar with my writings in this newsletter and overall political beliefs may be surprised by the headline to this post. After all, I spend much of my time railing against the racism, transphobia and overall lack of empathy that infects the Republican Party, and particularly the efforts of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement to destroy American democracy (primarily by throwing out the votes of people of color, in a sick replay of Jim Crow politics). And I do believe that these threats to the most vulnerable members of our society, and to our very freedom to have our votes and voices counted in democratic elections, trumps any complaints that I have with the Democratic Party, or liberal ideology, by a huge margin.
But neither am I an adherent to tribal politics, the attitude that has become increasingly pervasive in our society that treats politics more like a team sport than a marketplace of ideas, where one backs their team no matter what, does whatever it takes to win, while demeaning and demonizing the other side. At the end of the day, we are all human, we are all susceptible to flawed beliefs, and no political movement has a monopoly on truth and righteousness.
I particularly feel that way about my own state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, whom I agree with on the vast majority of issues, particularly ones related to social justice, but whom I've often found off-putting in terms of his style (sometimes over substance) and propensity for grandstanding and fitting like a glove into the right wing’s favorite stereotype of the White, liberal, privileged politician who talks the talk more often than he walks the walk.
I applaud Newsom for taking on the scourge of gun violence in our society, making our state one of safest in the country when it comes to this national embarrassment, and defense of the LGBTQ+ community, an issue on which he was far ahead of many politicians when he legalized gay marriage as San Francisco’s mayor.
But on other issues, he’s fallen short, particularly when it comes to the well-being of our youths. He didn’t fight nearly hard enough to re-open schools during the pandemic, when the harm such closures were creating became evident, as well as the fact that schools could be operated safely and responsibly. California was one of the slowest states in the nation to re-open its schools, and while Newsom didn’t have direct control over the decisions of school districts, he certainly could have used his bully pulpit to push much harder for this outcome, especially when the state was gung-ho for reopening bars, restaurants and other gathering places much less central to the well-being and health of our children.
On two recent issues, Newsom has also fallen short when it comes to the welfare of our kids — specifically, their brains. In October, he vetoed a bill known as the “Cannabis Candy Child Safety Act,” which would have banned the sale, distribution or manufacturing of cannabis products with packaging and labeling deemed “attractive to children.” This comes during a period where there’s been a troubling rise in the youth cannabis use, as the drug has largely become normalized and deemed harmless since being legalized for recreational use in the state. At the same time, public health experts have been increasingly sounding alarms about the harm of marijuana to developing brains, as well as its links to anxiety and depression at a time when we’re facing a youth mental health crisis.
California Governor Gavin Newsom. Photo from Wikipedia Commons
The fact my state has banned flavored tobacco vaping products, after they were shown to have a devastating impact on youths, but continues to allow flavored cannabis vaping products, which can have the same type of appeal to youths, makes no sense from a public health standpoint. In vetoing the sensible “Cannabis Candy Child Safety Act,” which was only designed to restrict packaging deemed attractive to kids, not any products themselves, Newsom caved to the powerful cannabis lobby in the state, which seems to be acting more and more like the tobacco lobby once did in putting its interests ahead of the people they hook with their products.
Then there was Newsom’s preemptive vow that he would veto any bill that came to his desk seeking to ban youth tackle football for pre-teen kids, even before such a bill made it through the Legislature. As with cannabis, this was another example of Newsom caving to a societal love affair with a product — or in this case a sport — while ignoring the science and medicine. Just as marijuana can harm the developing brain, so can repeated blows to the head from the unavoidable violence of tackle football. The concussion and CTE crisis that has claimed the lives and well-being of countless football players has become well-established in recent years, even as the sport’s status as practically a national religion remains as strong as ever. Previous generations lacked the knowledge of what repeated blows to the head could do to players, especially very young players. It only makes sense that if the sport is going to continue to remain a fabric of our society, we should do all we can to make it as safe as we can for everyone who plays it, particularly the most vulnerable.
I grew up as a passionate football fan, and though I follow the sport no longer, I can certainly appreciate its allure and the entertainment value it provides. But that’s no excuse for placing the people who play it at an unacceptable risk for harm. Legends of the sport such as Hall of Fame coach and broadcaster John Madden, who knew its risks as well as anyone, spoke out passionately for years against children playing tackle football prior to high school age, saying they could learn all they needed to about the basics of the sport by playing flag football. Many great NFL players, such as Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, have said the same and led the charge for eliminating youth football among youths.
But Newsom caved to outspoken parents and football fanatics shouting about “their rights” and government overreach. Parents should have rights when it comes to how they raise their children, and which activities they allow them to participate in — within reason. When those activities pose a risk to the health and welfare of children, parents’ rights must give way to the government’s rights to protect their health.
Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar addressed the issue himself in a recent Substack post:
The medical studies are so concerning that it seems prudent to be extremely cautious about our children. Even professional football players have admitted they wouldn’t let their children play tackle football (“Top 12 NFL Players Who Wouldn't Let Their Kids Play Football”). Dr. Bennet Omalu, who discovered CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head) in dozens of former NFL players whose brains were donated for research, stated: “It is our moral duty as a society to protect the most vulnerable of us. The human brain becomes fully developed at about 18 to 25 years old. We should at least wait for our children to grow up, be provided with the information and education on the risk of play, and let them make their own decisions. No adult, not a parent or a coach, should be allowed to make this potentially life-altering decision for a child.
Finally, I think these two failures on Newsom’s part reflect a broader problem in our politics: the propensity for cherry-picking facts and issues to fit one’s own desired outcomes, experiences or interests, and to see every issue in black or white terms.
For liberals, this often means dismissing the dangers of drug use and abuse, because of their broader views about the War on Drugs (which I generally agree with) and personal experiences with drug experimentation. When it comes to football, politicians across the conservative-liberal spectrum seem so enamored with the sport’s popularity and place in American society that they willingly turn a blind eye to the dangers and sins of the sport (particularly when it comes to the NFL’s cover-up of the CTE/concussion crisis and sorry track record on issues of race) while engaging in incessant cheerleading for the teams that play in their states or districts.
It’s not always easy, but we all have to do our best at times to put our personal experiences, interests and desires aside and to follow the facts wherever they lead. Too often in America, political narratives and agendas drive facts (or which facts we choose to pay attention to), rather than the other way around. And too often, that leads to bad outcomes for the public interest at large and the most vulnerable in particular.