The Gavster, the Lite Guv, our former mayor, has a new book out, and while I eagerly await my review copy of “Citizenville,” I got to hear some of its themes on Forum. Here’s what the honorable Lieutenant Governor Newsom has to say:
You’ve got to “lean into it.”
Oh, and you need to “get into their heads.”
He can talk a lot about the millenial generation and technology, and he made some valid points about how government, particularly voting, is still way too analog (young people vote all day long, with likes on Facebook, and they vote for American Idol contestants, but not for local government offices). And he’s still hugely, overly enamoured of the notion that technology (operating through the private sector) can solve all of our problems.
But mostly: Platitudes. Astonishing, amazing gushers of platitudes. It got really hard to listen after a while; it’s as if the guy has taken ever bad cliche of the past decade and burned it so deeply into his brain that he doesn’t even realize he’s spewing them back out.
I hope the book’s a little better. Meanwhile, Gav: Get a grip.