Why is Newsom citing a failed, atheist governor?

Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, California, on May 10, 2024.

)If you’re ever inside the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale and hear laughter, it’s probably me visiting Culbert Olson’s grave.

Olson is California’s most anomalous political figure. During our long era of Republican dominance (1896-1958), he was the only Democrat to serve as governor. And he was an unapologetic atheist in our God-mad country, refusing to say “So help me God” when taking the oath of office in 1939. After an ineffective four-year term, he was defeated for reelection by Earl Warren.

In this century, Olson has been forgotten by all but the most eccentric California insiders, like your columnist, who cracks up every time he meets our late, great, God-denying governor in that cathedral-like mausoleum just steps from a stained-glass reproduction of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”“

These days, powerful Californians rarely quote Culbert Olson.

That’s what made Gov. Gavin Newsom’s June 25 State of the State address so impactful.

Newsom began his speech by invoking Olson’s inaugural address of Jan. 2, 1939, and his initial call for California to stand up “in the face of the ‘destruction of democracy.’” Back then, as Europe was heading toward war, Olson said:

“As we witness the destruction of democracy in other parts of the world, accompanied by the denial of civil liberties and inhuman persecutions, under the rule of despots and dictators, so extreme as to shock the moral sense of mankind, it seems proper that we Californians should, on this occasion, announce to the world that despotism will not take root in our State; that the preservation of our American civil liberties and democratic institutions will be the first duty and firm determination of our government.”

Although he only directly quoted one line from Olson, Newsom argued that we face the same choice in 2024. Newsom then segued into a partisan speech in which he criticized Republicans and listed progressive policies.

What Newsom didn’t mention, or didn’t know, is that Culbert Olson is a good model of how No How to behave when democracy is under attack. Newsom is no Olson clone. He is catholicfor starters. But he has enough in common with Olson — each was the most progressive governor of his respective era — that he can reflect on his predecessor’s failures.

Olson, like Newsom, had an agenda — including public pensions, universal health care and a government takeover of utilities — for so long that he had trouble setting priorities. And Olson, like Newsom, could be too strident in his pursuit of that agenda. Both men had a taste for public spats. While Newsom made enemies among Republican politicians, Olson engaged in self-destructive feuds with Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and with the Catholic archbishops of San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Newsom, like Olson, has made warnings about democratic decline a major talking point, but neither has succeeded in stemming democratic backsliding.

It is noteworthy that when World War II broke out, Olson did not stand up for civil liberties, especially with the imprisonment of Californians of Japanese descent.

Olson knew this was a mistake and warned publicly. He lobbied President Roosevelt and General John DeWitt against internment. But when the Roosevelt administration imposed the policy, Olson stopped fighting and hugged he.

Similarly, Newsom, after years of pursuing pro-immigrant policies, has bowed to the political winds and supported President Biden’s rights-violating, Trump-like restrictions on immigration and asylum.