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Gruesome
Grinning Gavin smooths his tie,
Makes sure he’s framed against blue sky.
He pats his hair—one’s out of place;
He frowns to note there’s still a trace
Of imperfection in his mien,
But knows the news will still refrain
From bringing up those pesky fires
While there’s Trump’s team to paint as liars.
He practices his winning smile
Until he’s sure it shows no guile,
Steps into the adoring light
Of press who have no bark nor bite.
This actor in an actor’s State
Might not escape the actor’s fate
Who fails, convincing of the ruse
–the artful ploys he means to use—
To dodge, deflect, divert, and blame.
For him, you see, it’s all a game:
The shattered windows, burning cars,
Assaults on agents of our laws,
Just grist for him to spin the truth,
Frame law and order as uncouth—
Rude flaws in his utopia,
Disrupting the cornucopia
Of goodies flowing from on high
To grateful peasants’ grateful sighs.
These goodies on which his fame depends
He knows, deep down, he’ll bring to an end,
So he talks and talks, to speed the day
His voice commands supremest sway
to universally enthrall.
One day, he’ll Californicate us all,
Then leave our gruesome wreck behind,
Himself as legend in his mind.
.
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Adam Wasem is a writer and rare bookseller living in suburban Salt Lake City, Utah.
Adam, this is one great poem using the term, Californicate, as I have done in one of my own poems. Your take on Gavin Newsom is so perfect it is hard to imagine any other even coming close to your truth that I hesitate to call satire, since it matches my own observations too well. Thank you for tearing him and his ideas apart and lighting a spark!
That’s what’s so gruesome about it, it would be satire except it’s real. Looking out at the political landscape, I often have difficulty believing left-wingers can take the clowns they elect seriously, but it does make writing satire about them exceptionally easy; i.e., Newsom is such an absurd narcissist this poem practically wrote itself.
Wow, Adam, you nailed Newsom… he has taken Nancy’s examples, and lessons, to heart. As for all the goodies… the people have been beat up for so long, who can fault them for begging scraps from the table of the Kings and the Connected?
The Cloward-Piven strategy is working frighteningly well. When the academics proposed it, it was supposed to overwhelm the USA with welfare claims, but now the cash is up for grabs by everyone… USAID has a long list of the new millionaires they have created with money borrowed from the hard-bitten taxpayers.
Yeah…they’re narcissists… every one of them.
Time for real virtue, not just hollow signaling…
My description of the recipients of Newsom’s largesse seemed in the writing more of a satirization of Newsom’s cynical political vote buying strategy than a criticism of the recipients. I find California most interesting in that it has experienced the most radical demographic shift of any state, and it’s one with a deep personal connection, as a state where my grandparents and now father have lived my entire life.
It’s also the state farthest along in the demographic replacement strategy of the Democrats, and so fertile ground for the most salient political commentary. If they’re determined to replace Heritage Americans like me in a place I’ve loved as long as I’ve been alive with 3rd world peasants only interested in how many goodies they can vote themselves, at least I can get some laughs out of it.
I see where you’re coming from. I read an interesting article today that has really helped me understand the whole authoritarian dynamic. It turns out that progressive authoritarians don’t even realize that they ARE authoritarian at all… completely oblivious. The study is very eye-opening and helps to explain some of the conversations I’ve been part of over the last few years… most revealing.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/06/the_left_has_an_authoritarian_problem.html
That was interesting; thanks, Mike. Myself, I wouldn’t chalk up their unself-awareness to obliviousness, but to delusion. Of course, at the limit, is obliviousness distinguishable from delusion? But the article does explain why, as leftists get more authoritarian, they get more angrily self-righteous about it. In any event, Newsoms’s obvious obliviousness/delusion was the reason I ended the poem the way I did, with Newsom paradoxically strolling away from the utter disaster he’d created with nothing but the highest opinion of himself.
Yeah… and narcissists, in their total disregard for all others, are the most self-righteous and deluded of all.
“This actor in an actor’s State” is a catchy line. Come to find out, Gavin was again sipping wine at a charity fundraiser during the riots.
Held, no doubt at the French Laundry, and with selfies all the way. Thanks, Cheryl, I was particularly happy with that line, I felt it as a fairly pithy summation of some of the Hollywood unreality that just tends to seep out into the California air, and how Newsom conspicuously exhibits most of Hollywood’s worst traits. Whenever I see Newsom, I always think of the saw that “Politics is Hollywood for ugly people.”
Gruesome indeed! Adam, you have captured the very essence of this greedy, preening ghoul with poetic aplomb, and I thank you wholeheartedly for your words to the wise… those who know need a little sanity in their lives in shining words of truth.
I love it! Gruesome, Indeed; why didn’t I think of that title? One day, I’ll be lucky enough to have you as my ghostwriter, Susan. And you are very welcome; we all have a duty to help keep each other sane in insane times. My hope is that with enough collective ridicule we can at least knock the most ridiculous out of presidential contention.
Good work, Adam. We have to hope this phony has built so much baggage that he won’t go far in 2028. Of course, the Dems might just pick AOC instead.
Thanks, Russell. At the speed the electorate is degenerating, I would not be surprised in the least. At least, if AOC wins, we’ll know it’s the end of the Republic.
Your selection of the title is masterful. I kept wondering where “gruesome” fits in. Unctuous, plastic, sanctimonious — these are all words I associate with Newsom, and you touch on all these aspects. But I kept wondering where “gruesome” fits in. Then you smack us with it at the end: it is the fruits of his actions that are gruesome. It reminds us that the ladder of pure ambition leaves much wreckage, and that results, not intentions (real or pretextual) determine the virtue of a policy. I know many mini-Newsoms of the same mold, even here in Indiana.
One of his earlier nicknames, among Californians and others familiar with its political milieu, was “Gruesome Newsom,” but as it was not widely known elsewhere, I thought I should add it in. And it fit nicely, for the reasons you elucidated; The line clarified the nickname for me, too, in understanding that a perfect handsomeness can be inverted by vainglory into a perfect hideousness.
My own nickname for this unregenerate clown is Gavin Noisome.
The best one I’ve heard yet. From your mouth to God’s ears. Whatever your opinion of Trump, he has indubitably demonstrated the value of biting nicknames.