Honestly, fair points. I don’t really know how far he could’ve safely escalated, particularly given that the worst-case scenario was “National Guard opening fire on his state’s citizens,” but I can at least see the argument that he didn’t go far enough. I also don’t want him anywhere near the Presidency.

I do think his response is at least somewhat notable in that he is one of the most prominent public figures in a position of power to plainly and openly call Trump’s actions out as tyranny. I think one of the biggest obstacles to getting people mobilized against Trump is that a lot of people who aren’t particularly online and/or politically engaged just don’t get how serious the threat is. Random Lemmy/Bsky posters aren’t going to reach many of these people, but the Governor of California talking about the possibility of getting arrested in an effort to protect schoolchildren might stand a stronger chance of getting more people to actually realize what’s going on.

I dunno, it’s complicated… Newsom sucks, but I think the two main advantages the GOP/Trump have had over everyone to their left in the last couple of decades are that A) they can present a unified front, both in Congress and in messaging, and B) they are extremely effective at propagandizing to low-information voters. Attacking a prominent politician in the middle of speaking out against Trump seems counterproductive to gaining ground in either of those areas, but maybe the consequences in this case aren’t worth it. I don’t know, I’m not a political strategist.