Mathews: Why is Newsom quoting a failed governor and atheist?

]If you’re ever inside the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale and hear laughter, it’s probably me visiting the tomb of Culbert Olson.

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-crazy country, refusing to say “So help me God” while taking the oath of office in 1939. After an ineffective four-year term, he was defeated for re-election by Earl Warren.

In this century, Olson is forgotten by all but the kookiest connoisseurs of Californiana, like your columnist, who cracks up every time he encounters 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.“

Culbert Olson is almost never quoted by powerful Californians today. 

Which is what made Gov. Gavin Newsom’s June 25 state-of-the-state speech shocking.

Newsom started his speech by invoking Olson’s Jan. 2, 1939, inaugural address and its opening call for California to stand up “in the face of the ‘destruction of democracy.’” Back then, with Europe sliding into war, Olson said:

“As we witness destruction of democracy elsewhere in the world, accompanied by 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 appropriate that we Californians, on this occasion, should announce to the world that despotism shall not take root in our State; that the preservation of our American civil liberties and democratic institutions shall be the first duty and firm determination of our government.”

Though he only directly quoted one Olson line, Newsom argued that in 2024 we face the same choice. Then Newsom pivoted to a partisan speech blasting Republicans and listing progressive policies. 

What Newsom didn’t mention — or didn’t know — is that Culbert Olson is a good model of how not to behave when democracy is under attack. Newsom isn’t an Olson clone. He is Catholic, for starters. But he has enough in common with Olson — each was the most progressive governor of his respective era — that he might reflect on this predecessor’s failures.

Olson, like Newsom, had an agenda (including public pensions, universal health care and government takeover of the utilities) so long that he struggled to set priorities. And Olson, like Newsom, could be overly strident in pursuit of it. Both men had a taste for public feuds. While Newsom makes enemies with Republican politicians, Olson got into self-destructive fights with Republican and Democratic legislators, and the Catholic archbishops in San Francisco and Los Angeles. 

Newsom, like Olson, has made warnings about democratic decline a major talking point. But neither has managed to stem democratic rollbacks.

Notably, when World War II came, Olson failed to defend civil liberties — especially with the incarceration of Californians of Japanese heritage. 

Olson knew this was wrong, and warned against it publicly. He lobbied President Roosevelt and General John DeWitt against the internment. But when the Roosevelt administration imposed the policy, Olson stopped fighting and embraced it. 

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.

Purity, progressivism and strong faith (or lack thereof) are not as convincing as affection and hope. Political rhetoric that taps our fears doesn’t encourage democracy nearly as much as building solidarity with our opponents.

Nothing is healthier for democracy than granting everyday people the power to make decisions themselves. In other words, keeping our democracy is not up to governors, but to Californians. 

Heaven help us.

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.