Governor Gavin Newsom of California is ignorant of both the history of the United States and the philosophy of our Founding Fathers. In a post to social media, the governor claimed that the Founding Fathers would not have supported the activation of the California National Guard and U.S. Marines to help quell the riots in Los Angeles.
The founding fathers did not live and die to see this moment. It’s time for all of us to stand up peacefully.
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) June 11, 2025
Well, here is a lesson for the governor, which he so obviously needs. The Founders began with the prerequisite that order is required to sustain a functioning society. Liberty, freedom, our rights, and privileges cannot survive without it. The reason we abandoned our original founding document, the Articles of Confederation and began the constitutional convention was that the federal government was unable to assist the State of Massachusetts in putting down Shay's Rebellion. The Constitution in Article I, Section 8 gives the federal government the authority to "suppress insurrections." Whether or not Gavin Newsom requested the help is irrelevant. The federal government exists to help when states fail to govern. Furthermore, one of the greatest men of our founding, George Washington, personally led an army to put down the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. We would like to see Gavin Newsom do that, but he never would.
Not only is his response to the riots in LA antithetical to the founding of the United States, his entire policy agenda is. The Founding Fathers believed in equality under the law. Under Gavin Newsom, violent criminals are released back into society, laws are enforced based on political expediency, small businesses suffer while billions are spent on projects that never even start, taxes continue to increase, crime and homelessness worse, infrastructure projects always take longer than expected and go way over budget. The list goes on and on. California’s executive branch includes over 200 departments, agencies, boards, commissions, and offices, while the average for most states is between 100 and 150 offices. With all of these executive branch agencies, one would think California would become better governed, but the opposite occurs. Tell us, Governor Newsom, would the Founding Fathers approve of this?
In recent history, Newsom shut down his state and enforced COVID-19 mandates, which exercised more control over a population, something the Founders never would have agreed with. He uses emergency powers whenever they are convenient and only supports states' rights when it is President Trump sitting in the White House.
The Founders desired local leadership to lead the country and legislation. Newsom, in contrast, enables dependency on a bloated state bureaucracy and relies heavily on the federal government to fund California welfare programs. Tell us, Gavin, where did the Founders say states should be almost wholly reliant on federal money?
In Federalist No. 51, James Madison argues that government is necessary because "men are not angels." When order breaks down, the state has a responsibility to respond, and the federal government has a constitutional role to play. That’s not tyranny, that's not overstepping authority, that’s the social contract.
The Founding Fathers would not be shocked to see riots occurring; they would be horrified to see a sitting mayor and governor claim that everything is under control in the midst of such unrest. They would be shocked that a governor would claim that the president is causing the riots and making them worse by sending in the National Guard and federal troops to stay in line with partisan politics. They would not look at Gavin Newsom's California and declare that the state and its laws were exactly what they had envisioned after fighting a revolution for our independence and our freedom.
Governor Newsom, of all people, has no business invoking the Founding Fathers. Many politicians have strayed far from their vision, and Newsom stands among the worst.
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