The Democratic Party increasingly finds itself in a balancing act
California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom surprised many recently when he labeled transgender-identified male athletes’ participation in women’s sports "deeply unfair." The forum, a podcast discussion with MAGA activist Charlie Kirk, was almost as striking as the statement itself.
But Newsom’s comments were conspicuously not a full-throated repudiation of gender ideology. They merely reflect a new trend within the Democratic Party that involves expressing public skepticism of transgender ideology while remaining unable to act against it.
This apparent mismatch between rhetoric and action is not just political expediency; it’s a structural problem. The Democratic Party increasingly finds itself in a balancing act: acknowledging how unpopular its activist class has become but remaining dependent on it for funding, organizing, and electoral mobilization. As long as Democrats are unable to break with their fringe, Republicans will keep using gender ideology as a stand-in for a broader critique of Democrats as a party that cannot be trusted to govern competently.
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Jesse Arm is the director of external affairs and presidential initiatives at the Manhattan Institute. This piece originally appeared in City Journal.
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