State Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, says she gets bills through the Democratic-dominated Legislature by being laser-focused with “single-subject” bills and “common-sense legislation.”

What does the Democratic Party need to do to avoid repeating its humiliating electoral losses of 2024? 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom offered an unexpectedly spicy take at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit earlier this month: “We have to be more culturally normal.”

Newsom doubled down on that stance last week on New York Times columnist Ezra Klein’s podcast: “We talk down to people, we talk past people. So damn judgmental. I mean, our party just has to be more culturally normal in that respect.” 

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Neither interviewer pushed Newsom to elaborate on what exactly he meant. But some concerned Californians tried to read between the lines.

“I worry what is ‘normal’ is being driven by what’s white, male, Christian, patriarchal,” Irene Kao, executive director of progressive advocacy organization Courage California, told Chronicle political columnist Joe Garofoli. 

That’s certainly one interpretation. But to me, the subtext of Newsom’s pronouncements was more complex. The Democratic Party believes so blindly in its moral superiority that it hasn’t focused on crafting policies or rhetoric with broad public appeal. It’s forgotten how to tolerate nuance or deal with dissent. 

That’s not only a recipe for losing elections, but it has also created openings for Republicans to score unthinkable policy wins.

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Here in California, no GOP lawmaker has exploited Democrats’ blind spots more successfully than state Sen. Shannon Grove of Bakersfield, who has somehow convinced her colleagues to add a new crime to California’s three-strikes law for the first time in decades and embrace expanded........

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