As Democrats struggle to find a narrative to explain their stinging losses up and down the ballot in November, some party leaders seem — at least at first glance — to be attempting to rein in the socially progressive orthodoxy that has dominated the party since the 1990s. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, widely seen as positioning himself for a 2028 presidential run, recently cited his concerns about “fairness” when talking about males who present themselves as female and compete against women in women’s sports. In a podcast conversation with the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Newsom also lambasted cancel culture and argued that there should be a place for abortion opponents in the Democratic Party.
While he is arguably the most prominent of them, Newsom isn’t alone among Democrats in undertaking what seems to be a political examination of conscience and seeking to seem more in touch with everyday Americans’ views on hot-button social and cultural issues. But Americans should be skeptical of attempts by Democratic politicians to whitewash their beliefs and their records. In nearly every case, they and their party remain aligned with the same hyper-progressive social agenda championed by left-wing donors and the ultraliberal members of the party.
Take, for instance, Democratic Congressman Tom Suozzi of New York. Days after the November election, Suozzi argued that his party had to “stop pandering to the far left” and said that he “(didn’t) think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports.” Yet two months later, Suozzi voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would prohibit school athletic programs from allowing male students to compete on women’s teams and in women’s sporting events. Indeed, 206 of 208 Democrats in the House of Representatives opposed the bill.
In the Senate, Democrats unanimously voted to block a bill that would restrict funding from schools that allow men in women’s sports. Even Democrats such as Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who has recently sought to position himself as a voice of common sense and moderation within his party, voted against the most commonsense of ideas: protecting women and girls from having to compete with, fight against, use shower facilities with and change in locker rooms with males.
Of course, the extreme social ideas that the Democratic Party continues to support — despite cynical attempts to cover up or whitewash their beliefs on podcasts and in media interviews — go far beyond the issue of men in women’s sports. The party continues to champion the teaching of an ideologically one-sided LGBTQ agenda in elementary schools; it advocates trampling the rights to freedom of speech and religion of Americans who dissent from progressive orthodoxy on marriage and sexuality; it adamantly refuses to support any meaningful protections for unborn children, even viable children in the third trimester. Elected Democrats who refuse to get in line are vilified by big Democratic funders (such as Planned Parenthood) and eventually ejected from political office (see former U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski.)
To be sure, the Republican Party is far from perfect. As a scholar who has written passionately in defense of the dignity and rights of the unborn, I strongly oppose recent efforts by Republicans in Congress — and now the Trump administration, via executive order — to expand access to procedures such as in-vitro fertilization that result in the creation and mass destruction of human embryos. But weakness on the part of Republicans on some important moral issues pales in comparison to the Democratic Party’s longstanding efforts to impose socially progressive dogmas on the country through legislation, court rulings and illiberal cultural practices such as anti-free speech cancellation campaigns against people who dissent from liberal orthodoxies.
Scott Jennings, the celebrated conservative CNN pundit, has frequently remarked that Democrats have consistently found themselves on the wrong-side of “80-20 issues.” Democrats realize that their social views — from men in women’s sports to compelled pronouns and cultural illiberalism — are deeply unpopular with the American people. That’s why Newsom is now trying to distance himself a bit from the Democrats’ social agenda, despite his own long personal record as a political standard-bearer of socially progressive causes. But Americans mustn’t be fooled by politicians who, for transparently self-interested reasons, attempt to revise their party’s history, hide their own previously publicly stated beliefs, and rebrand themselves as supporters of common sense — and common decency.
Robert P. George is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.