Our Weird Politics
Hugh Hewitt > Blog
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Politics, particularly for a nation as wealthy and well-situated as ours, is often more about opinion and personality than it is about capability and good, better, best. When a nation struggles it needs people that do the job well, when times are basically good, things get silly. It is not unlike picking the teams for the college football playoffs where there are a lot of teams arguably better than the ones that got in. Things other than football ability are involved. But there is one indisputable fact about the CFP – Indiana University beat Ohio State for the Big Ten Championship, earning the number one seed in the tournament along with the conference championship – much to the host’s chagrin. But back to our politics of government, not football. Three recent stories tell an interesting tale.
Let’s start with the story that Trump was burned in effigy in Guatemala over the weekend, representing, “the burning of evil.” American presidents have been burned in effigy by America’s enemies for a very long time. This is not astonishing. Nor is it surprising given that Guatemalans comprise a significant cohort of the illegal immigration that has, until Trump, crossed our southern border with little to no resistance. I share this story because burning a foreign president in effigy does nothing to solve a problem – it is simply, and solely, cathartic. It is a “political act” that does nothing other than express deep distaste. It is so derisive that it makes moving a conversation forward near impossible. People don’t like to talk to people that hate them that much. It may feel good, but it is not productive.
Which brings me to the two stories that are truly interesting – stories about polls.
A new survey from the Public Policy Institute of California finds that both the governor, a likely presidential candidate, and the heavily Democratic Legislature surged to majority support in the final months of this year. The approval jump comes after Newsom and fellow Democrats championed a gerrymandered new House map explicitly to counter Trump in next year’s midterm elections.
An Emerson College poll, released Thursday, revealed that Republican Chad Bianco, a county sheriff, is leading among the field to replace term-limited California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a staunch critic of President Donald Trump who has emerged in recent months as one of the loudest voices in the Democratic Party.
Receiving 13% of the vote, Bianco is closely followed by Republican Steve Hilton, a political commentator, with 12% support.
So, Newsom is strongly supported in his efforts criticizing Trump, but (and this is a big “but’) the state is looking to the other party for its next governor. In other words, Californians hate Trump and so they support Newsom hating Trump, but they don’t particularly care much for the job he is doing for California. And so, hating Trump helps a man get to the White House that did a bad job as governor. See what I mean? Politics is often about something other than ability to do the job well, just like Tulane in the college football playoffs is about something other than having the best 12 teams in (and unlike Indiana with the #1 seed – over Ohio State.)
I have written many times in these spaces about how Trump hatred is over-riding reason – and now here it is in hard polling data. And the media, meant to present facts, now simply stokes the unreason. This headline from “MS Now” (formerly MSNBC) says it all, “Republican-controlled Supreme Court considers granting a Project 2025 wish.” That is completely non-sensical. The Supreme Court operates without party affiliation – it is about law, not party.
California is dysfunctional. The recovery from last January’s fires, the “fixing” homelessness graft, covid… prove it. The place doesn’t work. And yet the man that sits on top of the political pyramid in that state threatens to become POTUS?! Why? Because politics is often about other than what actually matters. Because hatred has a way of over-riding reason.
I just hope reason returns to our politics before it is too late.
