AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, GAVIN NEWSOM

Date: November 14, 2025.

 

 

To: Gavin Newsom, Governor of the State of California.

From: Ozodi Thomas Osuji, PhD (University of California)

 

 

Governor Newsom, I was surprised that Americans elected Mr. Donald J. Trump as their President in November 2024. I could not believe the news when I heard it. How could this happen? America is a country full of intelligent men and women, men of integrity, and yet over seventy million of them elected a man with a shady history. 

     America is a democracy, so we have to deal with Mr. Trump for the next three years, and, hopefully, Americans will wake up from their slumber and elect a decent American as their President.

      I am writing you this letter because of all the Democrats out there who could become elected the President of these United States of America, you are head and shoulders above them all.

     You are the governor of the wealthiest state in the union. The GDP of California, if it were a separate country, would be ranked number six in the entire world. A man who runs such a large state is capable of running the entire USA.

     Before your current administrative position, you were the Mayor of San Francisco, a city of 827,526 people, ranked the 17th largest city in the country and number 4 in California. 

     By anyone’s standards, you have had extensive executive and administrative experience and could easily transfer your skills to running the Federal government. But to do that, you must first win the presidential election in 2028. To win that election, you must be electable. You are electable if you appeal to most Americans, men and women, not just to a segment of the population.

     Since the advent of Donald Trump, most other Democratic leaders, as if under a spell, have kept quiet as the man dismantles our democracy and replaces it with his desired authoritarian political system, where all power emanates from him and his minions.  While for some reason Democrats keep quiet, you and the governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, have been vocal in speaking out against what Trump is doing. Thank you for doing what you did. 

    However, merely critiquing Donald Trump is not enough to convince Americans to elect you their president come 2028. You must vigorously assert what you stand for, what you need the White House to enable you to accomplish. 

      What is it that you want to accomplish, Gavin?  Americans are really seeking a President who has an agenda that he wants to use the national office to accomplish. They are sick and tired of Democratic politicians who have no real agenda but merely attempt to improve on the mean-spirited goals of the other Party, the Republican Party. 

 

     For example, although I voted for Kamala Harris, up to now, I really do not know what she wants to accomplish in office if elected.  She made the usual liberal noises, but that is not an agenda.   

     Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joseph Biden were individually good men but really had no exciting agenda; they stood for nothing that excited the nation.

      In contrast, look at the careers of President Franklyn Delano Roosevelt and President Lyndon B. Johnson; they stood for something that altered the trajectory of the country for good. 

     Among other great accomplishments, Roosevelt gave Americans Social Security and a forty-hour work week; Johnson gave America Civil Rights, Medicare, Medicaid, and Fair Housing legislation. 

    Let us do a word association test: say Roosevelt and what he did comes to your mind, say Johnson and what he did comes to your mind.

     Conversely, say Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden, and your mind comes up blank! This is because, whereas they ameliorated the pernicious and deleterious effects of the mean-spirited legislation of the Republican Party, they really had no standout legislative accomplishments.

     The broad masses of Americans are looking for a leader who will help them accomplish certain things. When that leader is seen, they become excited and come out and vote; if not, many of them stay home on election day!

     Look at the recently concluded election in New York for the mayor of the Big Apple.  Zohran Mamdani had an agenda: to make public transportation free, to make children’s Daycare free, to reduce rent, and to have city-run grocery stores. 

     I may not support these ideas, but they are identifiable, and people came out and voted for them. I personally will not vote for a Mamdani to run our political institutions because Islam wants to take over the entire world and force everybody to become Muslim and obey a Caliph stationed at Mecca. 

     I am a Catholic-Christian and do not want to be ruled by a Muslim.  Islam is not correlated with democracy; no Islamic country is democratic. 

    Gavin, for you to excite Americans into coming out and voting for you, you must clearly state what they want to see enacted into legislation. 

    Americans like the capitalist political economy and must have it. But in a capitalist state, given its intense competition, there are winners and losers. So be it. But we must seek ways to improve the situation. 

     To excite Americans, you must unequivocally state:

 

(1) That you will have the public finance public education from Kindergarten to University,

(2) That you want a single-payer healthcare system, as they have in the rest of the industrialized Western world.  

 

     It is shameful that in America, one medical emergency and folks have to sell their houses and eventually become homeless. This ought not to happen in the richest country in the world.

     We must pay for education at all levels, including college and vocational schools; we must pay for all citizens' health care; we must make sure that housing is affordable for all; we must make public transportation affordable. While doing so, we must encourage private schools and private health care.  

     Beyond those areas where public intervention seems necessary, we must leave the capitalist economy to allocate goods and services.  Capitalism has no alternative if productivity is our goal.

     You are going to be the governor of California until January 2027; you could work with the state legislature and pass the two landmark Bills suggested in this memorandum into law in California. That accomplishment will galvanize the rest of the nation into seeing you as a serious candidate for the US Presidency, a man capable of replicating at the center what he did at the periphery. What are you waiting for, Gavin?

    As Winston Churchill shrewdly observed, Democracy is the worst political system except that there is no better alternative to it. Democracy is desirable, but it sometimes produces scumbags as the country’s leaders.  

    Our founding fathers were aware of the shortcomings of democracy and made the lower house, the House of Representatives, strictly democratic. But made the upper House, the Senate, Aristocratic (and also made the judiciary aristocratic in the sense that the judges are selected on merit, not popular whims).  

     The Senate was intended to be led by experienced politicians with longer terms, allowing for thoughtful deliberation and strong public policies. 

      The salient point is that we must balance democracy with aristocracy because, whereas all men are created equal by their creator, in the real world, some people have more skills than others. We should only have men and women with proven executive and legislative skills run these United States of America, not TV Reality Show hosts who do not know the difference between their right and left foot ruling us.

     You meet most criteria for becoming the president of these United States. You are the governor of a state, you have had executive and legislative experience, and since Americans like their presidents to be tall, you are tall and good-looking. Americans like their presidents to be in their mid-fifties but no more than sixties. You are in that age band. Simply stated, you meet the criteria of electability.

    Americans want a man or woman who has the courage of their convictions to lead them. In that light, they want to know what you stand for.  So far, you seem like the usual democratic politician, but I do not know what you stand for (I know a thing or two about American politics; I was a professor of American Government at one of the California State Universities). 

    Mr. Newsom, you must now let Americans know what you stand for. Boil your public policy agenda to five memorable items (health care, education, housing, public transportation, childcare, etc.). 

    Assert publicly what you want your presidency to accomplish, for what are you fighting?  Do so and see Americans become excited and come out in their millions and elect you their next President. 

    Americans are a warrior people and desire a manly man, a warrior, as their president, not a girly man as their president. That may sound sexist, but I am just stating the truth.  Margaret Thatcher had to act like a man to become the Prime Minister of Great Britain.

 

     We live in a world where many countries pose an existential threat to our way of life, so the American President must stand for our values and be willing to fight for them. He must make sure that the United States military is second to none in the world.

     Allow our country to become weak, and predatory countries, such as Russia and China, attack and take it over. Liberal namby-pamby foreign policy is a recipe for more powerful countries to take over. Balance of Power is not enough; we must have overwhelming military superiority over other nations.

    On the issue of immigration, it is obvious that Central American leaders do not develop their countries and provide jobs for their people but just produce children and send them to the USA to get jobs. 

    We cannot be a place where Latin Americans export their surplus population. We must control our borders. 

     Congress makes policy as to how many immigrants we want annually, and that law must be strictly enforced. We do not need to have an open border where Latinos and other undesirable people simply waltz into our country. 

     In fact, there are already too many immigrants, legal and illegal, in the USA. It might be an innovative idea to pause all new immigrants into the country and give us time to socialize those already here into becoming real Americans and have them learn American values.

     The Muslims coming in must be thoroughly trained to become Americans before they reach a critical mass and embark on implementing their dreaded Sharia law.

    If you ask me, we should not allow Muslims into America and Western Europe; they are incompatible with democracy.

    Governor Gavin Newsom, you seem to be the Democrats' best bait to win the White House in the 2028 presidential election. To make the sailing easier for you, you must publicly communicate to the American people why they should vote for you. This memorandum includes suggestions, but more can be added.  But, whatever you do, let Americans know why they should elect you as their President.

      The Republican Party, like them or hate them, tends to make it abundantly clear what they are seeking the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court for. They want to make America good for rich billionaires, cut their taxes and increase taxes for the Middle Class, if we still have it, and transform America into an oligarchy.

    If you hope to keep America a pluralistic democracy, please do the needful and watch as Americans come out in droves and elect you their next president in 2028.

 

     Note: In numerous articles and books, I have elaborated on the public policy suggestions that I proffered in this brief memorandum to you. 

     You can reach me at:

 

ozodiosuji@gmail.com

(541) 636-6682

(503) 969-1543