I’ve been thinking about Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, and artificial intelligence lately.

Last week Harris released her post-election memoir, 107 Days. It’s getting picked over and skewered by literary reviewers and the chattering class, who find in the book the same qualities that doomed her as a candidate. The author is cautious, lawyerly, inoffensive, vague, hesitant, and—the deadliest sin in politics—boring.

The New York Times roughed up 107 Days in one of its podcast chats over the weekend, and as much as I loathe those headphone-tethered chortlers I had to credit Lydia Polgreen and Carlos Lozada for cutting to the quick.

Polgreen recalled that as candidate Trump grandly promised voters American greatness, cheaper eggs, zero inflation, and the smote of divine retribution, Harris offered…$25k housing credits for first-time qualifying home buyers, subject to approval.

Lozada pointed out that even in her own book Kamala Harris was unable to come up with a compelling post-Trump vision for Democrats. “We need to come up with our own blueprint for what we want,” she writes—on page 297 of the 300-page memoir.

America to Harris: You do know that’s your job, right?

For me, much of the tone-deafness of the Biden-Harris Democrats was encapsulated in the Administration’s big swing on artificial intelligence, which was titled Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. Released in Oct. 2022, this 73-page document was a liberal technocrat’s dream: page after page of solid ideas about the need for safe and effective AI systems, and preventing algorithmic discrimination and the abuse of private data.

But good God, the design and packaging were enough to make Edward Tufte weep.

Consider the title. Is it a…blueprint? Is it a bill of rights? What the hell is a blueprint for a bill of rights, anyway? Even AI policy wonks were left wondering if this was Biden’s plan for regulating AI, or just the concept of a plan, or maybe the first-draft outline of a concept for a forthcoming plan.

Love it or hate it, Trump’s label for his recent budget package—the notorious One Big Beautiful Bill—did the job. It stuck in everyone’s mind. In part because it was so obvious and stupid, yes, but this isn’t rocket science. It’s marketing. 1-877-KARS-FOR-KIDS works, brother.

The Blueprint absolutely dared policymakers to read it. The graphic design aggressively repelled the eye. Here are two representative passages.

Paragraph breaks and ragged-right margins exist for a reason. Bullet points exist for a reason. The printcrime above exists for only one reason: to impress upon you how very smart and very serious the authors are. This is what happens when academics and attorneys get together with too much committee time on their hands.

Nobody in the Democratic camp knows what to do right now. About anything. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries respond to Trump’s dismantling of the federal government and the rule of law with sternly-worded letters. Dems in Congress text me daily, pleading for fifty bucks to save democracy. Their entire playbook seems to be Harris, p. 397: Somebody do something! (In the meantime, Venmo me.)

Here’s where California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s opportunity lies: Grab AI as a headline issue. Go big and go bold. Stand up to defend decent people over obscene profits.

The issue is there for the taking. Thousands upon thousands of Americans are losing their jobs to AI. Chatbots programmed for addiction are hooking an entire generation of American kids. Recklessly designed AI products like ChatGPT and CharacterAI are leading teenagers to commit suicide. Former employees of Meta, OpenAI, and other tech giants parade before Congress, testifying to the outrageous contempt tech CEOs have for product safety and the health of American kids.

In the past few weeks Newsom and his social media team have shown spark and guts by going directly after Trump in the only language he understands: Big, dumb, playground-level missile strikes on X.

That indicates to me that he has the capacity to do what Biden, Harris, and the others couldn’t. He’s not hamstrung by the need to look smart, to uphold decorum. He’s not embarrassed to come out swinging big fat roundhouse punches.

One of the few issues that unites both MAGA and the Democratic base is a deep distrust of Big Tech—and alarm over the unchecked and reckless rollout of artificial intelligence. Some of the leading voices for sensible AI regulations in Congress belong to far-right Republicans: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, Sen. Josh Hawley, Sen. Marsha Blackburn. Hawley in particular has emerged as a firebrand on AI and the harm it’s already causing to American kids and families.

Newsom could scoop up that support, along with 99% of his own party, by standing up and telling his own state’s golden goose—the tech industry—that it’s time for their leaders to stop playing the fool. Cozying up to Trump on the Inauguration Day stage. Fawning over Dear Leader at obsequious ring-kissing dinners. Demanding carte blanche from lawmakers, insisting that there be no law to bind them whatsoever from harming the American people in the name of obscene profits.

If Newsom truly seeks the Presidency he must choose the American people over Palantir. He must say so. Now. Loudly. Often. Wrap it in a big stoopid name like the People’s Perfect Playbook.

The only thing holding him back is the fear that the tech-based billionaires who fund so many corporate-friendly Democrats will cut him off. But that ship has sailed. On the national stage it’s impossible to out-cozy Trump and J.D. Vance. Peter Thiel’s money isn’t coming Newsom’s way. Elon Musk and Jeff Zuckerberg aren’t cutting checks to the Newsom exploratory committee. Trump and Vance have already pegged the meter, offering Big Tech literally everything they’ve asked for.

There’s a wide swath of Democratic voters who currently don’t trust Gavin Newsom. He’s too corporate. Too slick. (The hair stands for the man.) He reminds older Dems of the worst parts of Bill Clinton, a grease-polished politician all too ready to sell out his grassroots supporters for big-money funders and a prime time slot at Davos and the Aspen Ideas Festival. Newsom right now is everything Bernie Sanders is not—and that’s not a good thing for his 2028 nomination.

He doesn’t necessarily have to demonize California’s tech titans. There’s a way to play this big, loud, and warm. Treat them like wayward siblings who went off on a bender, lost their way, but can still return to the fold: “You’re better than this, Tim Cook.”

Give them a route to return: To common sense, to humility, to America. If they balk, attack. Pick fights. Show the American people you’re willing to fight for us. As Kamala Harris keeps showing us, again and again, vague caution will get you nowhere.