Gavin Newsom Adds Woke and Islamic Holidays to the California Calendar
Progressive policy ambitions meet practical realities as Americans weigh costs and consequences.
There’s something almost poetic about Gavin Newsom signing a bill to add Muslim holidays to California’s official calendar while his state crumbles under a $45 billion budget deficit. The man has priorities, we’ll give him that. He could be fixing the homelessness crisis that has turned Los Angeles into an open-air asylum, or addressing the fact that businesses are fleeing California in droves, but no.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
Democrat Governor and presidential hopeful Gavin Newsom has signed into law new legislation that adds two Muslim holidays to the state calendar. California now officially recognizes the Islamic holidays Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as state holidays. https://t.co/XGlZdpKmCF Gavin Newsom just signed a bill making two Islamic holy days official California state holidays.
Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Muslim students now get excused absences with no penalty. State and school employees can use holiday credit or personal leave to take the days off. https://t.co/w123xSn2wg California just made two Islamic holidays official state holidays.
Schools can close. State workers get the days. Newsom’s California in one headline. Glad I got out. Don’t miss that BS state at all. https://t.co/rm0oGq8v9R The bill updated the list of California holidays to include Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, allowing for school closures and work exemptions for state employees.
While the legislation recognizes the new holidays on the California calendar, state employee observers are required to use holiday credits to use them, and courts and other offices will remain open. Students are to be issued excused absences when requested.
Additional legislation of a similar vein signed by Newsom added “Native American Day” to the docket of paid holidays. The additional costs of payroll expenses and lost productivity are expected to cost California taxpayers up to $20 million annually.
Newsom hopes that the added holiday will “challenge misconceptions about California Indians and address what it describes as an incomplete understanding of Native American societies in the teaching of California history,” according to the California Post.
The new addition raises the number of California state holidays to 12, nearly 5 percent of the weekdays in a given year. Editor's Note: Do you enjoy Townhall's conservative reporting exposing the radical left and woke media?
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
There’s something almost poetic about Gavin Newsom signing a bill to add Muslim holidays to California’s official calendar while his state crumbles under a $45 billion budget deficit. The man has priorities, we’ll give him that. He could be fixing the homelessness crisis that has turned Los Angeles into an open-air asylum, or addressing the fact that businesses are fleeing California in droves, but no. He’s busy making sure the state formally recognizes two Islamic holidays. That’s the kind of leadership that really speaks to the people.
The bill, which adds the holidays to the state calendar, is being sold as a gesture of inclusion and respect for Muslim communities. Sure. But it’s also a calculated move in a Democratic primary where Newsom is trying to out-woke everyone to his left. He’s not governing; he’s campaigning. The cynical part of this is how easily it comes to him. He’ll sign a symbolic proclamation in Sacramento and then jet off to wherever he’s filming his next podcast, leaving the actual work of running California to someone else. Symbolism over substance is the Newsom brand.
Here’s the thing — no one’s arguing against respecting people’s faith. Californians have shown they can coexist without the state legislature patting itself on the back for it. But when the government plays favorites with holidays, it cheapens the gesture. It’s not a genuine act of community outreach; it’s a political checkbox. A day on the calendar didn’t fix the grocery store theft problem or make the gas pump cheaper. It just gave the governor another press release to send out to his donor list.
We’d have more respect for Newsom if he just admitted what this is: an audition for the White House, paid for by California taxpayers who are sick of being ignored. The man’s ambition is boundless, but his attention to the actual state he governs is remarkably selective. He’ll recognize any holiday except the one where he has to account for his record..
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.