On his show this week Dave Rubin aired a direct-message clip that landed like a gut punch for California’s governor — Ron DeSantis confronted Gavin Newsom and bluntly revealed that members of Newsom’s own family have decamped to Florida, laying bare the consequences of liberal governance. The moment was shared widely on Rubin’s channels and reposted on platforms that highlighted the humiliation, and it underscored a simple, uncomfortable truth: when policies chase people away, words of virtue signaling don’t hide the exit signs.
Rubin’s clip drew viewers because it wasn’t theater — it was DeSantis pointing at real-world consequences while Newsom squirmed under the light of his own failed leadership, a stark contrast between somebody who runs a state that people are fleeing and somebody who runs a state people are moving to. The exchange, captured in the Direct Message segment, forced a national reminder that the elites’ sermonizing about social justice and climate virtue can’t paper over skyrocketing costs, rising crime, and cratering public services.
This isn’t just political theater; it’s backed up by the migration data that shows tens of thousands of Americans relocating from high-tax, high-regulation states to places like Florida where free enterprise and family life are honored. The U.S. Census Bureau and migration studies have documented large state-to-state flows in recent years, with many movers opting for safer streets, lower taxes, and more freedom — the very freedoms California abandoned under one-party rule.
Conservatives have been saying for years that woke policymaking chases out working families and entrepreneurs, and the numbers tell a painful story that Newsom can’t spin away. Independent analyses warn that simplistic “income migration” claims have complexities, but the pattern is unmistakable: people vote with their feet when their local leaders prioritize ideology over prosperity and public safety, and governments that punish success lose their taxpayers.
Watching DeSantis calmly call that out to Newsom’s face was refreshing for anyone tired of the coastal class lecturing the rest of America while retreating to gated enclaves. This was more than a zinger — it was a mirror held up to a party that pretends to care about working people even as their policies make life harder for them, and voters aren’t fooled by pompous politicians who live by different rules than the rest of us.
Hardworking Americans deserve leaders who defend family, faith, and the right to build a better life without being punished for it, not preachers who hollow out their states and then demand applause. If the Left’s response to DeSantis’s simple question about who left California is more excuses and gaslighting, then the next election will be a referendum on whether America chooses freedom or the nanny-state experiments that send neighbors packing.
