Will Gavin Newsom be the heroic sheriff of Democratville?

In the iconic Western film “High Noon,” Marshal Will Kane, played by Gary Cooper, is left alone to do battle with a gang of outlaws. The townspeople, all of Kane’s “friends” and even his own deputy turn their back on him, and indeed their own town, in their collective hour of need.

That film serves as a metaphor for the multiple problems now plaguing the Democratic Party, not the least of which is its loss of touch with working-class and disenfranchised voters. A significant number of what used to be their base — including many non-white voters — have been turned off by identity politics at a record pace.

The “Will Kane” in this case is any commonsense, pragmatic, populist Democrat of stature. The town is the Democratic Party. Those on the far left and many in the media will assume that the “gang of outlaws” is President Trump and his administration. Unfortunately for the viability of the Democratic Party, that kind of knee-jerk reaction only further erodes the party’s support.

The “outlaws” in this case are the far-left fringe within the Democratic Party. Those are the outlaws and the bullies that the regular town-folk of Democratville are petrified to call out. One Democrat who has sent signals that he now understands that is California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

On a recent episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Newsom went on about how “the Democratic brand is toxic right now” and that “cancel culture” was one of the reasons. Newsom also agreed when Maher quoted Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) that if there are not drastic changes, the Democratic Party is going to become “the permanent minority.”

People often say that Newsom looks like a candidate from Hollywood central casting. Now, he seems like he is trying to fit the bill and ride to the rescue of the townspeople of Democratville. Except many of the people in his own “town” can’t stand him, and Republicans and many independents believe him to be a political chameleon willing to say or do anything to get elected.

Within his own party, Newsom has a huge problem. Much of the younger far-left embraces “out with the old and in with the new.” They not only see Newsom as part of the “old” but they are also angry with him for even pretending to talk with the other side — most especially after he dared to invite the “evil” Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk on to his podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom.”

That said, Newsom still at least knows that the “new” in this case has a very narrow and siloed support base. Two of the voices now regularly talked about by those who want to jettison the “old” are Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

Both were recently back in the news — Crockett for calling the president a “MoFo,” and Ocasio-Cortez for soundly beating Chuck Schumer in a poll for a (still just hypothetical) primary matchup for his New York Senate seat in 2028.

To be sure, both Ocasio-Cortez and Crockett have seemingly large bases of support. But when you zoom back and look down upon that support, you see that it is only a sliver in a much larger pie. That sliver is filled with far-left voters who often favor socialist solutions. The rest of the pie is filled with “November” Democratic voters who are often more centrist and traditional.

Therein lies part of the Democrats' greater problem. The ouster through primary elections of the established, older, supposedly "out-of-touch” Democrats has become a proven and successful strategy for the “outlaw” far-left wing of the party. This is especially common when turnout is low and the far-left is energized.

In the movie “High Noon,” the train scheduled to pull into the town at noon was carrying the leader of a very small but vocal group of outlaws. It was a gang the townspeople — even though they greatly outnumbered them and could have easily defeated them had they banded together — feared to cross because of its outsized reputation.

For the townspeople in Democratville, there are actually two trains soon pulling into their station. One in November 2026 and one in November 2028.

Will those bullied people of Democratville be able to find their own Will Kane to confront the far-left leaders descending the steps of those trains in 2026 and 2028? Will anyone stand up to the outlaws, who figured out how to primary their own elders out of existence, as they seek to forever erase the traditional Democratic Party?

Former President Bill Clinton has become radioactive to many Democrats over the last decade or so, especially to the party's progressive twentysomethings. That’s unfortunate, because Clinton truly understood politics and connected with the working class and the disenfranchised. As such, he knew the Democratic Party needed to move closer to the center to survive and side with the people and not special or pampered interests.

Newsom now makes noises like Clinton but does not come across as authentic — to many, he seems about as unauthentic as one can be.

Newsom’s time may have come and gone already. But those two trains will still pull into Democratville no matter what. And when they do, the townsfolk had better have someone to save them from the far-left gang bullying them into submission, or they will indeed become the permanent minority.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.