Above: San Francisco-based Dead Kennedys emerged as one of punk’s most respected acts by the late 1970s. From left are East Bay Ray, Jello Biafra, Klaus Flouride, and D.H. Peligro. Photo: Anne Fishbein / Getty Images

By Erik Skindrud, InfoWise.org

A July 20 item by CalMatters’ Lynn La summed up state workers’ bamboozlement over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s widely-reviled return to office order, which went into effect this month. The piece was widely reposted, despite the fact that it offered no answer to the question on workers’ minds — “why?”

Journalists face a conundrum when writing about the governor’s RTO. If they venture into speculation, editors may receive an email from the governor’s office noting that the governor made no statement to that effect. Such a message would not boost one’s career.

Others don’t face that limitation. Newsom’s RTO was one component in his ‘pivot to the right’ of March 2025 — laid out in detail here, and elsewhere.

In 1979, Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra debuted a single that would later be called one of “punk’s most seething assault(s) on American politics.”

Here’s writer Ben Forest of U.K.-based Far Out Magazine’s summary of the song and its enduring relevance.

“‘California Uber Alles’ remains a perfect encapsulation of how politicians on both sides of the spectrum exploit their voter base while selling out their own principles to the highest bidder. It also helped to immediately establish the attitude of Dead Kennedys, being one of their very first songs; they took no prisoners, and called out injustice and oppression regardless of whether it was red or blue.”

California’s current governor, as COVID-19 eased, stated his support for state worker telework and said it would continue. That changed when his calculus noted a new policy advantage — tailored for his run for president.

“I am Governor Jerry Brown,” “California Uber Alles” begins. “My aura smiles and never frowns. Soon I will be President.”

Raised by liberal parents in Boulder, Colo., Biafra’s lyrics contrast then-governor’s Brown’s ambition, self-interest and narcissism, with his own idealism.

“What had begun in earnest as a cultural revolution in the 1960s, had, by 1979, deteriorated to little more than a complacent fashion,” Forest writes. “In which politicians like Brown would position themselves as hip, while simultaneously signing off on oil drilling on the California coast.”

There’s no need to review Newsom’s progressive history on climate, and recent silence on the topic. He also displays an erratic tendency, one that may work against his interests, Democratic political consultant Steve Maviglio notes in the recent CalMatters piece.

“California Uber Alles” has been reimagined multiple times. Biafra rewrote it during Ronald Reagan’s presidency to criticize Reagan’s wide influence on U.S. politics. Subsequent versions skewered California governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger. A newer version exists targeting Newsom too — but it’s an uninspired one focused on mask mandates and the French Laundry dining episode.

California would be the fourth-largest economy in the world if it were its own country — ranking behind China and Germany. It’s no mystery why California governors succumb to grandiose thoughts. History is littered with progressives who became authoritarians, or something resembling them. And in California, they do it with moonbeams and pomade — or blow driers.

Each listener will respond to the song in their way — the classic version of “California Uber Alles” is available here.

Bay Area PBS television station KQED interviewed Biafra about the song and its enduring influence in 2006. The audio interview is available here.

Biafra is now 68. He suffered a stroke this past March, and is recovering at his home in San Francisco.

Erik Skindrud is a writer in Huntington Beach. @Erik_Bookman on X.