WHAT HAPPENED TO THE “GREAT REPUBLICAN HOPE?”
by RoseAnn Salanitri, ©2013, blogging at TPATH
(Oct. 24, 2013) — What do cowardly lions and toothless tigers have in common? Their bark (roar) is worse than their bite – much like Chris Christie in New Jersey. The NJ Governor sure knows how to stand up against the average citizen but when New Jerseyans need him to be a tiger and stand up against a rogue judiciary, they find out that this tiger is toothless.
Much like the schoolyard bully, Governor Christie can be intimidating, and true to the character of the schoolyard bully, he crumbles when confronted. His lack of sincerity in NJ would almost be funny if it weren’t so destructive. Strong words? Before deciding, let’s take a look at his history.
- This man was elected as the Great Republican Hope of NJ.
- He promised that he was a true fiscal and social Conservative.
- He promised to veto any same-sex marriage law that came across his desk and to defend traditional values.
- Well, he did veto the same-sex marriage law but the very same week also attempted to appoint an actively gay man to the NJ Supreme Court, who, by the way, never served one day as a lower court judge in any capacity.
- His veto roared but his actions proved that this tiger had no teeth.
Governor Christie, New Jersey’s defender of traditional values, also attempted to rewrite Scripture by telling his citizens that homosexuality is not a sin. To be clear, he had every right to give his opinion about homosexuality and defend the rights of homosexuals to live as they please, but he is not God and does not have the right to re-write Scripture and redefine sin.
Of course he roared when he instituted a lawsuit against same-sex marriage in the Garden State, but he quickly dropped the suit once the NJ Supreme Court ruled it was legal. Wait a minute – isn’t a lawsuit supposed to challenge the legality on this issue? Once again, the tiger proved he had no teeth.
The tiger also proved he had no teeth when he toured the State protesting the Abbott District laws that forced all NJ taxpayers to fund failing schools in urban districts. Christie rightly stated that the Abbott Decisions were unconstitutional on the basis that the NJ Supreme Court did not have the right to appropriate funds. That right is exclusively given to the NJ legislature under the NJ Constitution. Then the NJ Supreme Court ordered NJ to pay an additional $500,000,000 to the Abbott District schools, and this toothless tiger says “OK.”
Not only is this tiger toothless, he is also disingenuous. Remember, he vehemently protested funding the Abbott Districts until the NJ Supreme Court ordered him to do so – along with another $500,000,000 – even knowing full well that the order was unconstitutional. So what does he do now that he is campaigning for the governorship? His latest commercial touts the fact that he has given more money to education than any other governor. Of course he never states in the commercial that he protested giving the money and was ordered to do so – nor does his commercial tell you that even with all the money being thrown at the Abbott Districts, they remain some of the lowest-performing schools in the entire United States. Perhaps he is counting on the citizens of NJ not being able to put two and two together, which also makes him a disrespector of his electorate.
What about his being the Great Republican Hope? While he publicly endorsed the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, there were photo-ops with him laughing and putting his arm around the Democrat candidate. Again, empty words of endorsement or disingenuous? Before deciding, remember his similar photo-ops with a certain Democrat Presidential candidate – someone who he proclaimed to the world was a good leader? One more thing to consider – this Great Republican Hope never adopted the Republican Party’s Platform, which has earned him the label RINO – “Republican in Name Only.”
So here’s the rational choice when it comes to Chris Christie: is he a cowardly lion, a toothless tiger, a schoolyard bully, or a RINO in Conservative clothing? He may be any one of those or may be all; what he is not, is a sincere Conservative. Actually, he is one of the best reasons I can think of to leave the Republican Party – along with his many counterparts in the U.S. Congress. In the spirit of Ronald Reagan, many of us haven’t left the Republican Party but we need to face facts: the Republican Party has left us.