The Corzine Democrats

N.J. Gov. Christie, addressing a town hall meeting in Cedar Grove this morning, noted the ominous re-emergence of a certain kind of Democrat.  There are some Democrats you can get along with, he told the skeptical audience, and compromise with.  Sometimes you have to compromise to get things done, he said.  But he vowed that while he might compromise on a political deal, he’d never compromise on his principles.

This particular kind of Democrat to whom he was referring is what he calls “The Corzine Democrat.”  When an audience member shouted out, “Why isn’t he in jail?!” Christie replied that if he was still the attorney general, he probably would be.  “But that’s not my job anymore, pal.  I’ve moved on.  I have a new job now.”  Christie normally won’t acknowledge shout-outs at town hall meetings, but this one intrigued him.

He said New Jerseyans have a great sense of humor.  They elected him, a Republican governor, but gave him a Democrat legislature.  The legislature is in the last 12 days of session and they’re like kids who were given a book report assignment back in January and are only now getting to it.  They will promise to give New Jersey taxpayers a tax cut comes next January, but not now.  What they want now is the permission to spend more money.

Christie’s predecessor approved tax increases 115 times during his administration.  He said it worked out to another new tax increase every 25 days.  For eight years, the Garden State has been waiting for its property tax relief, and with a Corzine-Democrat legislature, he says we should hold our breath waiting for it.  The same Democrat legislature he says he’s been able to compromise with on such items as pension reform.

He correctly blamed the various taxes residents and companies must pay for flight of more affluent residents, who paid 41 percent of taxes in the state before moving to greener pastures.  Those same taxes make it difficult for businesses to remain competitive in this state.  When a businesswoman whose medical lab business is struggling, he referred her to business grants that can help her company technologically.  It sounded like yet another government hand-out, but at least the company would be producing something.

I sat there with an American flag in my lap.  Had this woman not questioned him about the sorry state of business in New Jersey, I would have asked him about my flag.  It has a “Made in China” label on it.  We’re in a sorry state, indeed, when we can’t even produce our own flags.  I believe in competition, but it seemed to me this was taking things a little too far.

Christie, however, sounded all the right notes on making New Jersey a competitive business environment.  Of course, it would happen with a Corzine-Democrat legislature, which is why we must never dismiss our local elections, and why we must get out the Conservative vote.

He also noted that one of our problems is that so many college students – 38,000 students this year (including The Nephew, who is home again with his sweet, Made in China girlfriend – some imports aren’t bad).  That should say something about our education system when the only girl smart enough for him came from China (but is very happy to be in America; she even took upon herself an Anglicized name).  She and many other foreign students come to American schools for science and engineering educations so we must be doing something right; we’re just not doing enough of it on the elementary and secondary levels so that American students pursue degrees in those fields.  They certainly don’t do it much in New Jersey and that’s something that must change, Christie said.  That’s why Christie has pursued the Rutgers merger.

Christie admits even he didn’t go to school in New Jersey; he attended the University of Delaware.  When students refuse go to school here, when companies won’t do business here, and people can’t afford have a home here, we’ve got to ask ourselves:  what are we doing wrong?

We know the answer and we know who to point the finger at:  ourselves.  We’ve got to take more responsibility for the condition of the state and do something about it, not just shrink back in our shells with a shrug and say there’s nothing we can do while freeloaders put the same old corrupt politicians back into office.

New Jersey wasn’t always this way.  It wasn’t this way when my parents moved us here.  City people, we were far too quiet and acquiescent in allowing the same old politics to run their course and run the state into the ground.  If things are a mess, then we need to roll up our sleeves and do something about it, before the situation becomes so critical that there really isn’t anything we can do about it.