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New Jersey and the Politics of the Absurd
New Jersey has a powerful centralized government, and a top-down politics that produces three kinds of political leaders: the principled, the pragmatic, and the absurd. Most are, to varying degrees, absurd.
In New Jersey, words like “liberal” and “conservative” – words that once signified a shorthand for what a politician stood for – have been reduced to the merest sales tools and are now meaningless. They are as useless a means to understanding as are pejoratives like “racist” and “sexist”.
Despite all the talk of “divisiveness” nationally, in New Jersey the politics tends towards conformity. To ask what a party or a politician stands for has become a meaningless exercise. Few New Jersey politicians running for office today bother with an “issues” page on their campaign website or policy papers. It is simply a competition with the goal of “winning”.
“Winning” what? “Winning” period, comes the reply. What are the opposing ideologies? You might just as well inquire as to the competing political ideologies of the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Jets. Politics has become simply another team sport. Voters are asked to be “fans”. Citizens may participate by displaying their devotion to a “team”.
Of course, winning means something different if you are in politics – an investor or vendor, a job-holder or lobbyist – someone in the business of government. Someone who looks to the government to show favor on a product or to regulate the competition out of existence. However, to the average voter who expects to elect a politician as he or she is advertised, winning is an often-disappointing proposition.
Unlike politics nationally, state politics lacks umpires. That was the role once played by the large daily circulation newspapers, major broadcasting media, civic associations like the League of Women Voters and watchdog groups like Common Cause. They’re a diminished factor in state politics now. Heck, they don't even host debates anymore.
And so, politicians are free to lie as never before. And it is the mass production and distribution of these lies that further lends to the meaninglessness of politics and what individual parties and politicians represent.
Added to this, there are elected politicians in New Jersey who now work to actively suppress the publication of news and opinions that don’t conform to their “narrative” (aka the mass production and distribution of lies). The state’s political class has made it clear as to which direction they’re heading in regards to citizen participation and the public’s right to know – with new laws to gut government transparency, failing to post amended legislation in advance of public hearings, weakening the Open Public Records Act, loosening campaign finance reporting, the misuse of Daniel’s Law, and many other similar actions.
Even a bedrock American concept like "no taxation without representation" -- something this country fought a war of revolution over -- no longer holds in New Jersey, where elected politicians surrendered the power to raise the tax on something as basic as fuel to power automobiles over to unelected bureaucrats in Trenton. That's some legacy, and it might be all you need to know about the political class in New Jersey.
But it’s the lies that stand out the most.
The politics of the absurd is at work when a candidate for Governor who claims to have “backed Trump from the beginning” and “never wavered” reacts to videos of him quite clearly wavering, by simply repeating his “narrative” and refusing to address the mistake. That is absurd, especially when a simple acknowledgement of human despair, a loss of hope, would have been pretty much universally understood, accepted, and forgiven.
But if you are absurd and void of any meaning beyond the wish to “win”, the lie is held to be stronger. Why not? The absurdists in the bubble surrounding the candidate have accepted the lie as a higher “truth” – a purposeful “truth” – a sacred lie towards an important and shared end. That is, to “win”.
And for those allies and others who notice the lie (and especially those who mention it) the candidate’s acolytes are instructed to shun them. Shunning is an indication of a cult, something universal to all cults, and cults make frequent use of it against those who do not conform or who ask questions. And the fact that such people do exist is not a problem for the cult, which conforms to the absurd notion that if the cult says so, they do not exist – or so goes the diktat.
The politics of the absurd is present when a self-styled “conservative” organization holds an event at the Crystal Springs Resort featuring a “conservative” speaker who advocates for the end of local education and the use of busing to produce a kind of equity. Most in attendance clap politely, ignoring the fact that they were quite vitriolic when they held up an appointment by Governor Phil Murphy to the State School Board because she supported those exact same policies. Murphy's appointment and the "conservative" event ran almost concurrent. It's absurd.
In the politics of the absurd, where words are without meaning beyond their utilization in a campaign sales pitch, there is nothing bizarre in this. The lie is made “true” and those who question it are ostracized. The “fault” is with those who recognize the lie.
The county party “line” – which for decades has maintained a corrupt insider establishment in power (often at the expense of conservatives) – is now a “conservative” policy as well. That’s because a corrupt establishment insider who benefitted from the “line” now runs the campaign of the “conservative” gubernatorial contender. It is absurd. It is maddening. The word reduced to meaninglessness.
We could go on… and we will go on, as a survey project over the next year. There’s almost too much material to explore in New Jersey. So many absurd politicians and their acolytes.
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The four pillars of movement conservatism
We are being lied to and lied about.
We are being lied to and lied about.
We are being lied to and lied about.
At every Republican primary we hear candidates trying to “out conservative” each other, desperate to appeal to voters whose instincts are conservative and who broadly support specific conservative policies. The language pimps who masquerade as Republican political consultants instruct their clients to say anything to win... but after the primary election night champagne comes the hangover of facing the voters in November.
1. Constitutional Government
We are being lied to and lied about.
We are being lied to and lied about.
Constitutional government is limited government. It is the regulation of society with the least intrusion necessary. Movement conservatives believe small is beautiful and advocate for structural and regulatory simplicity.
The actions of Movement Conservatives...
2. Economic Freedom
We are being lied to and lied about.
3. Individual Liberty
Market-centered economies work better for consumers than government-centered economies do. An economy that requires a business to hire a lobbyist to get government to promote its product, and that restricts the products of its competitors, is not a free economy. Free markets provide consumers with choices and consumers should decide which choice works best for them in an environment free from government coercion.
The actions of Movement Conservatives...
3. Individual Liberty
3. Individual Liberty
3. Individual Liberty
Our Declaration of Independence states clearly that our RIGHTS as human beings come from God and are not a privilege bestowed on us by Government. The Bill of Rights codifies our RIGHTS, and it is the duty of conservatives to protect and defend the Bill of Rights.
The actions of Movement Conservatives...
4. Traditional Values
3. Individual Liberty
4. Traditional Values
Representative democracy is a Western cultural idea. The American Republic was created from this and other foundational Western values. As the name suggests, it is the duty of conservatives to conserve the foundational principles handed down to us by our forebears. This is not a bar to those arriving from other cultures to join our community of the mind – of the idea. American conservatism is not one of place or birth but one of agreement based on core values embraced.
The actions of Movement Conservatives...
To Learn More...
3. Individual Liberty
4. Traditional Values
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Ronald Reagan
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