Saint Luke tells us of a man who went to see a prophet, asking of him what is necessary to enter Paradise. The prophet simply asks the man a simple question - what were you taught you must do? The man replies, in essence, to love God and to do good to his neighbors. But the man then gets philosophical: Who, he asks, is our neighbor.
We don't know the name of the man in the story, but the prophet is Jesus of Nazareth. His answer to this philosophical question is known as the Parable of the Good Samaritan. I don't think I really have to go into a re-telling of the story. For the purpose of this post, let's just understand that the first two people who found the man on the road, beaten and battered, adhered to a view of the world as being brutal and probably viewed their actions as a realistic response to a dangerous world. The Samaritan looked at exactly the same facts and reached a different conclusion - amid the brutality of the world, he had a chance to make one man's life a little less brutal. At some cost to himself, he took the opportunity to make up for damage done by someone else.
You don't have to be a Christian to understand the parable. It doesn't matter if it was spoken by Jesus, Moses, or Mahatma Ghandi. It speaks of altering our fundamental view of the world - not by ignoring the danger of the world, but by embracing it and rejecting that brutality as a legitimate course of action. Knowing that he could not change the entire world, the Samaritan chooses a path of radical brotherhood and decides to change his small corner of the world.
I believe this view of radical brotherhood is a core value of what motivates Progressives to act.
While I'm all the way up in Northern New Jersey, I did take somewhat of an ongoing interest in John Adler's race as I thought he was "different" from other New Jersey Democrats in the way he portrayed himself over the past two years. Sure, there are many reasons that can be thought of as to why John Adler lost to Jon Runyan - whether it was the campaign "missteps" or the issue surrounding the recruitment of a third party candidate or a "wave" that he got caught in, but when you look at the results - a 6,000 vote loss - there is one thing that stands out to me; something that is a narrative in and of itself:
If you betray yourself and your values, you will lose in the end.
Adler could and should have easily held this seat. Runyan was a far inferior candidate and didn't run a great campaign at all. He took very few positions, offered little detail or specifics and fumbled badly (pun intended) in debates and in his comments.
Can I frontpage this more than once? Here's a link to Part One. - Rosi
The push-back that President Obama is getting for wanting the Bush tax-cuts on the top tax bracket to expire is evidence enough of a generational brainwashing that Progressives have to counter if they are going to achieve anything politically. Many commentators explain this by claiming most Americans believe they can, and possibly will, be wealthy in their lifetimes, and so they want to make things as easy on their future, fictional selves as possible. I've never actually seen or heard of any evidence of this phenomenon, though. Instead, I hear bastardized conservative sound-bites repeated ad naseum - without any notable dissent from anyone.
Before I can get to the actual case for progressive taxation, however, I'll take a moment and knock down some of the most prevalent arguments against it.
Whatever else may be true of Conservatives, they understand the art of messaging at a gut level. It never mattered that the idiots "patrolling" the Mexican-American border were nothing like the historical Minutemen patriots of the late 1700s. It simply doesn't matter that the "Tea Party" folks have no clue on how far disconnected they are from the Sons of Liberty. What matters is that the names stuck, they stuck fast, they stuck hard, and no amount of reality will drive the American conscience away from it.
Just ask a Conservative what they stand for - small government, low taxes, strong families. Yeah, we all know that the truth is that none of that is true. But it is a line that is tried and true and perceived to be tied to a specific set of values that resonates with voters from coast to coast. When they vote against their self-interest, they are validating their standing as "an American" - with Mom, apple pie, and baseball up the wazoo.
And what happens when you ask a Progressive what they stand for? A sermon. At least, a lecture. It's a slender hair short of certainty that you'll end up with glazed eyes before you get to the end. And when you do...well, you're going to have a list of follow-up questions to get some clarification.
It's time we seriously worked to change that. A while back, I offered Alexander Hamilton's The Continentalist as a touchstone (part one, part two). I'll be pulling more from history, and some from my own heart and mind.
Since the Primary Election, loyal Republicans have been baffled by the behavior of the GOP establishment in New Jersey. First, operatives in the campaign of our nominee for Governor, Chris Christie, monkeyed around with the social issues page on his website, gaining the attention of the media before resolving what they caused.
Then, at the meeting of the Republican State Committee - the men and women elected from each county to formulate and advance the party's principles - the party leadership blocked a move to formally adopt the platform of the national Republican Party, as well as blocking a resolution condemning Governor Corzine's tax hikes. At least one major newspaper, the Star-Ledger, linked the leadership's refusal to adopt our Party's platform to the fact it contains Pro-Life and Pro-Traditional Marriage planks.
We've talked plenty here at Blue Jersey about Christie's missing shared values and the state party has been all over him. I wrote about the party plank issue yesterday, but the only response Christie gave was to make a joke that the news was out and he was a Republican. Lonegan concluded his letter this way:
Republicans have a base vote who wants fiscal change. It is the hollow men who reject it, and they do so for the simple reason that it is in their financial interests to maintain the status quo. At the back of every seemingly inexplicable betrayal by a GOP "leader" sits a close personal advisor with his own personal reasons. And in a state GOP without principles - that fails to adopt its own party platform - this kind of venal corruption is rampant.
That's why it is so important for the New Jersey Republican State Committee to take a principled stand, adopt the party platform, and then use those principles when the hollow men come round with their personal agendas.
"I don't think Steve really means that. He probably just had a bad morning," he said.
It's unlikely many of these conservatives would support the Governor, but the numbers game for Christie to win the Governors mansion assumes that his base turns out as he tries to get more of the vote in the middle. Carl Golden did an op-ed that "sore-loser Lonegan could cost Christie the election" saying:
If the Lonegan wing boycotts the Christie candidacy, the candidate's task of overcoming the Democrats' registration advantage will be that much tougher. Christie will be forced to make up the difference by peeling off a greater number of unaffiliated voters - the very people who've demonstrated election after election that fringe ideology is unacceptable and their support will be given to the candidate of responsible and more centrist policies.
You wonder at what point the base gets tired of being kicked before they just stay home. If they don't see Christie as a better alternative for them, would they still give him their vote?
A spat among two new GOP state committee members, Donna Ward and Rob Eichmann, and new state chairman Jay Webber over whether to accept last year's national Republican platform has escalated.
At issue is a motion made at the GOP's organizational session June 17, where two new Republican committee members, Donna Ward and Rob Eichmann, wanted the party to accept the national Republican platform from last year's presidential race. Among other things, the platform says, "We assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life, which cannot be infringed." Such language could add potency to Gov. Jon Corzine's ongoing attack on Christie's anti-abortion stance in moderate New Jersey.
Here's what they had to say:
"Why does the Republican State Committee not want to call ourselves Republican and support the platform of the Republican National Committee?" Ward and Eichmann wrote in the missive, which they also sent to the national Republican chairman, Michael Steele. Steele is expected to appear with Christie in South Jersey tomorrow. "We want Republicans, first and foremost the New Jersey Republican State Committee, to proudly and loudly proclaim that we are Republicans!"
And they also said this:
"We hope that the committee is open to all points of view in the Republican family . . . but we came away from (the session) with some concerns," according to the letter. "Failing to adopt this resolution is tantamount to saying that the New Jersey GOP really isn't Republican at all."
Maybe they should reach out to Chris Christie's web designer and tell them to stop hiding his values behind technical difficulties. But the GOP State chair wants you to think it's all a misunderstanding due to not following the right process:
"It's inaccurate," Webber, a Morris County assemblyman, told The Auditor. "We've got two new members of the state committee, who are obviously enthusiastic but misguided. The committee would have no problems supporting the positions but they didn't follow the process."
Possibly while Michael Steele is in town with Chris Christie today pitching the virtues of Sarah Palin coming for a visit, he may also check and see whether Christie and the state party support the platform he helped the National Party put in place. If Christie does, maybe he can include that on the values page when they finally are able to resolve those "technical difficulties."
The Democratic Committee has been all over Christie, sending out a press release each day reminding people of the missing values. The AP reported on June 18 that the Christie for Governor website took down the "Shared Values" section "technical reasons" and the clock has reminded people of how long it has taken for them to fix the problem.
In an attempt to make the issue go away, Christie pointed out that he has a frequently asked questions page. The problem is, the FAQ page doesn't include the same content as the shared values page.
First, let's look at the endorsements:
I am honored to have been endorsed by many key prolife leaders from around New Jersey including Congressman Chris Smith, former Mayor Bret Schundler, State Senator Gerald Cardinale and State Assemblyman Jay Webber. I am devoted to giving a voice to and taking action for those that are unable to protect themselves.
He's either lost the endorsements of those pro-life conservative leaders or he's hiding them like his shared values. Here's what Christie said about being Pro-life on the now missing shared values page:
I am prolife. Hearing the strong heartbeat of my unborn daughter 14 years ago at 13 weeks gestation had a profound effect on me and my beliefs. The life of every human being is precious. We must work to reduce abortions in New Jersey through laws such as parental notification, a 24hour waiting period and a ban on partialbirth abortion.
And here's what it says on the FAQ page:
I believe in the sanctity, dignity and inherent value of all human life. Hearing the heartbeat of my unborn daughter 14 years ago had a profound effect on me. I am pro-life because I believe her life and the life of every child is precious. I strongly support protecting children and their mothers from abortion with three exceptions: rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother. And to immediately reduce abortions in NJ, as Governor, I will push to enact a parental notification law and a 24 hour waiting period.
Gone is the mention of partial birth abortion and added are some exceptions that Christie has found to his abortion stand since the primary. Moving onto gay marriage, the FAQ page says this:
I believe that marriage should be exclusively between one man and one woman. I have no issue with same sex couples sharing contractual rights, but I believe that marriage should remain the exclusive domain of one man and one woman.
But he had a little more to say about the issue when he was sharing values:
I also believe marriage should be exclusively between one man and one woman. While, I have no issue with same sex couples sharing contractual rights, I believe that marriage should remain the exclusive domain of one man and one woman. If a bill legalizing same sex marriage came to my desk as Governor, I would veto it. If the law were changed by judicial fiat, I would be in favor of a constitutional amendment on the ballot so that voters, not judges, would decide this important social question.
Gone is the rhetoric about judicial fiat, vetoing a bill and pushing a constitutional amendment. Christie also appears to have lost his faith, because this paragraph isn't on the FAQ page either:
Our children attend parochial school where we hope their studies will help guide them in their faith and reinforce the values we teach them at home. Experiences in my life, along with my faith, have led me to believe in the sanctity, dignity and inherent value of all human life.
These "shared values" all went from being front and center with the economy to buried with his stance on the bear hunt. So you see the content is really the same, expect for the fact that it isn't.
Christie has drawn more attention to the issue of his values and positions by taking the page down than if he would have left it up. He's given the Democrats an opening to continue hammering him on the fact that he can't stand by the values he ran on in the primary. Maybe he's getting so many questions about his values because people don't believe him and don't share them.
On NJN Reporters Roundtable this week, the panel discussed the recently gone missing Christie's values page on his website:Meanwhile, the State Committee issued their release highlighting another day with still no values:
"Christie has made no bones about his intentions to take away a woman's right to make the personal, private reproductive-health decisions in her own life,"said Cryan. "Christie can't whitewash the facts about his right wing conservative values simply by removing them from his website. The "Christie's Values Clock" is now into its ninth day and will stay up until Christie's campaign re-discovers his values for him."
Christie has made his staunch anti-choice agenda a centerpiece of his campaign. He has vowed to push for restrictions on a woman's right to choose if elected governor and has even declared his support for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
Reporters Michael Aron of NJN and Michael Symons of Gannett New Jersey agree that Christie should restore his right wing conservative values to his website. In a discussion of Christie's right wing conservative values on Reporters' Roundtable on NJN, which aired Friday, June 26, Symons said the Christie's Values Clock -reminds people that [Christie] holds some social opinions that aren't, you know, overwhelmingly the viewpoint of the New Jersey public and that he's sorta trying to hide that from you." Host Michael Aron replied, "So maybe he should put them back up and get rid of one of those two.? "Sure. Exactly," said Symons.
Christie's website has remained intact except for the deletion of the "Shared Values" page and the removal of the link to the "Shared Values" page which detailed his right wing conservative positions from the issues section. All of the other issues remain on that page.
We have a clock on the right side of the page to keep track of how long since his values have gone missing. If you've seen Christie's values, contact the state committee, they're hot on the case.
As clammyc reported yesterday, some of Chris Christie's rock-solid "Shared Values" have disappeared from his website, so the Republican nominee can run toward the center - or something that looks more like it - now that the time to pander to the farthest-right contributors voters is over. So the NJ Democratic State Committee just put up a nice little countdown clock over at their website:
The AP reported today that the Christie for Governor website took down the "Strong Values" section that declared Right Wing Conservative Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie's clearly defined positions against a woman's right to choose and gay marriage for "technical reasons". This clock will stay up on our website to keep track of how long it takes the Conservative standard bearer to get the "technical" glitches worked out from his values.
It will stay up until Chris Christie decides what his core values are. We'll let you know.
In the time of crisis, one should cling more tightly to his fundamental values not abandon them. In the face of terrorist attacks, you don't surrender your civil liberties or those things that make us American. In a financial crisis, you don't just turn over billions of dollars in taxpayer money with little or no oversight -- lax oversight and abusive judgment helped fuel the problem to begin with.
The great truth I tried to make plain was that which Mr. Folk insists so constantly upon: that bribery is no ordinary felony, but treason, that the "corruption which breaks out here and there and now and then" is not an occasional offense, but a common practice, and that the effect of it is literally to change the form of our government from one that is representative of the people to an oligarchy, representative of special interests.
- - - Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities
These words were written in 1904 as part of a wider study of public corruption that reached from New York City and Cincinnati to Minneapolis and St. Louis. But perhaps the most enlightening - in a sense of "learning a dark knowledge" - is the study of Philadelphia. It was there that Steffens found a civic spirit that confounded everything he thought he knew about the American people:
And the Philadelphia merchant says the same thing: "The party leaders may be getting more than they should out of the city, but that doesn't hurt me. It may raise taxes a little, but I can stand that. The party keeps up the protective tariff. If that were cut down, my business would be ruined. So long as the party stands pat on that, I stand pat on the party."
Steffens would describe Philadelphia as "corrupt and contented". It would seem that description of civic corruption would fit large parts of New Jersey as well. The corruption is not simply limited to the political arena - it has become so pervasive that it is simply a part of the larger culture. Trenton isn't taken in a culture of corruption, it's just the capitol of the culture of corruption.
Everywhere, news of corruption is met with shrugs and docile acceptance. And who can blame a person for this reaction? When the Deputy Chief of Staff for the Governor swears that he is corrupt and faces absolutely no consequences whatsoever - indeed, he is promoted repeatedly for it - then what hope is there for reform? Sure Chris Christie has made a name for himself - but does anyone think he isn't cherry picking cases? Even if one believes Christie is the very embodiment of non-partisanship, he can't be going after corruption all that aggressively if practically everyone in the state knows of at least three more unprosecuted cases off of the top of their heads.
New Jersey's insane political schedule doesn't give anyone much time to plan their next move. Every year we face at least one primary and general election, and most of us face multiple elections at various levels. There's no time to strategize, only get the street warriors out there and pound the pavement for the upcoming election.
The old saw that "no one plans to fail, but they often fail to plan" remains true, even if we don't have the time to hold summits and conferences or even talk much to our neighbor about what's wrong with things. So I'm asking you to take some time and consider what you might be doing next year.
