The more I take my yearly travels around
the sun, the more I learn uncomfortable truths.
Namely, everything no matter how
grandiose or miniscule, has a beginning, middle and an end. Life exists, thrives and dies. Seasons change.
Nations rise and fall.
The second truth is, politicians
lie to preserve their careers and legacies.
They lie, distort, mislead and
misdirect. Both political parties do this. They manipulate the press and voters,
even bullshitting their own supporters and backers.
All for their greater good. A grand
journey of manipulating the public and securing backers with fat paychecks. I
think of them as Chucky, the evil puppet, for isn’t that what politicians are
when you deconstruct them? Evil puppets? Bought and paid for by corporate or
lobby interests to shill a specific agenda?
When their loyal toadies
transgress, these unsavory ones must be culled from the herd and slaughtered
for self-preservation’s sake.
Which brings us to the George
Washington Bridge fiasco, or Bridgegate, or Bridgeghazi, or whatever ridiculous
moniker the media uses.
Here’s what happened:
Last September, before New Jersey’s
gubernatorial election, the George Washington Bridge, a vital link between Fort
Lee and Manhattan, experienced lane closures. These closures delayed traffic,
caused terrible congestion problems and inconvenienced everybody.
Fort Lee’s Democratic mayor Mark
Sokolich asserts the lane closures were in retribution for him not supporting
Christie’s reelection.
Emails released Jan. 8 between
Christie’s deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly and Christie-appointed Port
Authority official David Wildstein indicate efforts to close the lanes for
political retribution.
“Time for some traffic problems in
Fort Lee, “ Kelly wrote to Wildstein on Aug. 13.
“Got it.” Wildstein responded.
A text conversation between
Wildstein and an unknown sender (whose name was redacted), reveled in the
closures and the problems they presented.
“Is it wrong that I’m smiling?” the
unknown texter wrote.
“No.” Wildstein responded.
“I feel badly about the kids. I
guess,” the person wrote back.
“They are the children of Buono
voters,” Wildstein wrote.
In another exchange, Kelly asked
Wildstein if the Port Authoirty was going to respond to several of Sololich’s
complaints.
“Radio silence,” Wildstein wrote to
Kelly.
These exchanges sound like the
worst revenge porn, grudge-fucking while wearing clown masks, or the filthiest
golden shower/Cleveland steamer Penthouse Forum letters ever written.
They portray a decadent government
whose dysfunctions rival that of ancient Rome, accept the Romans actually
patronized the arts.
Those involved are blindly loyal to
Christie, complete partisan hacks who’d sell their mothers into slavery in
order to pad their political resumes and curry favor with the governor.
It’s as if they were all lounging on crushed velvet-covered divans, typing
these emails on their iPads, clad
only in silk bathrobes, popping Belgian chocolates and getting handjobs from
their Guatemalan nannies.
How these debauched reprobates
could brazenly carry out such a flagrant abuse of power all to settle a petty
political score boggles the mind.
Wildstein resigned Dec. 13 as the
controversy grew. By then the proverbial shit was ready to hit the proverbial fan.
Gov. Christie held a press conference
on Jan. 9 and begged the state to forgive him. He fired Kelly and demanded an
inquiry be conducted. Now his administration is under federal investigation,
and the rats are scurrying all over this sinking ship.
It didn’t help Christie that his
administration told the public the land closures were for a “traffic safety
study”.
The issue isn’t just about an
uncivil and petty political system, but how truly warped our society has
become. We don’t view each other as equals, as human beings. We tend to compartmentalize
and divide people into easily-defined labels and categories. We’re either
conservatives or liberals, religious or secular, straight or gay.
Familiar or alien.
Us or them.
It’s tragic these political zombies,
mindless drones whose fealty to Christie blinded them to right and wrong,
decided to act without conscience and enact a revenge fantasy against a
politician who didn’t support their boss.
The ugly incident reminds me of how
political campaigns were fought 90 years ago, when the thugs and local
gangsters intimidated factory workers and everyday citizens, bullying them into
voting for their candidates. The recent season of Boardwalk Empire illustrates
this perfectly, with hoodlums flanking workers emerging from a factory,
cajoling them with threats and displaying baseball bats and other weaponry if
the proles didn’t vote their way.
New Jersey’s political climate
mimics this dreadful scene, with Christie’s lackeys waging a stealth war
against those who don’t play ball.
This “you’re either with us or
you’re against us” mentality is ultimately destructive and breeds resentment and fosters ill will among the populace.
Such bullying tactics may have
worked in 1920s Illinois, but not in 2013 New Jersey.
The governor sets the tone for the
state. He brags his administration is bipartisan and works with Democrats, as
demonstrated by his cuddlefest with President Obama following Hurricane Sandy
in 2012.
Yet the incident at the George
Washington Bridge exposed the administration’s rotten core, one festering with
the stink of cronyism, payback and partisanship.
While this scandal doesn’t bode
well for Christie, who is a potential 2016 presidential candidate, it doesn’t
play well for the Republican Party.
Even during the dark days of former Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, who incidentally did to New Jersey what the Hillside
Strangler did to runaway prostitutes, things weren’t this bad. Sure, everyone
lived in dung-covered hovels and eked out a peasant’s living while the Trenton
glitterati held orgies in Drumthwacket, but at least things were civil.
No political operatives shutting
down lanes on a bridge to punish recalcitrant Republicans.
Not that they haven’t tried.
Democrats in this state might be incompetent, but they’re not psychotic. Ever
since Christie got in, his circle of friends and backers increased. The stakes
became higher. The spin became faster and agenda broader.
This underlies the real difference
between Democrats and Republicans here.
Democrats are well-meaning, but
deeply flawed, goofy intellectuals, Don Quixote charging at
windmills. All idealism, but zero organizational skills.
Republicans here are well-meaning
in doses, but the higher you climb up the food chain, the more devious and
brutal they become. It’s as if Darth Vader and Satan had a baby and the result
is a New Jersey Republican political operative.
This unholy spawn, this goat-headed
bastard baby only wants one thing: to feed on the tears of Democrats. Writhing
in its suit, driving its towncar, Damien only wishes to sup upon misery it
created, while bolstering support for his dad. Utterances against his dad will
be dealt with harshly. So the operative colludes with his buddies to make life
miserable for the opposition. To thwart anyone perceived as an obstacle or
enemy of the state. During these stealthy, pitched battles, they vie to
increase dad’s prestige and power, trampling any dissenters under their cloven
hooves.
Lying is wrong. For public
officials to lie is a breach of trust.
Yet in the malformed mind of a
political operative, lying is part of the game. It’s how they deflect truth and
pass the buck.
If Christie truly cared about his
legacy, he’d cast these beasts into the furthest depths of perdition, banish
them from public office for life and let them rot in prison. Their names shall
be nothing but blasphemous heresies mumbled in garbled tones by disheveled madmen
wandering the state capital.
The governor did the right thing by
firing Kelly. We need more of a purging, a grand cleansing to wash away the
stink. Then he should reexamine those close to him and choose those who want to
serve all of New Jersey, not just the Republican inner circle.
Partisan politics has grown
outrageous and toxic. It’s time to reassess our priorities and clean house.
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