New Jersey’s Governor Christie Crushed By
Legislative Results
New Jersey went to the polls on
November 8th to elect a legislature: 40 State Senators and 80 State
Representatives. The voters seem to be
increasingly unwilling to choose between the lesser of two evils. It was the
lowest turnout in New Jersey’s history.
How low? Less than 1/3rd of the vote for
president in 2008. How low? John McCain lost New Jersey with 333,677 more
votes than were cast for all the State Senate candidates in 2011.
The campaign season was consumed by
Governor Christie’s
presidential non-campaign. He selfishly sucked all the air out of
the political debate, consuming voters political
interest with whether or not he would be a candidate for president, thereby
depriving the voters of New Jersey of a chance to discuss the serious economic
situation and what should be done about it. Now, given the low turnout, the
government is too weak to act.
Behind
the scenes, the former prosecutor was his usual thuggish self: keeping Olympic
Gold Medalist Carl Lewis off the ballot and ignoring a judge who threw out an
election based on campaign finance reporting violations, a first.
The voters responded by giving
the Governor a good drubbing while punishing the Democrats at the same
time. Good work, team.
Based on State Senate results,
turnout declined 143,253 or 10.1% from the comparable election four years ago. The Republican vote fell 69,157 (9.99%) while
the Democratic vote fell a slightly higher (10.02%), a
0.03% difference. This is pretty bad,
considering that the Democrats were running one fewer candidate than in 2007
(Carl Lewis) while the Republicans ran four more. In effect, it was a tie.
The Republicans gained one seat
in the Assembly, raising their total to 33 while the Democrats slipped to
47. In the Senate the Republicans lost
one seat, to change the balance from 23 Democrats/17 Republicans to 24
Democrats/16 Republicans.
In other words, it was a draw. Stay tuned for more of the same next year,
although the sudden Republican change of heart on the payroll tax suspension
may indicate that the New Jersey election results have had an impact in
Washington. Just because the economy
sucks does not automatically mean the Republicans will win next year.
The Media
The problem is that the media now
suppresses election news that does not conform with
the agenda of the owners. Russell
Pearce, the Republican leader of the Arizona State Senate and architect of SB
1070, the draconian anti-immigration bill, was defeated in a recall election.
Chris Christie’s bombast played poorly at the polls. Yet, the Republican House
majority continues to insist that it is perfectly fine for nineteen year olds
like Joshua Corral to die in Afghanistan fighting for his government, but
unacceptable for billionaires to be asked to contribute more to solve the
global debt crisis. Where do I enlist?
Last
Call, The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent (also available on audio) is a good example of how a
minority opinion can, under the right circumstances, be turned into, not just
policy, but a constitutional amendment.
In short, the prohibitionists created a small, one issue constituency, that held the balance of power between the two
centrist parties. Then, the conflation
of women’s suffrage, World War I, and the gerrymandered districts that disenfranchised
the urban population immediately preceding the 1920 reapportionment resulted in
the passage of the 13th Amendment outlawing alcohol.
Unfortunately, this abolitionist model
has now been copied by a multitude of special interest groups. The only problem is, when all the single
issue fanatics collectively become the majority and centrists are unable to be
elected because of party oriented gerrymandered districts, government grinds to
a halt, which is what’s happening now. A
multitude of minorities can prevent any action through veto, but still can not
provide a positive program for governing.
Another book worthy of consideration
is Lenin’s Brother: The
Origins of the October Revolution by Philip Pomper. Lenin’s brother Alexander was executed for
participating in a plot on the life of Czar Alexander III. The fight between socialism and capitalism
was about means, not ends. Both the
capitalists and the communists believed firmly in modernization. The contest was between which system was superior
for industrializing.
Both
socialists and the capitalists believed in science and objective truth. Both were adherents to Darwin’s theory of
evolution. The difference was that the
capitalists saw in Darwin the “survival of the fittest” of selecting and
promoting the best individual in the group; while the socialists saw in
“survival of the fittest” the sacrifice of the individual for the benefit of
the group. Even in capitalist United
States, the socialist ethos is deeply imbedded in the Marine Corps motto Semper Fidelis. It
is really historic circumstances that determine which aspect is emphasized the
most. The United States had few people
and lots of land that needed to be cleared.
Russia had a huge peasant population attached to the land as serfs. The serfs were freed at about the same time
as slavery was abolished in the United States. Russia was still ruled by kings as late as
1917.
An
example of how historical conditions can make the same theory have polar
opposite effects is that both France and the United States believe in
separation of church and state. But in
France that separation dictates banning the burka in
public, while in the United States that separation dictates allowing it. Why?
Because in France, which historically had a state religion, separation
of church and state means protecting the state from the individual, while in
the United States, which has never had a state religion, it means protecting
the individual from the state.
Like most things in life, balancing
between extremes is the most difficult.
If everyone was suicidally selfless and
sacrificed herself or himself for the good of the
whole, the human race would die out. On
the other hand, if everyone was totally selfish caring only about himself or herself the human race would equally
self-destruct.
The economic problems are serious and likely to grow worse. The world population allegedly hit 7 billion
on October 31st. That means
the world has added 4 billion people in just 50 years. It took until 1804 for the world population
to reach 1 billion, another 123 years, until 1927, for it to reach 2 billion;
it hit 3 billion in 1960, when Kennedy was elected president, and 1 billion
have been added every dozen years since.
Why?
The collapse of the infant mortality rate. In 1954, the life
expectancy in Britain was 70 and the infant mortality rate was 30 per thousand
live births. In Egypt, right after
Nasser came to power, the life expectancy was 42 and the infant mortality rate
was 353 per thousand live births. Today,
the life expectancy in Britain is 80 and the infant mortality rate is 6; while
the life expectancy in Egypt is 70 and the infant mortality rate is 20. In other words, Egypt today is Britain in
1954. So, the problems we face are problems of success. We have done a good job of providing health
care and eradicating disease.
All these people in
Africa and Asia who would have died in previous generations are now living on
and in need of food, housing, education, employment and computers. Another problem is that because of bias in
favor of male offspring combined with low cost sex selection technology, there
will be an excess of tens of millions of men with no women to marry. The suicidal terrorists of the future will
come from these young, unemployed, frustrated males, unless there is a serious
change in social norms in the developing world. My wife once told me that if I
did not have sex every two or three days, I acted like the world was coming to
an end. And it was. Satisfactory sex life
is an essential component of a stable, peaceful society. But one thing is clear: providing employment
is the major problem facing the world.
However
intractable these economic problems seem and are, the
most important thing to remember is that they are far preferable to war. World War I killed 1% of the world’s people, World War II killed 2.5%., one person in forty. World War III, if it goes nuclear, will kill
100%. Have a nice day.