The Courier News and the Star-Ledger have been publishing stories almost daily about Governor Christie’s campaign promises on which he has now begun to deliver. Even national publications and TV networks have taken notice.
No matter whether we agree or disagree with Christie’s specific proposals, it’s difficult not to admire a politician who not only was clear about his goals when he ran for office but, even more so, a person who actually has begun to deliver on them.
The standard procedure for New Jersey’s governors and legislators has been either to renege on their campaign promises or to have such fuzzy ones that the slipping and sliding begins soon after the swearing-in ceremony. Once in office, it seems that politicians suddenly experience an epiphany that the world no longer appears to be as it was when they ran for office.
Not this governor. I can’t remember the last time that I’ve seen a high-level elected official come out of the gate so quickly to implement an agenda that’s in line with his campaign rhetoric.
And why shouldn’t he act quickly? What will be any different if he waits another six months or another year to gather more information, to speak to more constituents and consultants, only to be diverted from addressing the obvious fiscal problems plaguing New Jersey?
Like frogs in a pot of slowly heated water, we have grown very comfortable to the temperature, unwilling to admit that when it came to a boil, we would all get scalded.
New Jersey’s new governor is looking to solve a desperate financial crisis which has long been in the making by leaders of both major political parties. They have been aided abundantly by the political forays and arm twisting not only of organized labor, but of well-meaning groups such as the Education Law Center and the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Some of these power structures need to be rebalanced and downsized so that the rest of us don’t continue to feel like sheep getting shorn of our wool.
Next: The Fear of Defeated School Budgets
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