Gov. Chris Christie won and won big in his bid for reelection, and the significance of his win in deep blue New Jersey would take an entirely separate column to chronicle. As Sean Trende noted, which I will not reiterate in detail, Chris Christie literally made political science history, while proving the national environment for the Republican Party brand is not nearly as bad as the Beltway pundits would like.
Chris Christie also proved that personality matters, a lot. I have written and voiced my concerns over my former governor’s positions on a host of issues, none of which, could honestly be considered “liberal,” however. Contrary to comments made by people who have no idea what they are talking about, Chris Christie wasn’t at all different from Ken Cuccinelli on social issues, for instance.
What was different was his ability to defend his positions on traditional marriage and abortion — both against his opponent and a bias media he is not afraid to bludgeon back — without giving the liberal media too much ammunition.
That said, aside from so-called lessons, Chris Christie also gave the Republican Party a choice to make, which is a choice many conservatives have already begun to debate. For the sake of argument, we can use two conservative columnists to underscore the decision facing the Tea Party and other unaffiliated conservatives who vote Republican.
Kurt Schlichter, whose conservative credentials are not in dispute, I have chosen to represent one side of the argument. In a recent column, which was written before Christie’s reelection, Schlicter wrote:
We would all love to see President Ted Cruz sworn in in 2017, but it probably isn’t going to happen. I wish it would, but we must approach the situation as it is, not as we wish it to be. Someone’s got to run against Hillary. I don’t like it, but I suspect annoying pseudo-conservative Chris Christie has the best shot of beating her.
Now, before you flood the comments with posts about how awful Christie is so that they actually outnumber the spam about how somebody’s cousin makes $4,879 a week working at home, remember: I don’t think Christie winning the nomination is a good thing. I think it’s a likely thing.
In politics, the time from now to the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, is a lifetime. We all remember “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani, whom polling this far out showed cruising to the nomination. But in the end, he couldn’t even manage to win a single primary. And, I myself, have made the argument that Christie could win New Jersey in a contest against Hillary — which by the way, he would have done in that particular electorate by a smidgen, because exit polling underrepresented Christie by just over 4 points.
Nevertheless, Kurt Schlichter is the voice of reason within a somewhat unreasonable movement right now. There are some conservatives who just cannot comprehend the concept that you must win elections to affect policy. In order to argue their inaccurate assumptions they use superficial arguments, some of which, are demonstrably false and fabricated.
Take for instance, John Ransom, who is the Finance Editor for Townhall.com, but represents the reactionary, inaccurate assumption-making side of the debate that also happens to represent a sure path to defeat in 2016. Ransom is only one of many, but his column immediately following the historic reelection of Chris Christie — again, in deep blue New Jersey — was an almost unbeatable example of the sort of foolishness that must be purged from the minds of Republican activists.
The examples of false analogies and misrepresentations in his recent column were so numerous, we must take a few and address them one-by-one.
Don’t get me wrong: For an East Coast Liberal, Christie makes a heck of a conservative, just as Mitt Romney made a heck of Republican in blue state Massachusetts.
But the media love affair will last only until he becomes the Republican nominee, and then he’ll just be another Tea Party extremist, like John McCain and Mitt Romney were to the media.
For starters, the Tea Party didn’t even exist when John McCain was running and, just as a reminder, Mitt Romney was the conservative alternative to McCain before Ransom and others let the media play them, by duping them into thinking a national organization with party support makes you a sell out.
And P.S. Mr. Ransom, not to burst your bubble, President Ronald Reagan lobbied for and won the lion’s share of establishment endorsements on his path to becoming to the Republican nominee in 1980.
Second, there is no media love affair with Chris Christie, and frankly never was because, unlike both John McCain and Mitt Willard Romney, Chris Christie is a populous candidate with working class values and a working class vocabulary. And that wins majorities among Latinos (or, at least the tradition 40+ percent share), working class whites, women, and just in case you need it spelled out, general elections.
Does John Ransom consider the cover of TIME Magazine, which depicts Christie as a fat elephant, a “love affair”?
I’ve previously detailed, far before his reelection, why the comparison to Christ Christie and past establishment GOP candidates is intellectually simple, and just flat-out false. However, most importantly, whether the party runs a populous candidate, such as Presidents Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush, is the dominant factor that determines a Republican’s performance among minority voters.
Chris Christie, like George W. Bush in many battleground states back in 2004, outperformed Republican candidates among minorities, winning 20 percent of the black vote and 54 percent of the Hispanic vote. In a general election, if a Republican presidential candidate wins even 11 percent of the black vote (Bush won 13 percent of the black vote nationwide, but 16 – 20 percent in OH, PA, FL, etc.), then it won’t even be a close election.
I would like to know what position on what issue John Ransom qualifies Chris Christie as “an East Coast Liberal.” Aside from the ridiculous accusation — based on one out-of-context comment in one interview — that Christie doesn’t want to repeal ObamaCare, despite all previous statements and his refusal to setup the exchange in New Jersey, I am really not sure.
Could he be referring to gun ban legislation that passed both the state’s legislative bodies, you know, the one Gov. Christie vetoed? That’s more than we can say for Ransom’s ideal example of conservative reform in Colorado, the state that had to throw out their Senate president in a double off-year election, when hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters stay home, because they passed far greater gun restrictions than New Jersey ever even proposed.
Perhaps Mr. Ransom is talking about Christie’s fight against the teacher’s union, which would have been a complete conservative victory had the New Jersey Supreme Court not struck down most of the governor’s unbelievable accomplishment? Maybe he meant taxes, particularly property taxes, which have been at the lowest level the state has seen since the 1980s? Or, perhaps the increased privatization of school transportation that Christie managed to convince Democrats must be done for the good of the state?
He even won over my mother-in-law who wanted to kill him when she first dealt with the many school reforms.
Now my mother-in-law, who comes from a long line of traditional working class Democratic voters, is quick to vigorously defend Gov. Christie against full grown burly union men who hang around the Elks Lodge and VFW. In fact, Christie enjoyed a plurality of those voters, as well.
I could go on citing issues after issue, but I will leave you with a final word from Kurt Schichter, who really nailed it this time. You can open your mind and see the bigger, electoral victory picture, or you can side with false, inaccurate assumptions being made by people pandering to the angry wing of the party. After we lose, I know I can pee on your head and tell you it’s raining. Then, at least I can have a good laugh, even though I’ll be sadly watching my country’s future fade away.
So let’s pick the right fight, and let’s secure our flanks as best we can. Can we conservatives win a presidential fight in 2016? Probably not. But we can absolutely win down-ticket, where our strengths – activism and effort – really paid off in 2010. Let’s let the New Jersey governor secure our flanks and draw the fire and the ire and the lucre of the liberals. We will work in his figurative shadow, and they will never see us coming.
