Patterico's Pontifications

7/13/2010

Chris Christie’s Success

Filed under: Politics — DRJ @ 11:37 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

The New York Times looks at New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and his surprising success. The article includes this Christie quote that resonates with me:

“The most important thing in public life, in a job like governor, is for the people you’re representing to know exactly where you stand,” Mr. Christie said in an interview on Friday. “People who disagree with me on things at least have a sense of comfort in knowing where I’m coming from.”

Ronald Reagan was the most effective politician I’ve seen in my lifetime, and Chris Christie’s statement reminds me of him. To be popular, politicians and constituents should agree on core values but they don’t have to agree on every issue. Voters respond to issues but they also respond to politicians who speak the truth as they see it and act accordingly.

— DRJ

32 Responses to “Chris Christie’s Success”

  1. Schwartzeneggar started out talking like Christie but folded the instant the teacher unions began running TV ads against him. Any man who has a need to be universally liked and admired is not going to survive the TV onslaught of liberal interest groups. Teacher unions collect a great deal of money from their members and invariably frame their members as protectors of the interests of “the kids.” Never of lifetime tenure, long vacations, lifetime health care and generous pensions. There’s nothing greedy about teachers.

    mhr (251a8f)

  2. Christie is Schwarzenegger without the accent and the abs.

    BobbyRomano (b5d258)

  3. One other parallel to Reagan is that neither came from a deep red state.

    California of Reagan’s era may not have been what it is today, but a conservative Reagan could not have ascended there without great skill.

    If a somewhat liberal democrat was a successful governor of Texas today, they would have to be a hell of a leader, too.

    These Chicago democrats and Texas Republicans (I’m one of the latter) may not be the best choices for leading this country. Even Bush, who I thought was great at handling democrats in Austin, saw deepening partisanship in DC. Obama’s caused even worse.

    Perhaps we can’t hope to turn that around, but I think Christie is more able to face that problem productively.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  4. christie seems okay so far, but i can’t tell you how many times i started out liking a guy and then got completely burnt.

    here’s hoping he turns out to be everything we need, but being only cautiously optimistic that he will be.

    Aaron Worthing (A.W.) (e7d72e)

  5. And nobody, particularly the Mayors and Republican legislators who stuck their necks out for his Constitutional Cap, only to have the rug pulled out from under them, has any idea where Christie is coming from. His views are mostly on the left: pro-Obamacare, pro-Cap and Trade, pro-gun control, pro-Amnesty and anti SB-1070. He claims to be pro-Life. Let’s see if he vetoes the Planned Parenthood money.

    BobbyRomano (b5d258)

  6. AW, that’s one good reason to see how Christie lasts over many years as Governor or other role.

    It’s so risky to elevate someone like that to the White House based on a mere 2-3 years of experience, but I think he’s yet one of the best options we have right now.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  7. Arrrnnoooolllldddd has turned into a Gurley-man.

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  8. dustin

    agreed. i don’t want him to run for president until at least 2016.

    Aaron Worthing (A.W.) (e7d72e)

  9. mhr,

    A lot of us teachers in CA would just assume stop having CTA/NEA rob us of $ in order to fuel their political agenda. They are literally stealing money from me, and there just isn’t a lot to do about it.

    We can have a discussion another time about “long vacation” and generous pensions, but your assumption is a bit too simple.

    the bhead (a31060)

  10. A lot of us teachers in CA would just assume stop having CTA/NEA rob us of $ in order to fuel their political agenda

    A teacher wrote this???

    The difference between Arnold and Ronnie, both having come out of Hollywood, is that Ronnie was President of the Screen Actor’s Guild during The Great Red Scare, and had dealt with the slings and arrows from his own profession and the other Professional Leftists, and his Conservatism grew on that foundation.

    Arnold has always just been a celebrity, who needed to be adored.

    AD - RtR/OS! (9f28e2)

  11. Yes, a teacher wrote that. A ridiculous amount of our dues go towards whatever the **** CTA chooses, which is normally political. We have little/no say where our dollars go at the state/national levels.

    the bhead (a31060)

  12. any union member can file a yearly letter with their union, demanding a refund of all dues that are not for contract negotiation, and also ask for an accounting of the math used to calculate the refund.

    if the union is taking that much money from you, its your own fault.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  13. and, BTW, if teaching is such a lousy j*b, why not get into something else?

    come to think of it, why did you start in the field if it such a mass of suckage?

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  14. We on the right really really need to get away from attacking teachers as evil. Not only is it wrong, we are alienating potential allies in the struggle against the unions.

    Most of you attacking teachers have never tried to teach, and have no idea what being a teacher really involves.

    gahrie (ed7a50)

  15. I was in middle management in both the military and civilian jobs…
    Management if nothing else is teaching, because the greatest indicator of your potential for advancement is training your replacement.
    But then, I never belonged to a union…ever!

    AD - RtR/OS! (9f28e2)

  16. gahrie, what attack on teachers are you talking about?

    We’re attacking unions that cover for the worst teachers. Do you have argument other than ‘I’m a conservative too, and I’m concerned about this, so there.’?

    Not saying you’re a Moby… don’t think you are. But that’s your entire argument.

    Being a lousy teacher is one of the easiest and most overpaid jobs on the entire planet. Being a great teacher is one of the most rewarding and noble jobs on the planet. But this isn’t about who loves this BS victim class the most.

    The right will never win those battles over who is giving the most goodies away. We should just accept the obvious: education is broken and teachers unions are part of the reason. Insufficient funding is not the reason. It has almost nothing to do with the problem… and too much money is probably screwing things up.

    Anyway, you are conflating attacks on teachers unions and corruption with attacks on teachers because we are just not sensitive to ‘what being a teacher really involves.’

    I think that’s pretty stupid.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  17. The guy who probably is the closest to Christie in telling it like it is is Tom Coburn in the Senate. He is slowly accumulating a huge level of respect for his mastery of policy and willingness to stand up for the right thing.

    I wonder if he would ever want to be president.

    Mike K (0ef8c3)

  18. Anyway, you are conflating attacks on teachers unions and corruption with attacks on teachers because we are just not sensitive to ‘what being a teacher really involves.’

    I think that’s pretty stupid.

    Dustin,

    I believe gahrie was making the broader point that frequently, and actually more often than not, teachers – both the good and bad – are seen as complicit with unions by conservatives. While that may not have been the intent on this thread, it happens fairly regularly. And while it is stupid to conflate the two, it’s not surprising one would react that way considering the battlefield teachers/unions and politicians are embroiled in and the damage done by the endless negotiations.

    Dana (1e5ad4)

  19. I guess I’m being a bit harsher than Gahrie than intended.

    There are a lot of really awful teachers. And a lot of really good ones. Combining them as a group, or insisting an attack on the unions is an attack on some imagined ideal teacher really is doing the good guys in that field a tremendous disservice.

    Great teachers can’t really get their just desserts if the awful ones get to use them for camouflage, in my opinion.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  20. RE: Comment by gahrie — 7/13/2010 @ 3:00 pm

    No, it’s the union that uses it’s teachers to gain power and privileges for themselves that we despise. If they “kept to their knitting” so to speak, this wouldn’t be such a problem. And we can add the unions for police and firefighters in there, too.

    Jeff Weimer (952d52)

  21. bhead,

    As a former public employee union nonmember but fair share fee payer, I completely understand you.

    Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, guys–the rank and file have no say in whether they have a union or in how much they pay. The legislature does. A few hired guns protest and shout at union rallies. The majority of public employees hate their union.

    Patricia (358f54)

  22. The majority of public employees hate their union.

    This is very easy to believe. Teachers, for the most part, really want to see the education system work, kids to learn, and society to improve.

    Police officers want to see burglary victims get the best police response available within reason.

    Car factory workers want to see their company turn a steady profit.

    These people see their names taken in vain by greedy political unions. It’s corruption.

    These people make a living wage. They do not live in an Upton Sinclair novel (mostly lies even then). They do not need a union. This is why it’s so aggravating when those who oppose the teachers unions are said to be bashing the actual teachers. We are serving the teachers who actually are worth a damn.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  23. red,

    Not that simple in the teacher’s union. I’ve begun to look into what it will take to make sure I don’t pay into political action, and I’ll do the extra work to make sure my $ goes to the right places.

    Where did I imply the job sucked? Left middle management to teach HS, and love what I do every day.

    Dana hit it on the head in his comment.

    I’d be fine with no tenure, and paying into a 401K like I did before I changed careers. I’m not a bit less conservative than I was before I taught. Just don’t care for the perception of us from outside.

    the bhead (a31060)

  24. For a math teacher, my paragraph spacing sucked. Sorry!

    the bhead (a31060)

  25. Dana hit it on the head in his her comment.

    Dana (1e5ad4)

  26. Apologies to Dana….

    the bhead (a31060)

  27. We are fortunate to have two Danas, bhead. The female Dana who takes beautiful photos, and the male Dana who blogs at Common Sense Political Thought and adds adjectives to his name to identify himself here.

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  28. I suggest even many of the horrible teachers who are not worthy of their positions are only horrible and unworthy due to the heavy liberal indoctrination they receive, disguised as truth. They want to do a great job and they love their students and want to see all of their students wildly successful, but they were given a drum of Ammonium Hydroxide and told it was de-ionized water. It is not (entirely) their fault nothing grows when they water it.

    Of course, I had a vice principle tell me “all my teachers are experts because they’re teachers.” By that definition, people reach expert status the easiest by being a teacher. My town of 15,000 had a public school system (1 HS, 1 Middle School, 6 elementary schools) graduating over 300 students a year, a Joint Vocational School they renamed the Knox County Career Center which served eight school systems, a Christian university, a Seventh Day Adventist K-12, a Catholic K-6. With all the teachers and administrative staff, that makes an inordinate number of “experts” in a single field in such a small town. And it causes a false, heightened sense of self-worth in the educators and an elitist, dismissive attitude toward parents. (I was a secondary ed major (math) at a Christian college in the 80s and a homeschool teacher in the 90s.)

    I see an “easy” triune solution to the education problem, each part equi-valent:
    1) Eliminate the Department of Education.
    2) Pass a Congressional Term Limit Amendment to the US Constitution.
    3) Make all states “Right To Work” states.

    That would go a long way toward making a huge amount of the politics of education disappear, evaporate the power of the teacher unions, and return the power to the parents.

    John Hitchcock (9e8ad9)

  29. What Christie demonstrates is leadership, and the current crop of Republican “leaders” would do well to watch him closely.

    They may even learn something.

    Blacque Jacques Shellacque (cf2f34)

  30. Exactly, Blacque Jacques. Leaders should Lead.

    That’s become one of the distinctives of the Obama Admin – he won’t/doesn’t/can’t lead and lets the congress do their thing while mouthing more “soaring” rhetoric.

    Vivian Louise (eeeb3a)

  31. bhead,

    A bunch of us filed a suit years ago against the union because we didn’t want to pay for their political activities. We won. The unions lose these suits all the time. They won’t stop–the burden is on you, so go for it.

    Contact these guys and go from there: Nat’l Right To Work.

    Patricia (358f54)

  32. Barry Goldwater once said:

    “It’s better for a candidate to be honest rather than dishonest. I wouldn’t want to offer myself as a candidate anywhere with a lie under my hat. This TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) is a socialistic venture which has been perpetrated on the American public without their knowing what they’re getting into. I’m not going to keep my mouth shut about it.”

    Jim Rose (39d88d)


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