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Posted on 08/15/2004 9:21:29 PM PDT by Elle Bee
There is a real story in the personal and family tragedy surrounding James McGreevey's decision to resign as New Jersey's governor on Thursday. There's also a story in the difficulties of someone being gay and holding high public office. But the bigger story here isn't about Mr. McGreevey. It's about how the elites of a major state, one with the nation's second-highest per capita income and one of its most educated and skilled work forces, have allowed it to be so poorly governed by both parties over a span of decades.
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Hey, c'mon! Fast Eddie never got caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy! Y'all quit changin' the subject up there!
"Louisiana North?" These people are making my state look like a bunch of rank amateurs. Right now the biggest hubbub here is that motorcylists have to wear helmets again.
You don't say.
This is what is happening in America today.
The have-nots just vote themselves a raise.
I think it correlates pretty well. Look at all the densely populated big cities and you'll see a lot more corruption than in flyover country.
In New Jersey's case, it goes a lot deeper, starting with their state constitution. It's really a feudal society with a king (the governor), the king's ministry (all other statewide office holders, who he appoints) and a council of royal advisors (the legislature). Just as in medieval Europe, each locality is a fiefdom (run by the political boss of the local machine). It is barely recognizable as a part of America.
New Jersey really is Canada in miniature. And it all begins and ends with the attitude government knows best. Underlined by the absence of a true separation of powers and the belief that government is a law unto itself. The people in New Jersey have no true say and the state's liberal elites want to see they never get it.
It's all those people piled up together in that teeny tiny space. They're all oxygen deprived, it's bound to damage their ability to think straight. :o)
One of the first things they need to demand is a change in the constitution. Allowing someone to hold two elected offices is stupid and not having other elected offices beside the governor is just plain weird.
Of course! They need oxygen bars!
Most of the eastern bloc countries have more democracy than New Jersey does.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
New York and Connecticut have the same problem, too.
It really comes down to a bipartisan arrangement: top-tier professional work in the private sector, while second-tier professionals work in state and local government, and for government contractors, spending the taxes the top-tier folks generate. Both sides work hard to exclude people who aren't in "their" category from getting into the game.
It's at its most obvious in the legal profession. It's as rare to see a legislator or state judge or senior state prosecutor with a degree from a top 10 law school as it is to see someone with a night school degree from St. John's as a partner in a big Wall Street law firm.
I doubt there'll be a change anytime soon -- the establishment is fighting for their lives. If the political doors were really opened to all the bright young Ivy Leaguers who live in their towns and commute to Manhattan and the pharma office parks, the entire political class of New Jersey would be swept away, and all of their government contractors, union bosses, and other retainers with them.
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