Message To NJ GOP: Act Out, Act Up, Disrupt!

 

I've just returned from the New Jersey Republican Party's Annual Leadership Summit in Atlantic City. When I come back from one of these multi-day events, I almost always feel uplifted and hopeful for the future. And I say this even coming off of one of the worst defeats for the NJ GOP in recent memory. 

Why am I nonetheless encouraged? 

It's the people -- the genuine rank-and-file people that make the state party tick -- who give me the willingness, indeed the desire, to continue to plow onward. Because the people, all my New Jersey Republican friends, are good people, decent people, sensible people who really love and care about their state. 

And these people deserve better. They deserve better than what they're getting from the individuals who are running this state.

The simple fact is this: our stringently leftist state government comes across as arrogant, obstinate, secretive and disdainful of any type of criticism. In fact, it's devoid of even a semblance of respect for those who dare to challenge its increasingly dogmatic views and radical agenda.

I do not make these claims lightly. But, time and again, I see so much evidence of what I've just conveyed to you -- evidence that I've presented to you here on this website time and again.  And all this has left my Republican friends (and particularly GOP officeholders who take their oath of office seriously) frustrated and dismayed. Can you blame them?

What can we do about it?

Well, I'll tell you this much -- if the roles were reversed and our Democrat "friends" were the outsiders being treated as we are now, they wouldn't be civil about it; they wouldn't be mannerly; they wouldn't be genteel. They'd be raising holy hell -- "made as hell and not taking it anymore!"

Democrats have a knack for drama that Republicans (with the obvious exception of President Trump) seem to lack. Democrats act out. They paint with broad, strokes and bold hyperbole. They magnify, they amplify, they organize and they demonstrate. And they don't hesitate to take to the streets. In fact, they've shown that they can produce an angry, "spontaneous" crowd quicker than you can say impeach.

These are not ordinary times. The hour is late and the old rules of political combat will not work anymore -- not now, not while socialism and communism loom on the horizon, their specter all too real. We're now way beyond the point of formal resolutions, declarations or policy papers. Get it?

And the way I see it, perhaps the time has come for some stubborn, sustained disruption. For this may be the only way to gain the public's attention, galvanize the cause and convince those in power that we are indeed deadly serious about saving our state and our nation.

Maybe when any Republican is disrespected or mistreated at a session of the state legislature in Trenton, all of the GOP members of that body should simply get up and walk out in protest.

"We're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it anymore!"

 Maybe we need more actions like that -- active defiance in the face of the arrogance of power.

Mikie Sherrill promised affordability. What she's delivered is a bloated state budget, runaway, pork barrel spending, lost jobs and wages and higher fees and taxes. Maybe it's time for demonstrations in towns and cities all over the state that dramatize the justifiable sense of disappointment (at the very least) that ordinary citizens should be feeling. 

Maybe a mobilized march on Trenton needs to be organized. A big one a few decades ago derailed a major tax hike and sent the incumbent governor into a tailspin from which he never recovered, ultimately producing one of our finest leaders ever -- Tom Kean. 

Maybe, right now, we could even use a bit of performance art to get the message across. Does that sound a bit outside-the-box to you? Good! Because such a non-traditional approach to what we face is exactly what we need -- and we need it without delay.

Not that what I'm suggesting will suddenly and immediately turn the tide for us. It won't. But it will alert those that need to be alerted. And it will sound the alarm -- an alarm that will hopefully mobilize voters for a big statewide GOP victory at the ballot box next year. 

Still, this will happen only if we act imaginatively and daringly now!

Bottom line: I'm afraid far too many of my Garden State Republican friends have turned the other cheek for far too long. This is Joizee -- and this is a street fight, make no mistake about it. 

So take the gloves off and let's disrupt, defy and derail this misguided train before it mows us all down!