Tony Soprano: I think it’s time for you to start to seriously consider salads.
Bobby Baccilieri: What do you mean?
Tony Soprano: What do I mean? I mean get off my car before you flip it over, you fat fuck.
Governor Chris Christie has a deep affection and strong commitment to New Jersey. (State of New Jersey official website)
It is late winter/early spring of 2011 and there are many people to hate and to fear. Every morning I step outside of my front door, take a deep breath in gratitude for another day, and pick up the NY Times and the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette from the steps. Returning inside, I clean the cat boxes, give the cats their food, take my vitamins, and make an espresso before unwrapping the newspapers. While there are always multiple stories of demagoguery and brutality visible across the globe, most of them seem far enough away as to become abstract, except on those days when my sense of personal failure and impotence aligns with my impotence before global problems. Then the despair seems real enough for a time, even though my frustrations are of course trivial when compared to the suffering of people who live in places like Zimbabwe, Burma, or Libya. As Bruce Springsteen once said, “It’s hard to be a saint in the city.” Yet every once in awhile a story seems sufficiently close enough to home, that I feel I can respond.
So I write many letters to the newspaper–over the years I have had several published–occasional posts to Facebook, and vehement emails to friends who are similarly inclined. As an artist and a teacher, I have built my life and work on the conviction that one must ask self-reflective, critical questions about what one does, says, and believes. In the realm of what passes for political debate in this country, there are certainly many shades of opinion and ideological dispute, but I don’t think many would argue that there is any real notion of dialogue, or in fact many public forums on TV, radio, or the Internet, where people would even pretend that it mattered. If I strongly disagree with your political beliefs, I demean your intentions and values, and then smash you in the face with my opinion. Fuck you. No fuck you!
Chris Christie, the recently elected Republican Governor of New Jersey is a politician who has been very much in the news. According to the Official New Jersey website, Christie, before becoming Governor, was a crusading federal prosecutor who “earned praise from leaders in both parties and drew national attention for his efforts in battling political corruption, corporate crime, human trafficking, gangs, terrorism and polluters.” Billed as an aggressive truth-teller and reformer who pulls no punches, doesn’t mince words, tells it like it is, whatever else, he is clearly not stupid. Nor does he play the homespun, passive- aggressive innocent like a Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee. Christie’s persona is that of a very angry and dismissive stand-up comedian–Borsht belt sarcasm but without any hint of a desire for the audience’s love or sympathy. He doesn’t want anyone’s “respect” like Don Rickles, just his fan’s appreciation that he always speaks the truth, and his enemy’s recognition that they are completely wrong.
For example, in a series of public appearances posted on Youtube over several months, Christie has reveled in the unapologetic disdain for public service workers like teachers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkuTm- ON904&feature=related
While teachers are no less “taxpayers” and citizens than anyone else, somehow it is acceptable to exploit their weaknesses, their “special interests.” One may ascribe emerging Republican plans in New Jersey and elsewhere to slash spending and dismantle the social safety net to ideological rigor, but what often characterizes the rhetoric is a desire to trumpet toughness and to punish those who have not met the standards of economic and social probity that they endorse. So thousands of state workers will be laid off, tens of millions of Americans remain without health insurance, illegal immigrants hunted down, health and safety regulations stripped away, women denied access to family planning. Pull yourself up by your individual bootstraps, America. Be chastened by the pain.
In Christie’s skilled performances, he is either a politician playing a thug, or presenting the real Chris Christie. In one of the videos, he is asked a question about his combative style, and says something about journalist’s fixation with “process” as if he doesn’t have time for polite exchange. In fact, the tone in his voice suggests that their judgments are weak-kneed and sentimental, as well as incorrect. While his attitude suggests a desire to protect the weak and afflict the strong, there is no suggestion that this crusade comes from any sense of empathy no less humility about the limits of his public role. Speaking truth to power, I don’t think so.
Of course Christie is not alone in dismissing “politically correct” attitudes–a rhetorical trope that has become a refuge for many liars and hypocrites–but this supposed critique embodies the rejection of any concern for anyone else feelings or beliefs. I wonder if Christie is as dismissive of his four children’s ideas and emotional needs?

So what makes Chris Christie run? Who cares? I would assume that we are to take his bullying routine at face value without any overlay of psychological political correctness. He has cleverly set the stage for this performance, and if some people don’t like him, or his jokes, that‘s too bad. No reason to wonder if he wants revenge on those who don’t share his body type, or whether this had roots in a series of rejections in high school.
But enough about Christie. What about me?
My rants and letters are usually received well by my limited constituency and this short essay will hopefully be appreciated in the same light. In any event, Chris Christie is brandishing a much bigger microphone before a much bigger audience. Still there is some consolation here. To paraphrase Christie: how much crap do I have to hear? Yet I also know that I am not alone in these feelings. A 3/10/11 front page story about Christie in the NY Times—“Blunt Talk is Not Always Straight”–is set up with the above photo. Shot from below, Christie stands apart from the audience like a fire hydrant in a suit, more awkward than powerful, perhaps imbalanced enough on short legs to be tipped over. This almost evokes some sympathy in me. Out here on our own, aren’t we all Chris Christie?
(Paul Zelevansky, 3/11)