By Cody McLaughlin
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As if to one-up himself for boneheaded, callous comments on the plight of working New Jerseyans, Governor Murphy threw another cute little quip at the rest of us this week.
Asked about the crumbling un employment system at a time when over a million New Jerseyans (that’s 1 in 9 residents of the state, mind you, not working age adults) are out of work, he said, “All I would say to anyone who thinks that: Go to another state.”
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Well, Governor, I have a problem with the guy who runs the state. I also have a better idea than thousands of us moving out of the state: how bout YOU move to another state, Governor Murphy? I hear Massachusetts is nice this time of year; you may be familiar with it.
You see, I – like countless other New Jerseyans like me – am a multi-generational descendent of fellow New Jerseyans. We are mainstays of this community. This is OUR state.
I am also a millennial who has had to wrestle with the idea of leaving my home, where my blood runs deep, where my family has called home for generations, where my family still has weekly Sunday dinners because of the ineptitude of government. Did that start before you? Sure it did. But there are also valid criticisms of your leadership, and your refusal to hear from the citizens you were elected to represent is telling. Instead, you tell us if we don’t like the ever-rising taxes in the already-most-taxed state in America, we should just pick up and move.
It’s easy to kowtow to special interest groups and liberal interests especially when you have national ambitions. What’s harder is buckling down and putting the state and its people first. From carving out funds from federal assistance to give directly to the state’s largest special interest group to shutting down parks and flippantly telling us our opinions don’t matter to telling us flat out he has no plan to get us back to work ‘whether we like it or not’ to… who knows what’s next!
And this is how you react to valid criticism? Sorry, bub, but like you say in your campaign ads news conferences, this is New Jersey. No state has more attitude. Unfortunately for you, that’s not just a talking point to rally your base with. It’s the God’s honest truth, and this is what that looks like.
So if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
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CODY McLAUGHLIN serves as a trustee for the NJ Outdoor Alliance which represents 1.2 million hunters, fishermen,and trappers. He is also a veteran of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s 2013 reelection campaign as well as numerous GOP campaign efforts in the Pacific Northwest
