The Media experienced a stage five full-blown uproar over the summer when the GOP-controlled Texas House attempted to arrest Democrat members who were preventing a quorum.
In New Jersey this fall, Democrats led by Phil Murphy and Speaker Coughlin are attempting to prevent Republican legislators from voting in-person by enforcing an unconstitution vaccine passport mandate. The Media isn’t nearly as offended and sympthetic towards the minority party as they were during the Texas flap (to the surprise of no one) but the goings on in our home state are far more sinister, Save Jerseyans.
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In fact, Monday’s developments were arguably more disturbing than last Thursday’s when Coughlin tried – and failed- to coax the New Jersey State Police to bar non-compliant Republicans from the State House. Legislators and staffers arrived at the State House on Monday morning to find ominous orange barricades, extra State Troopers and National Guard members erecting vax checkpoints:
Only the governor can command the National Guard (except in those rare instances, like in wartime, when the president calls them up). It wasn’t immediately clear what happened ahead of Monday. Did Murphy do this of his own accord? Did Coughlin or Sweeney ask him to send in the troops?
More to the point, is this what a “free” state is supposed to look like? Soldiers deployed to intimidate legislators into taking a vaccine despite no evidence of an elevated health risk at the State House? Can you imagine Joe Biden or Donald Trump orders Army infantrymen to Capitol Hill to enforce a health policy preference?
Nah. This is a “police state,” folks, like someone you’d expect to see from a third world nation on the BBC’s nightly newscast, and it’s also a particularly interesting move since executive brand involvement in the original policy – and the separation of powers issues that fact presents – is one of the GOP plaintiffs’ strongest constitutional arguments.
“This is getting insanely out of control,” Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger tweeted on Monday evening. “This authoritarian style of heavy-handedness is outrageous. This is not the fault of our great NJSP or NJARNG, but rather the politicians forcing them w/o consideration. Our police & troops should not be used for political theatrics.”
We’ll see what happens on December 16th when the Assembly is expected to return for an in-person session; today’s committee hearings were remote. The GOP challenge to the original mandate is scheduled for a court hearing a few days earlier on December 13th.
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