By Matt Rooney
South Jersey Democrats apparently can’t get through October without chronic foot-in-the-mouth disease rearing its ugly head, Save Jerseyans.
Get this: as first reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Congressman Donald Norcross compared Congressman Jeff Van Drew to Adolf Hitler during Saturday’s Gloucester County Democratic rally in Westville, where Cory Booker and Van Drew challenger Zack Mullock also appeared.
Norcross mocked Van Drew’s hairstyle and likened his pocket handkerchief’s peaks to Klan hoods. He also dropped to his knees to ridicule the Republican’s loyalty to President Trump.
“If it was darker, that’s Hitler’s haircut. That tells you who he really is,” Norcross said, according to the Inky.
Maybe mere proximity to Cory Booker induces fellow Dems to channel their inner unhinged theater kid? Who the fuck knows!
After the newspaper asked about the remarks, Norcross called Van Drew to apologize and acknowledged going too far. Mullock, for his part, offered no comment on Norcross’s speech, the newspaper reported.
The spectacle follows fellow Camden County Machine Democrat Lou Cappelli’s recent insanity. The Camden County commissioner director drew criticism for declaring that Trump must be “taken out of office one way or another.” Cappelli subsequently issued an October 22nd statement doubling down on calling Trump a traitor while clarifying that he supported removal only through constitutional means.
I’m a lifelong Camden County Republican, folks. I don’t believe Lou or Donald suddenly became true believers in this DSA bullshit. I think they’re scared of their own base—and willing to say almost anything to survive it.
That’s what makes this so disturbing. Their rhetoric increasingly leaves no room to acknowledge a Republican opponent’s basic humanity. A colleague. A neighbor. Someone who might disagree with you without being evil. They appear to believe their own political survival requires denying their opponents even that much.
So you get Hitler comparisons. Klan references. The suggestion that a political opponent is a monster whose defeat carries no moral limits.
That should terrify everyone, regardless of party. Democracy requires accepting that your opponents have the same right to participate that you do. Once leaders start treating that recognition as a weakness they can’t afford, they’re attacking something far more important than the other party.
I grew up fighting South Jersey’s Democratic machine. I remember the corruption, the arrogance, and the disastrous policies. This is darker: politicians who should know better helping make contempt for their neighbors a condition of belonging.
The question for today’s Democrats is whether they still have the courage to tell their base that Republicans are human beings.
If that’s too politically dangerous to say, imagine what becomes politically acceptable to do.
