Politicians love tweeting about holidays both big and small; it’s easy content for their social media accounts, and it allows them a chance to connect with communities from which they’d like to draw support heading into an election.
New Jersey is second only to New York with almost one-fifth of the state population claiming at least some Italian ancestry. So you’d think politicians would pounce on Columbus Day to garner a little favor with their Italian American constituents?
In a different time and space, yes, but the modern Democrat Party operates differently.
Columbus has been reduced to a symbol of colonist oppression in Leftist circles, and a growing number of Democrat jurisdictions and Leftist jurisdictions are opting instead to celebrate “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
Democrats in close races – notably Andy Kim (NJ-03) and Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) – decided to avoid the controversy altogether. Neither incumbent’s social media accounts (government or political) acknowledge either holiday on Monday. Meanwhile, Kim challenger Bob Healey planned to attend a VFW Columbus Day event later in the evening, and Gottheimer’s opponent Frank Pallotta tweeted a message celebrating the “contributions of Italian Americans throughout our history.”
“Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with celebrating Native Americans with their own national holiday — the problem is with those like Andy Kim who wish to re-write or worse erase history and effectively pit one group against another,” opined Healey in his own statement.
Governor Phil Murphy himself illustrated the line Democrats need to walk in 2022 to appease an increasingly radical base.
He tweeted two messages on Monday morning – one celebrating “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” and a second honoring Columbus – and got “ratioed” on both. Critics slammed his Indigenous Peoples’ pander on that tweet and, under the Columbus comment, his own side expressed extreme displeasure.
Here’s just a sample…
You personally live on the banks of the Navesink in the heart of the ancestral lands of the Lenni Lenape and this is your take on #IndigenousPeoplesDay Governor? I would have hoped for more political courage. pic.twitter.com/BjbEMsEctA
— Jim Keady (@JWKeady) October 10, 2022
Indigenous People’s Day pic.twitter.com/rp0bYRGf9H
— Jackie Hill (@JackieHillNJ) October 10, 2022
No we don’t Murph. Happy Indigenous Peoples Day 🪶
— ✌︎ ち匕口れモ尺 ちㄗ工匚モ ✌︎ (@muvathomas) October 10, 2022
Says the non-indigenous New Jersey tyrant.
— FreedomBob22 (@FreedomBob22) October 10, 2022
The lesson:
Woke pandering leaves no one happy.
Unfortunately for Democrats like Kim and Gottheimer, the psychos in their far-Left coalition are incapable of happiness. I don’t envy them!