Sweet Victory

Last week, the Democrats pulled off what most folks consider a major political upset: they won a Township Committee seat in my own home town of Morris Township. And they did it in fairly decisive fashion. What does this portend for our fair hamlet, for our county, and for the State?

There are essentially two kinds of Democrat: the "progressive", BlueJersey.com True Believing Liberals – who really like government (the bigger, the better) – and the folks who will get to work for that government (or get checks from it) if the BlueJersey guys succeed.

Morris Township has been trending bluer for many years now. Of old, we ran a sort of sleepy little burg, boasting among the low taxes in the County – which, in Morris County, is saying quite a bit.

But, with the inexorable growth, we welcomed a large number of new arrivals, often refugees from Hudson, Essex, and other urbanized, Democratic-controlled areas, who, apparently, wax nostalgic for the Auld Sod, and bring machine habits with them. Demonstrative of this is the presence in the County of Joe Cryan – the avatar of machine politics – on election day.

The Dems ran a great campaign. They identified their voters – again, movement liberals and those who profit from larger, more expensive government – and made sure those people got to the polls. They understood that, in politics, majorities don’t matter; motivation matters. Many, if not most people don’t vote; they find government and politics boring and simply can’t be bothered, certainly not sufficiently to take an active interest in educating themselves about the issues. To Democratic constituencies, elections are not about esoteric "issues"; they’re meal tickets.

Consider how many public employees populate the ranks of Democratic legislators; these guys depend upon government for their living. Losing an election is not a mere inconvenience, which sends them back to their real world jobs, but a personal disaster, which means they don’t eat.

THAT concentrates one’s mind wonderfully. Those feeding at the public trough are ALWAYS more motivated than those obliged to fill it.

Put another way, consider that, in Morris Township, if the police union – which, breaking with tradition, endorsed the Democratic candidate – wins a fat contract, the average taxpayer might see an increase of (say) $100 bucks. But the average cop may see thousands. Which person is likely to bring more passion and devotion to a campaign in which police pay and benefits is an issue?

Low turnout elections – which is to say, just about every election, most especially special elections – play right into the Dems’ strengths, as they are the party of government. Sure, many public-spirited public employees support Republicans – those true to their calling, who consider their neighbors’ best interests as well as their own – but, on balance, Republicans support lower taxes, Democrats higher spending. Democrats on the state level NEVER talk about taxes, unless it’s to lie about them during campaigns. (Each of the past four Dem Governors promised not to raise taxes, then broke that promise before even getting the Governor’s chair warm) Just a few weeks back, the Dems cheered the signing of "prevailing wage" legislation, which, true to form, once again subordinates the interests of taxpayers to that of a powerful Dem constituency group.

It asks quite a bit of (say) a teacher to expect him to subordinate his own self-interest to the greater good. He quite naturally votes for the candidate who promises him the best deal. That’s ALWAYS a Democrat.

Couple the increasing power within the Dem coalition of people who benefit from ever higher taxes, with general citizen apathy, add in the continuing, huge emigration from NJ of people tired of paying obscene taxes (one assumes disproportionately Republicans), and you have the recipe for an increasingly Blue state. The only people left behind are the kind of people whose puppy-like faith in the beneficence of government knows no bounds, the people who work for government (although even increasing numbers of them live in PA), and those living off the efforts of others.

Even Morris County.

Before 2010, mostly Red Georgia and mostly Red North Carolina will have passed NJ in terms of population. They didn’t achieve that population growth by cranking out kids. In significant measure, they attract precisely the sort of people that NJ repels: hard working, productive people who favor lower taxes and smaller government. Although something of a basket case by national standards, PA is thriving along the NJ border; only by comparison with disastrous NJ does PA look good.

So, what’s a good, freedom-loving Republican to do? Besides moving to locales which care more about liberty.

It’s simply impossible for the GOP to muster the kind of self-interested passion in our voters that the Dems muster in theirs, because we simply can’t offer our folks the same sort of bribes the Dems can. Try though some Republicans might, we simply cannot out-irresponsible the Dems, because however profligate and wasteful Republicans might be, the Dems are always happy to see our irresponsibility, and raise us. We offer the people freedom; we’re the party of leaving people alone. The Dems are the Party of "let me give you something ‘free’; I’ll make someone else pay your bills". We offer the people opportunity; the Dems purport to offer them guarantees (at someone else’s expense).

‘Course, ultimately, that edifice collapses under its own weight (as we already see looming with state pensions and benefits) because productive folk retain the option of leaving. But, as with any Ponzi scheme, those on the top of the pyramid make out fine, and fight like hell to preserve their own benefits. In short order, those left behind will face some extraordinarily difficult math. But it’s rather cold comfort, for freedom-loving folks, looking back at their former home state from the safety of North Carolina, to know that, shortly, they’ll be able to say, "I told you so".

Those with their hands in the cookie jar – to wit, those with a personal interest in governmental spending – are (almost) ALWAYS more motivated than those taxed to fill that jar up. But there comes a time when those disposed to empty the jar, for their own benefit, start to outnumber those doing the baking. When that happens, crisis ensues. And when THAT happens – and it will – the apathetic folks may wake up to the consequences of their lethargy. Can anyone say 1993?

And, when that happens, the GOP needs to enact pro-freedom reforms which prevent thae taxocrats from simply continuing where they left off, once general apathy returns, and self-interested spendocrats once again exert their disproportionate influence over matters political. Such was the failure of the Whitman (and Kean) administrations, and the GOP legislative majorities; when afforded the opportunity, they failed to put in place measures – such super-majority requirements for tax increases and evicting governmental employees from partisan politics – to fundamentally break the back of the spending interests on NJ politics.

The Dems just proved that when the majority of the people don’t care and stay home, their motivated voters prevail. There are now enough folks who care passionately about benefitting themselves at common expense to constitute a significant electoral force; people who approach the voting booth with their hands out, expecting the results of the election to provide them with a subsidy.

Even in Morris County.