newjerseynewsroom.com

BY MICHAEL HAYNE

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

Professional YouTube screamer and occasional Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, followed through on his pledge to veto the historic same-sex marriage bill passed by New Jersey's state senate and assembly this week, thus putting New Jersey in ideological juxtaposition to Kansas. Worse yet, it seems New Jersey's Assembly doesn't have sufficient votes to override Christie's veto.

Ironically enough, right as the gargantuan governor of the garden state was proudly sending equality back to Saudi Arabia, Maryland's Governor, an implacable foe of Christie, was adulating his state's assembly for voting for human dignity in regards to its passage of a marriage equality bill. Much like the New Jersey law, the same-sex marriage bill in Maryland would not enforce religious organizations and churches to perform same-sex ceremonies. But it seems Christie thinks New Jersey's residents are clamoring for more patronage positions at the Port Authority (or is it portly authority?) and lowering a flag for drug overdosed singer over enfranchsing tax-paying, law-abiding citizens with the same right to be just as miserable as heterosexual couples.

Christie's comments following his promised veto, according to an LA Times article:

“I am adhering to what I've said since this bill was first introduced — an issue of this magnitude and importance, which requires a constitutional amendment, should be left to the people of New Jersey to decide,” Christie said in a statement, the Associated Press reported. “I continue to encourage the Legislature to trust the people of New Jersey and seek their input by allowing our citizens to vote on a question that represents a profoundly significant societal change.”

Christie, who has shown himself to be more moderate on other social/cultural issues in the face of an overwhelmingly socially backwards Republican party, was on the receiving end of a major tongue-lashing a few weeks ago after making some controversial comments regarding the Civil Rights movement and same-sex marriage. The tough Joisey guy governor did his best Tony Soprano when he said that blacks in the 1960s would have preferred referendums on desegregation, which is a the direction he has taken regarding promulgating same-sex marriage.

"I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights, rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South," Christie said after an event in Central Jersey.

For anyone with an elementary understanding of Jim Crowe laws and the monstrously rampant racism and separation of the South during the 1960s, it's palpably clear that giving veto rights to the heavily racist population of the South during the 1960s would be like trusting kids to grade their own school papers. Then again, Christie would probably just shout at the teachers and blame them.