A Meaningless 2014 Election — Comprised of Competing Narcissist Clones — Governor Chris Christie's Cynically Theatrical Photo Op — and America's Continuing Aversion to Dealing with Anything that Actually Matters

© 2014 Peter Free

 

30 October 2014

 

 

America’s most telling caricature — “Fat Boss” Christie evading the point and humiliating a voter for the cameras’ sake

 

Leadership in the United States has devolved into cynical theater.

 

Our 2014 mid-term elections will be the costliest ever, with little likely to change in a favorable direction, no matter the outcome. For the most part, it has been a battle between Big Money’s virtually indistinguishable sets of self-serving narcissist puppets.

 

Yesterday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie competently symbolized our political culture’s persistent evasion of Reality’s problems:

 

 

A heckler critical of Chris Christie’s post-Sandy efforts created a perfect storm at an anniversary event Wednesday, prompting the bellicose governor to tell him to “sit down and shut up.”

 

Jim Keady . . . interrupted Christie several times to challenge the pace of his repairs.

 

“It’s very simple. We want to know why the Christie administration in Trenton is sitting on more than 80% of the $1.1 billion in aid. He needs to finish the job,” Keady said.

 

He said Christie’s administration had only distributed $220 million of $1.1 billion in federal aid meant to get New Jersey residents back in their homes — and demanded to know why.

 

[A]s the protestor persisted, the Republican governor’s trademark ire erupted.

 

“I’m so glad you had your day to show off. So turn around, get your 15 minutes of fame, and then why don’t you take your jacket off and roll up your sleeves and actually do something for the people of this state,” the governor bellowed.

 

Keady shouted back that he’d taken a month off work following the 2012 storm that ravaged the northeastern seaboard to help affected residents.

 

“Sit down and shut up,” Christie snapped at him. As Keady was led away he shouted an invite to the governor to join him for dinner to hash things out.

 

“There’s about 1,000 things I’ll do tonight. Going to dinner with you is about 1,001,” Christie snorted in response.

 

© 2014 Ginger Adams Otis, Chris Christie tells heckler off at Hurricane Sandy event: ‘Sit down and shut up’, New York Daily News (29 October 2014) (resequenced extracts)

 

Notice a few things:

 

 

It is undisputed that New Jersey has not distributed overwhelmingly most of the Federal disaster money that it received.

 

It has been two years since the storm.

 

And Governor Christie’s response to Mr. Keady’s arguably justified goading was to dodge the delay issue that his Administration had created.

 

Instead, “Fat Boy Boss Man” — a caricature suitable to the era of political bosses and Robber Barons — substituted a considerable amount of hostile air. As if his demonstration of acting talent would fix New Jersey homeowners’ lengthy plight.

 

Some among those gathered at the Governor’s event cheered. It’s always fun to see the Head Monkey sling turds. And no one seems to care that turd fests do nothing to get anything done.

 

 

The moral? — We’re on the Theater Train to Bog Land

 

Enjoy the ride.

 

When it ends, some of our more competent ancestors are metaphorically going to wonder what happened to American spine and common sense.