Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

After spending a week defending his position that marriage equality should be decided by referendum rather than legislation, Governor Christie continues to insist that black Americans would have been better off letting the public cast ballots on the issue of voting rights.  

"The fact of the matter is, 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," he said on January 24.

A firestorm of protest followed, with politicians, civil rights leaders, historians and ordinary citizens criticizing Mr. Christie’s ignorance regarding the bloody struggle and the intense resistance faced by those men and women fighting for equal rights and human dignity.

Rather than apologizing for his historically inaccurate and politically polarizing comments, the Governor doubled down, telling reporters “The political climate in the South didn’t give them the option to have a referendum back then.  They wished they would have had that option but the political climate did not permit it, meaning they would not win.”

He then went on to call openly gay Assemblyman Reed Gusciora “numbnuts” for daring to compare the NJ Governor to George Wallace.

And so it goes.  Incapable of admitting he misspoke, unable to turn his gaffe into a teaching moment about fundamental rights, equal protection under the law, and the ongoing fight for fairness same sex couples in NJ must wage, Chris Christie prefers to create a fantasy universe where in 1965 well meaning southerners would gladly go to the polls and vote to lift their black neighbors out of second class citizenship. The brutal victimization of slavery and Jim Crow would have been resolved without a single water cannon or attack dog.  The vicious intent of segregationists would have been rendered moot by the power of the polls…

And anyone who dares to disagree with this scenario will be insulted by the state's chief legislator,  called offensive names and face the contempt of a man for whom the word "sorry" seems to have no meaning -- or is too bitter a pill to swallow even in a case so clearly egregious as this.

We say it is beneath the dignity of his office for Mr. Christie to mangle facts and rewrite history in order to justify his promised veto, and deny tens of thousands of NJ residents equal rights under the law. 

We say putting this issue on the ballot will invite every anti-gay group in the country to NJ, infesting our already partisan political discourse with more vitriol, anger and demagoguery than ever.  Millions of dollars will be poured into an anti-equality advertising campaign supported by groups that have no home in NJ, but who will pollute our airwaves with negativity and propaganda intended to divide reason from reality.

Vetoing the Marriage Equality bill may make the governor a more attractive VP candidate for Mitt Romney, but we say the Governor’s job is to advance the will of the people of NJ, who support this bill and want same sex marriage made law. 

We say it’s time for Mr. Christie to admit his errors, apologize for his ignorance and pledge to do the right thing for the state he leads, no matter how it plays to GOP primary voters.

What do you say?