The Morris GOP AWOL on defense of parental rights.

The NJEA argues that removing any book from a school library is something akin to the book burning that went on in 1930s Germany. Of course, the NJEA and its allies think nothing of canceling an author with whom they disagree – mirroring a practice common in authoritarian regimes of all ideological stripes.
 
There is a great difference between canceling an author along with his or her work and deciding that certain reading material isn’t “age appropriate” for a certain audience. If it is all the same, then it would follow that Penthouse magazine and Hustler would be found on the shelves of school libraries, and their presence supported by the NJEA as a “defense against book burning.”
 
You can’t cancel the author of the Harry Potter series because you disagree with her, but then claim that setting age-appropriate standards at a school library is a bridge too far. But that’s what’s being done at the Roxbury School District in Morris County. This recent Fox News coverage explains the controversy:

“The battle for our children’s future is not being fought in China or in the Middle East. It’s happening inside their minds and inside our classrooms.”

Roxbury has become ground zero in the fight for parental rights in New Jersey. Advocates and parents are even being sued by a board of education employee, a school librarian, for pushing back and demanding that the board remove certain sexually explicit books from the school library. Books that parents believe are inappropriate for their minor children.
 
Remember, unlike those who want to cancel author J.K. Rowling, an adult, for having an opinion – these parents only wish to limit the access their minor children have to this material. Adults are free to do what they like (and that goes for their children, once they are adults).
 
At a meeting of the Board of Education on Monday night, parental rights advocates from around the state showed up to support the parents being sued and to speak out in their defense. But not the Morris County GOP. Not the Republican establishment.
 
Parental rights advocate Josh Aikens was there. Aikens, a candidate for Assembly, was joined by running mate Jason Sarnoski. Aikens delivered an impassioned defense of parental rights – as he has hundreds of times before throughout his effort to recruit and train conservative school board candidates. But where were all those Republicans who claim to be “conservative” and claim to be “pro-parent”.
 
Are the language pimps who run the campaigns of GOP establishment politicians doing to the phrase “pro-parent” what they did to the word “conservative”?
 
A year ago, the GOP legislative caucuses were big on parental rights. After all, parental rights is the issue responsible for Republicans winning in Virginia in 2021 and for Florida going from a purple state to one that is bright red.  
 
But then a GOP State Senator stood up in caucus and claimed a family member was “transitioning”. And that’s how quickly the rot sets in. Never underestimate the power of the personal to undermine policy. To a GOP leadership unsure of its principles, not wishing to offend a colleague is a ready excuse to take the chicken run on a controversial issue.
 
Overnight… the GOP’s digital and social media campaign in support of parental rights dried up. Now, “pro-parent” is just a convenient label, to be applied on campaign mailings, and media advertisements – by the language pimps who run establishment politicians’ campaigns. A label that, if allowed to, will be forgotten the moment the election is over.

GOP Insiders: BLM Republicans rather than MLK Republicans?

By Rubashov

David Wildstein has been a Republican candidate, an elected Republican office holder, a Republican campaign manager, a Republican political consultant, and a high-ranking appointee in a Republican administration. His PoliticsNJ and PolitickerNJ political blogs supported the rising political fortunes of childhood friend Chris Christie. When Christie was United States Attorney, Wildstein’s blogs would often break stories before established media outlets had even got wind of one.

After Bridgegate, Wildstein joined with fellow Republican political consultant Ken Kurson to start New Jersey Globe. And when Kurson found himself in some trouble, it was a Republican President who granted him a pardon. By any measure then, David Wildstein is a Republican insider.

We thought about this when reading a column Wildstein posted on Friday, bidding farewell to New Jersey Globe reporter Nikita Biryukov. Wildstein wrote:

“Frankly, I can’t help but have pride in the careers of some of journalists who began their career working for me, including three of my first hires: MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki, who spent three years as a reporter at my old site, PoliticsNJ; and the Boston Globe’s James Pindell, who spent a few years at PoliticsNJ and is now the nation’s premier expert on New Hampshire presidential primaries; and POLITICO’s Matt Friedman, who was just developing his snark and perhaps had not yet owned a cat. Reporters I’ve helped train now work at the Philadelphia Inquirer, POLITICO in Washington, Roll Call, National Journal, Advance Publications, and other news organizations, and I wear that with a badge of honor.”

Wait… he’s a Republican, right? So, why didn’t anyone he mentored go on to work at Fox or Newsmax or National Review? Why isn’t conservative media represented at all?

Steve Kornacki and Matt Friedman are among the most knee-jerk corporate Democrats writing today. They, along with everyone Wildstein recruited, worship big government power and push a relentlessly Establishment line. They all became what Leftwing populist Jimmy Dore calls media “shitlibs”. All good little members of the MSM – mainstream media – and all dedicated to splitting the American people into marketable silos, creating the reality described by journalist Matt Taibbi in his book, Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another.

Just the other day, Nikita Biryukov was bashing Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli for daring to question Governor Phil Murphy’s unfunded mandate LGBTQ+ curriculum that teaches anal sex to grade school children. As only a very young man could, Biryukov wrote: “Many LGBT issues are considered settled in New Jersey.” Considered by whom? The corporate, media, government, and academic establishment? The One Percent?

You may ask: But Wildstein is a Republican, right? A former GOP campaign manager, an insider in the Bergen County Republican Organization, a GOP mayor, a former consultant to the NJGOP, one of Governor Christie’s top appointees… How is it that he unerringly recruited and produced employees who hate traditional values, who hate conservatives, who hate the platform of the Republican Party? Why was this man rewarded for doing so? And why does he continue to be rewarded by the GOP?

People like David Wildstein are turned on by power. Very early on, they learn to mimic the attitudes and language of those who have power in the institutions they wish to be a part of. In the Republican Party in New Jersey, that means the corporate elite, the lobbyist community, and the Trenton establishment. These are not conservative people. They do not hold with traditional values or with any of the party platforms since Ronald Reagan captured the nomination in 1980.

They are exactly what you would expect corporate people to be… woke. They are exactly what you would expect people who lobby for woke corporations to be… paid to act woke. They mind their language and keep in fashion. And people who want to get ahead in the GOP do the same and act like they do.

That goes for party people – staff and such – all those appointees who keep the engine going. And that’s why it goes the way it does. That’s why, as Tucker Carlson recently observed: “And you wonder why you no longer recognize the party that you vote for.”

And it’s not just the Republicans in New Jersey. This is as much the case in Washington, DC…

The Google lobbyist and the GOP Leader.

Of course, not all Republican leaders are in lock step with the Establishment. Many actually listen to the members of their party and to the people who vote for them. Republican elected officials who listen to average party members and voters tend to do better at elections than those who simply try to mimic Establishment attitudes. Anyone who has closely watched the campaign of GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli has been impressed by his ability to listen to what average voters have to say.

Did you know the Establishment actually runs finishing schools for wokeness that Republican operatives are enrolled in before going out and imparting their wisdom to candidates, party committees, and campaigns? They go by names like the Center for America Women and Politics or CAWP. It’s part of Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics and it claims to be bi-partisan – in that it trains both Democrats and Republicans. Yes, it may be bi-partisan, but it is 100 percent woke and in service to the modern fascism of identity politics. Catch this language from a statement CAWP put out last year:

“The Center for American Women and Politics was founded to examine and disrupt the gender bias built into America’s political institutions. But these institutions – formal and informal – were also constructed to privilege whiteness. To uphold that privilege, entire communities have been dehumanized, exploited, endangered, and disempowered. Our work has made us keenly aware that changing institutions built to uphold the power of white men is difficult, and it requires those who benefit most from these power dynamics to call for and actively participate in their disruption. It also requires changing who holds power within those institutions.

We denounce the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, as well as the systemic racism, sexism, transphobia, and inequity that their deaths illuminate. We condemn the long history of police violence against Black Americans and the legal system's failure to respond. We state unequivocally our commitment to anti-racism and to our continued work to transform political institutions to make them more inclusive and responsive to the demands and experiences of all Americans.

…committing to anti-racism also means educating those who are privileged within racist systems to confront their own privilege, and to become both active and accountable in transforming these racist systems.”

No Republican should be a part of an organization that puts out racialist slop like this. As the party of Lincoln – the party that was formed to end slavery and the party that ensured civil rights for all – Republicans should follow the color-blind path of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. NOT the racist neo-fascism of BLM.

This is the kind of nonsense Republican operatives are being fed before they are handed the keys to run things. This is why there is a disconnect between party operatives and grassroots activists. It’s simple: They are NOT on the same page.

To be sure, the people who run CAWP are racialists. Their ideology is fascist rather than Marxist, because there is no mention of economic class.

In White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making, Duke University Professor Nick Carnes cites studies showing that while a majority of Americans work in blue-collar employment, only 2 percent of Congress were blue-collar workers before being elected and only 3 percent of State Legislators are employed as blue-collar workers. Carnes and others hold that this disparity reflects the economic decisions and priorities of legislative bodies in America. But in the happy-clappy rainbow fantasy world of the One Percenters who run CAWP, Oprah Winfrey is oppressed and the Appalachian family living in a shack are the oppressors. Based on their skin color. The Germans had a word for this.

Conservatives, traditional Republicans, those who believe the party is something more than a racket must demand and keep demanding a seat at the table. Understand that you are not going to be liked, get past it, and keep insisting on an accommodation. They want to keep you out. It is up to you to muscle your way in.

“It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.”

Robert A. Heinlein

NJGOP should try to stop sale of New Jersey college to Chinese Navy.

The Chinese Navy… yes, the Communist Chinese Navy… is trying to purchase a college in New Jersey.

For nearly a century, Westminster Choir College (part of Rider University), has been one of America’s leading academic institutions for advanced musical studies, with a core mission of “training ministers (with music as their ministry) in the Christian evangelical tradition.”  It is also one of America’s national treasures for classical music.  The college’s Westminster Choir has performed with the New York Philharmonic over 300 times, more than any other organization. 

This story has been reported extensively… from the New York Times to Fox News, but now there's opposition to a Chinese government-owned defense contractor for the Chinese Navy trying to buy it.

An alumni group, the Westminster Foundation, has sued to stop Rider University from selling it, claiming that the Chinese government would have a direct foothold in America academia.

The Westminster Foundation’s lawsuit contends that the company intended to run the school, Princeton Westminster International, is really owned by Bejing Wenhuaxuexin Education, which is a subsidiary of Bejing Kaiwen Education Technology, "a for-profit Chinese entity owned and controlled by the government of China."

The lawsuit states that just three weeks before it announced its intent to buy Westminster, Kaiwen changed its name from Jiangsu Zhongtai Bridge Steel Structure Company, "a manufacturer of components of Chinese naval vessels and is a defense contractor" for China's military," in order "to create the veneer and seeming appearance of an education entity to justify its acquisition of Westminster Choir College."

Security experts believe that the real reason the Chinese government wants to buy Westminster Choir College is to gain a foothold in Princeton’s regional academic community and then exploit Princeton's reputation as a center of studies for the U.S. intelligence community.  The United States government maintains contracts at known research centers in high tech, defense, and cyberspace that happen to be near Westminster's campus. Westminster Choir College is a tiny music school in one of the most sensitive centers of intelligence and defense research in the world.

The attorney for the Westminster Foundation recently was quoted:  "For the first time in American history, an American college would have been taken over by a unit of a foreign authoritarian foreign dictatorship, which is what China is. The sad reality is that academic freedom disappears, true education disappears, the ability to create music, drama culture, to study religion disappears because all of these things are subject to censorship in China."

So… what is the NJGOP going to do about it?

This is a made to order issue for Republicans and right-thinking Democrats alike.  So who is going to step up?

The Way of the Baboon (or why Spadea pissed on Reagan)

Baboons don't hunt other species.  Instead, they employ their ferocious looking teeth to attack and injure other baboons.  Some Republicans are like this too.

Unlike so many conservative websites in the past, this website has made a point to refrain from focusing on the sins of those in the nominally right-of-center party.  We figured they have problems enough, and there is so much ready trade amongst the Democrats, so much to criticize, that... why bother the GOP?  And so we have generally given Republicans a free ride, made them exempt from the focus of our criticism -- even as some of them have adopted social policies that would have made "the gimp" from Pulp Fiction wince.

If anything, we preferred the softly, softly approach with Republicans.  We tried to talk with them, even when our meetings were cancelled and our points of view dismissed. Once we even had to suffer a chief of staff whose demeanor towards us was akin to that of Miss Beulah Ballbreaker from the movie Porky's.

But even when showered with such rude affections from the leaders of our own party, we refrained from finger-pointing. 

Others have taken a different path.  Fox News and NJ 101.5's news host Bill Spadea -- a former candidate for Congress and the Legislature who collected tens of thousands in political contributions from his fellow Republicans , and who very recently fronted for a political action committee devoted to electing local members of the GOP, blithely accused a Republican legislator of criminal misconduct the other day.  And he did so with all the gravity one uses to direct someone to a toilet. 

To be fair with Spadea, he's been dumping on Republicans for some time.  Back when he ran the national College Republicans, then RNC National Chairman (and future Governor) Haley Barbour felt obliged to unfund Spadea's organization after it attacked both Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush for not being Republican enough.  It takes some kind of balls for a college kid to call out the father of the modern conservative movement for not being "pure" enough.

Some of the people Spadea had on his show are even worse.  They're members of a 16-person caucus.  Just 16.  It's like a big family.  16 is small enough that you should -- after 8 or 9 years -- get to know each other and be able to talk to each other.  But instead of talking, one of these 16 legislators put another one up to call out a third.  So this involved about a fifth of the caucus.  And what did the one put up to call the other one out accuse him of -- gross criminal misconduct and political corruption.  And the joke of it is, the one called out is probably the biggest boy scout in Trenton.

So this was just egregious, nasty, damaging behavior for its own sake:  Hurt and injure your own rather than going after the other side.  It's the way of the baboon. 

Fox/NJ101.5 should require Spadea to quit campaign

Bill Spadea is a Fox News journalist, and an on-air host for New Jersey 101.5, a radio station operating under license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  He is also a candidate for Congress.  Well, yes, officially Spadea still maintains a congressional campaign committee, according to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).  According to the FEC website, Spadea's committee has a debt of $231,236.67 and cash-on-hand of $80,881.18.

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Why is someone in the news business maintaining a political campaign committee to which interests can make donations and  from which Spadea can write  checks?

The Society of Professional Journalists suggests the following way to avoid conflicts of interest like the one now faced by Bill Spadea:  " The SPJ Ethics Committee gets a significant number of questions about whether journalists should engage in political activity. The simplest answer is 'No.' Don’t do it. Don’t get involved. Don’t contribute money, don’t work in a campaign, don’t lobby, and especially, don’t run for office yourself."

It is time for Spadea to either close down his political campaign committee or give up journalism.  He can't do both and keep the confidence of the public