OPINION: Please Don’t Make Her A Hero. Not Every Enemy Of Our Enemy Is Our Friend.
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Without a doubt anyone who pays attention to New Jersey politics knows progressive activist Sue Altman was removed from a Senate hearing in Trenton yesterday.
What I don’t understand is why are so many Republicans are trying to make her into a hero?
The answer I keep getting is some variation of, “She’s against Norcross.”
So what? Will she ever support a Republican at the polls? Nope, never.
Please spare me the “she should not have been removed with force” garbage.
I’ve been removed by police from plenty of meetings. Way back in 2003 I, along with my father, a friend and an 8-year-old boy, was pulled, pushed and shoved by police out of a Camden County freeholder meeting that was held in Winslow Township. We were passing out “Nash Cash,” flying a Jolly Roger, and chanting, “Get your Nash Cash, it’s free you don’t have to work for it.” Our protest was against no-show jobs and other controversial practices of Camden County Democrats of the time.
After we were shoved out of the building, my father continued to argue with the police until he learned the Republican Party wouldn’t pay our bail – only then did things calm down. I still laugh as I remember my father saying to one of the cops who happened to be short, “You’re just mad because your nightstick hits the ground every time you take a step.”
That same year I was stopped by the Gloucester Township police from entering the municipal building for a council meeting. Prior to the meeting we were out front protesting what we dubbed, “Snowgate.” Hindsight being 20/20 perhaps my protest sign shouldn’t have been mounted on a snow shovel in the middle of July.
After these protests, and others I have taken part in, not one Democrat tried to turn me into a hero. And, believe it or not, some of my fellow Republicans actually complained that, “Republicans shouldn’t be acting like that.”
At every protest I, and whoever was with me, knew we would find trouble. We hoped for it. The point of protests is to draw attention to your cause and then use that attention to your advantage.
Make no mistake, Ms. Altman went to that hearing looking for trouble. She held a press conference before going into the hearing room. She fired up her troops. She got exactly what she wanted and people are buying into it.
Camden County Republican Party Chairman Rich Ambrosino was absolutely correct when he said in a press release:
“As I’ve been saying since the start of this war between the establishment and progressive Democrats, the only people to blame for the tax incentive controversy are Democrats, be they establishment or progressive because for the past 28 years both sides have come together every November to vote the Democratic Party line,” Ambrosino said. “Progressives helped give the establishment the power, now they’re having buyers’ remorse. They’re little protests and acts of civil disobedience are too little, too late.”
Democrats, progressive or machine, it doesn’t matter, all Democrats are to blame for the political machine running Camden County and most of South Jersey.
If Ms. Altman and her fellow progressives were truly on our side why have they remained silent when members of the Norcross machine have committed misdeeds? Former Assemblyman Arthur Barclay punched a woman, resigned from office, still has a county job and not one word about it from Altman or her fellow progressives. How about former Haddon Township Commissioner Paul Dougherty who crashed his car into another, left the scene and then tried to blame his own wife (who wasn’t with him) for the accident? Again, not one word about it from Altman or her fellow progressives. Even Brian Reagan, the guy who won a school board election in Gloucester Township who we at the Bob & Steve Show discovered once appeared in blackface – you guessed it, not one word about it from Altman or her fellow progressives.
Wake up and stop making a hero out of a progressive Democrat. Ms. Altman is not on our side! Republicans have to stop buying into the belief the progressives will help us defeat the Norcross machine. They will never help us.
Please do not mistake my opposition to the progressives as support for the Norcross machine. I’ve spent the better part of 20 years fighting against that machine. I was there the time a certain now-state Senator’s father intentionally hit a Republican volunteer with his car during a campaign. There’s still a video of a Norcross inviting me to “step outside big boy.” The list goes on.
The only thing I ask is that Republicans remember who is on their side and who isn’t. Stop the nonsense of supporting progressives. Not every enemy of our enemy is our friend.
