Christie, the commentator

Chris Christie, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, is a regular commentator on the top-rated Sunday talk show This Week. On today’s episode, he and fellow commentators discussed Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the presidential election to Joe Biden. Here’s the indignant way Christie chimed in:

The conduct of the president’s legal team has been a national embarrassment. Listen, I have been a supporter of the president’s. I voted for him twice. But elections have consequences, and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn’t happen.

(HuffPost, November 22, 2020)

Christie was right, of course. The peaceful transfer of presidential power has been a hallmark of American democracy for over 200 years.

Christie’s, the hypocrite

However, fellow commentator Karen Finney was right to “lecture” him. Because Christie lecturing fellow Republicans on the categorical imperative of putting country over party was almost too redolent with hypocrisy for words.

After all, this is the same Christie who stood by as Trump spent his presidency putting himself above the country. In fact, Trump did his damnedest to destroy the democratic institutions and foreign alliances that have been the envy of the world since George Washington’s presidency.

The president’s legal team has undoubtedly been a national embarrassment over the past three weeks. But that pales in comparison with the national embarrassment the president’s political party has been over the past four years. Where was Christie then?

Republicans worshiping Trump

Since 2016, I’ve been preaching that Republicans supporting Trump are like Israelites worshiping the Golden Calf. Only that explains their cult-like devotion to this demagogue acting like a demigod.

“Russia-are-you-listening-[again]” Trump gave us reason to fear Russian-style mischief as the greatest threat to American democracy. Yet here are Republicans trying to pull off a Venezuelan-style coup in broad daylight.

Of course, they’re now so programmed they probably think a coup in the name of Trump isn’t undemocratic at all.

Christie criticized fellow Republicans for failing to urge Trump to acknowledge generally accepted facts for the country’s sake. In this case, Trump is refusing to acknowledge that he lost this election and that Biden will be inaugurated on January 20.

Yet, in the same breath, Christie admitted that he voted to give Trump another four years. He did that knowing Trump was hell-bent on using a second term to destroy everything Christie claims to love about this country.

I don’t know which is worse: the contradiction or the stupidity inherent in that. Either way, it’s irredeemably damning.

After all, Christie is objecting to Trump destroying more democratic norms on his way out of the presidency. But Christie had already voted to give him another four years to continue doing so, perhaps irreparably.

Let’s call this spade a spade: Long before Americans began voting in this presidential election, it was plain to see that America under Trump’s presidency looked more like a banana republic than a beacon of democracy.

In any event, his comments on today’s episode of This Week vindicate everything I wrote about him in “Chris Christie’s Book Shows He’s Just a Blowhard Coward,” January 24, 2019.

That is why Finney was too kind. Instead of lecturing Christie, she should have told him to get off TV and spend the rest of his days in monastic silence, atoning for his political sins.

* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Sunday, at 2:07 pm