On Chris Christie, the Dallas Cowboys, and Two Americas

As I watched the depressing end to a football game between the Lions and the Cowboys, I saw something that frustrated me more, from the perspective of an American, rather than as a bitter supporter of the New York Giants.

(photo from SBNation.com)

That's Chris Christie, the governor of the state of New Jersey, palling around with the very wealthy owner of the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones, in the owner's suite at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Christie claims to be a lifelong Cowboys fan, and I believe him when he says that. I also believe that his enjoyment of the game is genuine, and his jumping in on the hug was entirely normal. (Sports do this to people who really care about them. We jump up, hug, scream, and sometimes even cry, when exciting things happen. To mock someone for that is not really fair.)

So I have no qualms with Christie getting emotional about the Cowboys, or the Mets, or the Rangers, or whatever other sports teams he cares about. And if he wants to share his feelings about sports with us, I have no problem with that, either. (Frankly, I like Christie as a political figure, even if I am very unlikely to vote for him in the Republican primary in 2016. I think he's basically as good a governor as New Jersey will get, and the track record of governors of the state of New Jersey in my lifetime basically bears that out.)

What does bother me, though, is Christie in that owner's suite. (He even went to the locker room after the game.) If Chris Christie were just a regular old attorney in the state of New Jersey pulling in $175,000 a year, there is zero chance that he would ever be in that booth. As governor, though, he has access to situations that he would not be able to get in another line of work.

One of my major objections to politicians these days is that they often take liberties and receive perks that ordinary people cannot even imagine. I see three different categories where this happens, but they are closely related.

1. Politicians hobnob with celebrities, athletes, and other so-called very important people.

Christie is particularly guilty of this, in my judgment. But he's not alone. President Obama is friends with Jay-Z. John Boehner once offered Billy Joel a cigarette. Half of the Democratic Party has spent time with Bruce Springsteen (as has Christie, post-Sandy).

I know that this is the expectation these days, as athletes who win championships visit the White House as a matter of course. But I am asking for us to use a more modest standard. Presidents and politicians can have social lives, but why must they be with famous musicians and actors?

These encounters privilege both the celebrities and the politicians. We would be better off if we stopped offering our tacit approval. 

2. In traveling on campaigns and for fundraisers, security standards result in massive inconveniences for ordinary folks.

Joe Biden's vice presidential motorcade closed the Lincoln Tunnel, New Jersey Turnpike, and Interstate-280 for a fundraiser for Jon Corzine in 2009. In Portland, OR, Biden's campaigning--and some basic planning errors--resulted in the near-total shutdown of the all-important TriMet light rail system.

We see this with lesser VIPs, with teams getting disruptive state police motorcades between hotels and stadiums.

Security concerns are what they are. But there is a line between prudence and disruption. Frankly, "security at any cost!" is not a realistic standard. Hiding in plain sight, in a nondescript car on a highway with an armed guard or two, covers most potential security risks. If a low probability thing like a fatal car accident--or even a planned assault--happens, that is an incredible tragedy. But the country will survive it, and has survived worse. No single politician--besides maybe the president--is so indispensable that citizens should accept massive dislocation so that said politician can get to a fundraiser. The single parent who gets stuck in traffic and has to pay an extra hour to the babysitter does not deserve that. Nor, for that matter, does the person who simply wants to get home to watch Jeopardy, or Monday Night Football, or The Big Bang Theory.

3. As much as we try to avoid it, we see the well-connected avoid prosecution, even in cases where the law is clear.

There was a minor story on the Right a couple of years ago, when David Gregory, then-host of Meet the Press, exhibited a high-capacity gun magazine on his program. Possessing the magazine was illegal in the District of Columbia, where the show was taped. Pretty clear violation, no? Not exactly:

NBC’s David Gregory is off the hook for showing a high-capacity gun magazine on “Meet the Press” and will not be prosecuted, D.C.’s attorney general announced on Friday. 

D.C. attorney general Irvin Nathan on Friday said he would decline to prosecute in the case involving the Sunday show host and any NBC staffers. In a letter to NBC’s attorney Lee Levine, Nathan wrote that after reviewing the matter, his office “has determined to exercise its prosecutorial discretion to decline to bring criminal charges against Mr. Gregory, who has no criminal record, or any other NBC employee based on the events associated” with the broadcast.

The Right blasted the hypocrisy and demanded Gregory's prosecution. If we take a step back, though, it seems pretty clear that Gregory was not violating the spirit of the law, and that the clemency he was shown was a good thing, in terms of justice.

Meanwhile, Shaneen Allen, a law-abiding gun owner from Pennsylvania, acknowledged having a gun in her car during a routine traffic stop in New Jersey. Possessing the gun, unfortunately, violated NJ's gun control laws. After a threatened prison term, a public outcry, and almost a full year in legal limbo, the charges were dropped. But it wasn't like with Gregory, who immediately got the benefit of the doubt from the justice system. Gregory is part of the elite, and Allen is not.

We see this all the time with well-connected people. Drug offenders who are politicians (or related to politicians) get clemency, or suspended sentences, or rehab. Minorities get jail time.

As commentator Sean Davis wrote, in the aftermath of the Eric Garner grand jury decision:

John Edwards was right: there are Two Americas. There’s an America where people who kill for no legitimate reason are held to account, and there’s an America where homicide isn’t really a big deal as long as you play for the right team. 

Unfortunately Eric Garner was a victim in the second America, where some homicides are apparently less equal than others.

In the case of Garner, the police officer gained the benefits of being in the right America. Politicians are in that America. The well-connected in general--and politicians in particular--exploit their status to gain personal benefits that are not available to ordinary people. It is one thing when a rich person spends their money to gain great benefit; it is quite another when a politician gains the trappings of wealth simply because of their elected position.

We cannot stop all of these incidents. But we should be vociferously critical when politicians use their political positions for their own benefit, rather than for the benefit of their constituents. We elect politicians as leaders, but they are ultimately servants in our republic. Ideally, at the end of their terms, they'd quietly return to their farms. We are the bosses. We're not electing them to hang out with the Dallas Cowboys.

If Chris Christie wants to watch the Cowboys, he should do it at home with his family, or with friends, or in a bar, or by himself, just like the rest of us. I fully support him in that. He can jump around and hug whomever he wants. But if he wants to go to the game, he should buy a ticket.