{"id":1374,"date":"2015-08-25T08:51:39","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T12:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1374"},"modified":"2015-08-25T08:51:39","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T12:51:39","slug":"trump-is-no-conservative-but-neither-is-chris-christie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/08\/trump-is-no-conservative-but-neither-is-chris-christie.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump Is No Conservative, But Neither Is…Chris Christie!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump hasn\u2019t the most conservative of track records<\/a>. His opponents in the GOP presidential field and in segments of the so-called \u201cconservative media\u201d have sought to discredit Trump on this score.<\/p>\n

But they are dishonest, for neither are their <\/em>favorite candidates at all \u201cconservative.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is a classic case in point.<\/p>\n

Christie has acknowledged that up until about 20 years ago, when he heard his daughter\u2019s heartbeat while she was still in her mother\u2019s womb, he was \u201cpro-choice.\u201d<\/a> He even gave to Planned Parenthood. Now, Christie self-identifies as \u201cpro-life.\u201d However, he believes that up until the 20th<\/sup> week of pregnancy<\/a>, abortions should still be permitted.<\/p>\n

And, of course, not unlike most other Republicans (Marco Rubio is <\/em>a notable exception here), Christie holds that abortion is morally permissible in cases of rape, incest, and when the mother\u2019s life is endangered by her pregnancy.<\/p>\n

In other words, Christie is still \u201cpro-choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

To see that this is so, consider his stance on abortion in light of an analogy with capital punishment. A person who claimed to be against the death penalty while supporting it only for, say, murderers, rapists, and attempted murders, would be recognized immediately as self-delusional, deceitful, hypocritical, or some combination thereof.<\/p>\n

Similarly, one cannot claim to oppose abortion\u2014the killing of innocent, defenseless human life\u2014while simultaneously claiming to support it if the human being is of a certain age (under 20 weeks old), conceived under such-and-such circumstances, etc.<\/p>\n

To his credit, Christie, as Governor, did indeed cut, on five different occasions, funding for Planned Parenthood. Still, we should bear in mind that until he threw his hat into the presidential ring and began addressing conservative-minded audiences, Christie has always insisted that the cuts were due solely to the fact that those monies \u201cwould deplete the state\u2019s<\/a> fiscal resources\u2026and significantly alter the policy and spending priorities\u201d of New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Not unlike Ohio Governor John Kasich (and a whole lot of other Republicans), Christie insists that he objects to \u201cgay marriage,\u201d but now that the Supreme Court has declared it a Constitutional right, Christie regards it as a non-issue, the law of the land. The Pulse scores Republican candidates on their response to this unprecedented ruling: Christie received an F<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And in 2013, when a Jersey court legalized \u201cgay marriage,\u201d Christie refused to challenge it<\/a> on behalf of his state.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard not to think that had Christie really been morally <\/em>opposed to \u201cgay marriage,\u201d then he would be as about as willing to surrender to a government ruling on it as an abolitionist would\u2019ve been willing to acquiesce to the government\u2019s stance on slavery.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Christie signed off on legislation that would prevent employers from conducting<\/a> criminal background investigations of prospective employees. The Governor now brags over having put an \u201cend\u201d to \u201cemployment discrimination against people with criminal records.\u201d Only after an applicant has had his or her first interview would the employer be permitted to conduct a background check.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will make a huge difference to people who have paid their debts to society and want to start their lives over again,\u201d Christie declared.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Christie brought Common Core<\/em> to New Jersey. \u201cWe\u2019re doing Common Core in New<\/a> Jersey and we\u2019re going to continue.\u201d So that there wouldn\u2019t be any confusion as to where his sympathies lay, he added: \u201cAnd this is one of those areas where I\u2019ve agreed more with the President than not.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Common Core justly earned its now infamous reputation, Christie began to backpedal away from it, and when he launched his presidential campaign, he expressed \u201cregret\u201d over having endorsed it. In February, he expressed \u201cgrave concerns about the way this is being done, and especially the way the Obama administration has tried to implement it through tying federal funding to these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

This remark is telling for more than one reason:<\/p>\n

First, Christie gives the same reason for the disaster that is Common Core that communists give for the failure of communism all over the world. The problem isn\u2019t the program itself, but its implementation.<\/em><\/p>\n

Second, it is stupendous that anyone, let alone a politician, could not<\/em> have anticipated that there would be enormous problems with the imposition of a federal program, any federal program, but particularly an educational program imposed upon a locale.<\/p>\n

Third, did Christie seriously not expect that President Obama would not attach strings of \u201cfederal funding\u201d to, well, a federal <\/em>program?<\/p>\n

Christie boasted about having presided over the largest amount of aid\u2014$8.9 billion<\/a>\u2014to New Jersey\u2019s public schools in the state\u2019s history. When it is considered that no small portion of this is money derived from the federal government, it is obvious that Christie is interested in reducing the size of neither the federal nor state governments.<\/p>\n

Christie expanded Medicaid<\/a> under Obamacare.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the NSA\u2019s massive surveillance of American citizens\u2019 data, Christie refers to objections as constituting a \u201cstrain of libertarianism,\u201d and accused \u201clibertarians\u201d of engaging in \u201cesoteric, intellectual debates<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also supports the federal government\u2019s searching to see which library books<\/a> Americans check out under the Patriot Act.<\/p>\n

Christie, though claiming to oppose amnesty (who doesn\u2019t say as much?), favors \u201ccomprehensive immigration reform\u201d\u2014i.e. amnesty. He also granted illegal immigrants in New Jersey the right to pursue a college education while paying in-state rates of tuition<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Trump may not be a conservative.<\/p>\n

But Chris Christie definitely is not a conservative.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump hasn\u2019t the most conservative of track records. His opponents in the GOP presidential field and in segments of the so-called \u201cconservative media\u201d have sought to discredit Trump on this score. But they are dishonest, for neither are their favorite candidates at all \u201cconservative.\u201d New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is a classic case in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Is No Conservative, But Neither Is...Chris Christie!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/08\/trump-is-no-conservative-but-neither-is-chris-christie.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Is No Conservative, But Neither Is...Chris Christie!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Donald Trump hasn\u2019t the most conservative of track records. 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