There are many reasons New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wouldn’t make a good president: his approach to education, that pesky “Bridgegate” scandal, his less-than-stellar record on LGBT rights … But mainly, what he touts as his biggest asset — his capacity for “telling it like it is” (his actual slogan on his campaign website) — is, for us, his greatest downfall.
On the campaign trail in New Hampshire this week, Christie cheekily responded to a question about why he wasn’t helping his home state clean up from this past weekend’s blizzard and ensuing flooding with, “Want me to go down there with a mop?” He went on to call the mayor of North Wildwood “crazy” for his reference to the storm being worse than Hurricane Sandy.
In his eventual quasi-apology, Christie acknowledged he got “carried away” with those and other comments, saying sheepishly he often gets in trouble for his frank talking.
It’s a tactic that fellow Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump also takes: characterizing his penchant for spouting whatever comes to the top of his head as his straight-talking. Both Christie and Trump shrug off their inability for reasoned and intentional thought before speaking as a pesky habit — one that seems to resonate with many Republican voters, who tout both candidates’ straight-forward or “no-nonsense” approaches.
To us, Christie’s latest comments — and Trump’s laundry list of offensive and ignorant statements — aren’t emblematic of honesty or frankness. Instead, they’re evidence of a lack of basic reasoning and communication skills that should be present in the leader of the free world.
Christie, Trump and other candidates use that deficit to play to the American public’s disdain for fast-talking or pandering politicians. They know that Americans want the truth from their leaders — but there’s a big difference between being forthright about facts and spewing offensive personal attacks, or bigoted and uninformed views.
Many of us were taught from a young age to “think before you speak.” That’s a lesson that, unfortunately, seems to be willfully lost on some of our “leaders” today.
