Chris Christie’s forgiving fan club: Why elite “centrists” will back him all the way

[DonViejo]

Morning Joe and Ron Fournier may back him forever -- but those on the right who never liked him, are another story

ALEX PAREENE

What would Chris Christie have to go to get his admirers to stop admiring him? Put aside for a moment the question of whether he personally instigated or even knew of the intentional traffic slowdown his aide and appointee caused as retribution against a New Jersey mayor. The closure was carried out by a top aide and some of his closest longtime political allies. These are his people, and this is the culture and ethos he has brought to his administration. Petty retribution against enemies — and favors for friends, no matter how reckless or criminal — is the norm in Christie’s administration. What is unusual in the bridge controversy is not that it happened, but rather how sloppy his allies were in covering their tracks and shielding their boss from negative press. But will any of this actually hurt the man with the people who love him the most?

First, you have to understand the source of the Christie love. As a rich Northeastern Republican, with the typical rich Northeastern right-leaning Republican’s hard-line right-wing economic agenda, combined with certain less stringent positions on various other issues, elite “centrists” were already inclined to like him. But Christie is basically the dream candidate of the masculinity-obsessed middle-aged male centrist-worshiping pundit. He’s “tough,” because he shouts at people. He’s “brave,” because he supports various broadly unpopular positions related to government spending and taxing. And he’s also a “reform-minded” “moderate,” because… well, because centrist pundits say they like reform-minded moderates and they like Christie so he must be one of those. The fact that all this was wrapped up in a Jersey accent gave him supposed populist cred, despite his elite background.

Christie knows full well that this class is his most loyal constituency, and he knows it’s them he most betrayed by… getting caught acting like the sort of politician he is and always has been. When the news broke, they were initially heartbroken.

Ron Fournier, a right-leaning centrist fetishist of the highest order, likes Christie and wants him to succeed. He projects onto Christie all of the traits that he admires in politicians. As of Thursday, Christie had failed to live up to Fournier’s vision, so Fournier simply imagined a way in which Christie could emerge from this scandal still receiving the admiration of people like Fournier. It involved the phrase “pull a Super Sister Souljah,” because for Fournier and his ilk, the wisest decision Bill Clinton ever made was denouncing a rapper and activist who wasn’t in any way involved in the Clinton campaign, for having said provocative things about white people. Fournier called on Christie to denounce… himself, somehow, because the Christie in Fournier’s imagination would certainly denounce a governor who allowed this tawdry affair to happen.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/01/13/chris_christies_forgiving_fan_club_why_elite_centrists_will_back_him_all_the_way/