On Saturday January 27 my friend Senator Jon Bramnick, a Westfield resident, launched his campaign for governor in New Brunswick with a powerful speech reiterating traditional Republican Party values; values which strongly align with moderate Republicans, countless New Jersey Independents and cross-over Democrats who are unhappy with extremist views in Trenton.
There were many notable quotes from his event. This one struck me me as especially timely: ‘Respecting the courts is part of being the party of law and order’. Republicans must ‘call out’ those who think otherwise-‘even if it’s Donald Trump’, Bramnick said.
Timely how? The next day was the 186th anniversary of one of Abraham Lincoln’s most consequential speeches. Then 28 years old, Lincoln’s ‘Lyceum Speech’ was a sharp rebuke to pro-slavery mob violence and a passionate defense of our court system and our nation of laws.
One such excerpt: ‘As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; -let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children’s liberty. Let reverence of the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her laplet it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; -let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars…’
On the night of January 6 2021, after the horrific mob attack on our nation’s capital, the ‘political religion’ of the Republican Party was this: 139 of 272 Republican Congressmen/ Congresswomen returned to the chamber to vote against certifying the Electoral College results, in defiance of every court decision before and since, which found no actionable voting irregularities. The Party of Lincoln?
Bramnick talked about restoring the tarnished image of ‘The Grand Old Party’ to voters. Honesty, civility and respect for the rule of law were just some of his themes, and a great place to start.
If with his morning coffeeAbe Lincoln reads more than just the sports pages in the heavenly edition Newark Star Ledger, then he must have been smiling down on the anniversary day to see some light at the end of the tunnel in NJ. The Party of Lincoln.
Good luck Jon.
Sal Caruana Westfield
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