New Jersey elections explained simply (Opinion)

If you're a long-suffering taxpayer in New Jersey, hoping for some light at the end of the tunnel, yesterday's election was another frustrating, hopeless exercise in futility. Nothing significant will change.

Your neighbor or sister-in-law may have won a seat on a town council or a school board and one of your friends may have been elected to a freeholder position, and that's nice. But wholesale change in the system or structure of New Jersey politics is a pipe dream, thanks in part to Chris Christie. He may have been the last hope of people looking for a more affordable state that we grew up in and love. He unfortunately dropped the ball and pursued his own selfish political interests. Sadly to see any relief in taxes, regulation, ridiculous over reaching laws, you'll have to exit this state.

Here's how it works. New Jersey is controlled by government worker unions and over emotional voters. Lots of people here work for the government and they want to maintain the good deals and protections they have. They vote Democrat and they should. The Dems protect their interests even though the state is going broke doing so. The pension system here, like other states and cities around the country are unsustainable, but hey they're banking on a nice retirement and you should just shut up and deal with it. The emotional voters also buy into that side of the aisle which has controlled the state for decades and will continue to for the foreseeable future.

Never mind that no one is going to take away your right to kill your fetus, keep your gay friend from marrying whomever they want or mistreat you because you're a minority. But the Democrat party keeps scaring you into thinking the other side will do all those things, so you keep voting for them. It's not about any of that. It's about management. How much money and personnel does it take to run the state and maintain order? We are way overloaded on both, thanks to both parties.

Unless you're connected and find a way to benefit from the political system, you're screwed. You can deal with it and plan an exit strategy, but don't fool yourself into thinking it will ever get better here for an outsider, private sector, over-taxed sap like you and me. Even though the people in charge have made a mockery of the process and turned it into an emotionally charged circus, yes, I voted.

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