There's only one explanation for the latest approval rating for Gov. Phil Murphy. New Jersey has battered spouse syndrome. We keep taking it on the chin, with property taxes, gas tax increases, a house of cards pension system and an overall completely unaffordable state. Yet we stay. We elect the same loser politicians back into office again and again. Phil Murphy came along and outright told us he was going to raise our taxes, and we were more than happy to make him governor and let him cuff us around the kitchen a bit more. Because we're masochists apparently. We New Jerseyans have lost all self-esteem to these politicians. As long as Phil buys us a pretty dress once in awhile I guess we decide to hang in there.

I don't get it.

The latest Quinnipiac University Poll shows Fifty-four percent of registered voters approve of his handling of the job. A majority of New Jerseyans approving of a governor's performance last happened in January of 2014. That's the same month Bridgegate exploded with the "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" emails which grabbed the yoke and slowly put a plane called Christie in a slow death spiral.

But it's also a higher approval rating than either of the last two Democratic governors ever achieved in their entire terms. Corzine never saw anything higher than fifty-one percent and McGreevey peaked at forty-six percent.

Fifty-four percent.

He's giving millions of our tax dollars to illegal immigrants to pay their legal bills so they can fight their deportation. He's rushed to a church where illegals hid from ICE with an urgency some of us wish he'd have for our property tax crisis. He's vowed not to give up on hiking our sales tax back up, and without complying with the poison pill provision and lowering the gas tax when he does.

Fifty-four percent.

We are gluttons. Not just for pork roll and boardwalk food. We're gluttons for punishment. It's the only explanation. What's wrong with us that we think we can't do better?

He's made too-strict gun laws in New Jersey even stricter. He has his eyes set on a $15 an hour minimum wage. I guess when you were a Goldman Sachs guy it's hard to relate to the small business person who's barely getting by as is. Yet here we are, most of New Jersey's registered voters feeling he's doing a great job.

Have we given up? Have we simply decided we've always been destined for nothing better than steerage class on the Titanic? Why fight anymore? I guess we just like it this way. Good thing. Because that iceberg is right ahead.

There's an old story about a guy sitting on the porch of his buddy's house and his friend's dog is lying on the porch at his feet. The two guys chit chat about this and that. Every now and then the dog lets out a moan. Finally the guy says, "What's up with your dog? Is he sick?"

"Nah, he's not sick. There's an old rusty nail that sticks out of the wood right where he's laying and it's bothering him."

The friend asks, "Well then why doesn't he get up and move?"

"I guess it's not bothering him enough."

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