Why Murphy is keeping New Jersey locked down so much

With restaurants and other businesses being so limited in indoor capacity, the state still isn't able to function anywhere near capacity. Hospitalizations are down. Deaths from COVID-19 are way down. Therapeutic treatments have improved greatly since the start of the pandemic, or outbreak, depending on how you choose to look at the situation.

So why has Gov. Phil Murphy been so reluctant to allow us to exercise our Constitutional rights to live freely, aside from his admission that the Bill Of Rights is above his pay grade? There is one simple answer: numbers. Not the numbers that would determine how dangerous or safe the situation is at the current time. No, the numbers that piled up early on, due to his bad judgement.

New Jersey still remains the state with the highest death rate per capita of all 50 states, thanks to his decision to put COVID-positive patients into nursing homes and long-term care facilities early on in the crisis. Now that treatments are refined and the disease is somewhat less deadly, he hopes to get us out of that top spot. So he's being overly cautious with the rest of the state — as he has for months, if not the entire time of the pandemic.

The other factor may be that if people in the state are suffering enough, his hope is that they'll want to make a change in the White House next month. While the real change needs to be in our State House next November, 'Phony Phil' will keep us suffering as leverage, until his goal is achieved. It's diabolical and devious, but what should we expect from New Jersey politicians?

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy. Any opinions expressed are Dennis' own.