Seriously Chris Christie?

Chris Christie is a complicated politician. On the one hand he is a, bullying, anti-union demagogue. His decision to cancel the the ARC tunnel and leave 20 years of transit planning in the waste bin will leave train and road congestion at unconscionable levels. As a transit nerd, I'm particularly pissed about that.

Yet, he has a softer side, at least in comparison to the right-wing ideologs that currently constitute the Republican Party. His defense of his appointment of Sohail Mohammed to the New Jersey Superior Court in the face of grotesque islamophobia was commendable. And he has at least made noises of being gay friendly in a decidedly homophobic party.

But today that softer side died completely in my eyes.

The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.

Beyond the fact that the civil rights movement was fighting and dying to use their right to vote in the first place, this is a completely nonsensical statement. Civil rights cannot and should not be taken away by the ballot box. Period. End of statement. In one felt swoop Christie alienates gays and blacks, two groups that don't really see eye to eye on much. It might look good in a frenzied Republican Primary, but to a general electorate this is an ugly thing to say.