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Chris Christie’s Cheap Shot
“My mother was a smoker,” Chris Christie told a New Hampshire audience in a video that has gone viral. Though she tried everything – gum, patches, hypnosis – nothing worked. When she was diagnosed with cancer, he continued, “No one came to me and said, ‘Don’t treat her ’cause she got what she deserved.’ No one … said, ‘Hey listen, you know your mother was dumb. She started smoking when she was 16. Then after we told her it was bad for her, she kept doing it, so we’re not going to give her chemotherapy, we’re not gonna give her radiation, we’re not going to give her any of that stuff — you know why? Cause she’s getting what she deserves.’ No one said that.”
But, Christie said, when it comes to heroin, cocaine, and alcohol addicts, people react differently. Too often, he claimed, “People say ‘they’re getting what they deserve.’”
Really? I wonder if Christie could name some, because it seems that he has just erected a straw man that would make Barack Obama, the straw man master, envious. Who is opposed to drug and alcohol treatment?
While it’s true that there are many more addicts than there are treatment programs, this doesn’t prove that judgmental martinets are blocking access, merely that it’s expensive, and that there are rising numbers of drug abusers. Overdose deaths from heroin have quadrupled since 2004, and use has increased by 63 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The world isn’t divided between those who want to treat addicts and those who want to turn their backs. There are some (and I include myself) who think addiction is not like multiple myeloma or autism in that there is an element of choice in the former and not the latter. But that doesn’t mean we would stint on treatment.
Christie has raised some substantive issues in this race (entitlements, for example) and good for him. But this looks like an exercise in the kind of moral exhibitionism that has become so common on the left and that Christie ought to be above. The point of his little sermon was not to discuss policy options, but to showcase his own feelings. Christie was no doubt delighted by headlines like this from CBS: ”Chris Christie’s Emotional Plea For Addiction Treatment Goes Viral.”
Treatment is not any sort of panacea for addiction either. Dr. Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and addiction specialist, estimates that between 40 and 60 percent of participants in drug treatment programs drop out within the first few weeks or months while effective outpatient treatment typically requires at least a year. She is encouraged by the success of programs like Swift, Certain, and Fair, which impose immediate (but not harsh) consequences on substance abusers and have been found to be quite effective. But realists will keep their expectations modest.
The second half of Christie’s emotional appeal was more offensive than the first. “I’m pro-life,” he proclaimed. “And I believe that if you’re going to be pro-life you have to be pro-life for the whole life, not just for the nine months in the womb. It’s easy to be pro-life for the nine months you’re in the womb; they haven’t done anything to disappoint us yet … but when they get out, that’s when it gets tough.”
This is a tired and familiar charge from the left. They are fond of saying that pro-lifers only care about babies before they’re born and not after. Good liberals, by contrast, may be fine with dismembering unborn babies, but once they’re out of the womb, boy, they’re determined to give them benefits like WIC and Head Start.
This is fatuous. In the first place, no level of social welfare support for children can morally outweigh licensed killing. Surely that’s what the unborn would say, if they had a voice. Second, the cliché about pro-lifers being indifferent to babies after birth is utterly fictional. This country boasts more than 2000 crisis pregnancy centers that feature support for pregnant women and provide aid during the first year of life (and sometimes beyond) for their children. Christians, who comprise the majority of pro-life Americans, are more than twice as likely to adopt children as non-Christians. People who attend religious services at least once a week (again, assuming considerable overlap with pro-life views) are also more likely to serve as foster parents, volunteers of all kinds, and blood donors. They are also more likely to donate to charities than their secular counterparts. How does that possibly translate into not caring about the “whole life”?
Christie doubtless knows all of this, which makes his cheap shot at his fellow pro-lifers especially disappointing.
Published in General
This you know how? Were you a junkie who got clean? You guys are oversimplifying the issue, and making it seem like it’s as simple as going to the gym regularly, or saving money. It simply isn’t.
One can certainly make a decision to stop. And they do. For a while. then something happens and they relapse. And they hate themselves. And they stop again. And they relapse again. Etc.
You don’t Zig Ziglar your way out of drug addiction.
As a huge Chris Christie and Mona Charen fan, this is a bummer.
I’ll keep it brief-ish though.
Mona is totally right about the left loving that line about pro-lifers. But I think that probably perks lefties ears up and maybe they will listen to a Republican for once in their lives. There is certainly a political calculation by him though about attracting some moderates and others who might be concerned about those awful Republicans.
I also think there is a portion of the right that is sadly callous about drug addiction and he is making a plea to them about walking a mile in someone’s shoes. Locking them up and throwing away the key, as some on the right would like to do, does not really do anything to solve the problem.
I’m sorry – that did sound a bit cavalier, and “junkie” is a very ugly term which I probably shouldn’t have used.
Of course it can be difficult – and the fact that it wasn’t that difficult for me is due as much to dumb luck as anything – I absolutely don’t judge people who find themselves unable to stop.
But at the end of the day, it is about stopping – asking yourself why you use in the first place can be confronting, but it’s a necessary first step. Imho one has to address the cause of use directly.
Hopefully they get better at it, over time, and eventually it sticks. And they stop hating themselves and start loving themselves enough to address what’s driving them.
Exiting addiction doesn’t need to be elegant (or neat, or dignified). If zig zaglaring* ends up working then what’s wrong with it?
(* I have not hear this before. Means zigzag?)
Zig Ziglar was a motivational speaker from Alabama/Mississippi. A lot of his message was how just changing/focusing on your attitude can make a huge difference. I never got into him really but I can tell you my dad loved the guy. I’m sure my dad is proud I can tell someone about him…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar
http://www.ziglar.com/
Thanks.
I think attitude adjustment couldn’t hurt, but in that case I agree with Spin that you can’t Zig Ziglar your way out of addiction.
It’s about acknowledging needs and meeting them another way.
I’m reminded of the afterword to Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly. Some excerpts:
I don’t think many people wish for addicts to ‘get what they deserve’. I think many of us wish and pray for their recovery.
Is addiction a choice? I’ve seen good arguments both for and against. What I’ve never seen an argument against is that picking up the bottle/joint/syringe, etc. the first time is not a choice. The addiction that may follow – reasonable people can debate.
So what about the people that do not choose to pick up those things or stop when the warning signs inevitably start flashing? Do they get what they deserve having their earnings confiscated to deal with the consequences of others poor choices?
We do not live in a world of infinite resources and thus it is appropriate and necessary to ask these uncomfortable questions.
As someone who’s sat and counseled with addicts, this is the exact thing that they need to come to understand. They do not deserve to be an addict. Most addicts think they do. And I think Christie’s point is that many of us think they do. I truly believe that it is when they realize they are better than the addiction, that is when it starts to change.
My parent’s met him a few times, and of course I heard many a Zig Ziglar comment from them. But like you, I never really got in to him.
Maybe he is making the case for a greater role of government in the treatment of addiction, but I didn’t hear him say any such thing in the clip making its rounds. What I did hear was a pretty sincere plea for Americans to change the stigma against addiction to illegal substances, so that the addicted can feel more empowered to get help by whatever means they have available to them.
This is an issue that resonates with a lot of people, especially those who have lost a loved one to the awful heroin epidemic that is spreading into every corner our society. I think we should applaud a conservative voice that is persuading the public to find a place within the Republican tent. What I take away from Christie’s speech is the conservative answer does not need to be either “you made your choice, now die with it” or simply throwing more taxpayer money at it. A change in the way we view the problem, a little more compassion from everyone for the afflicted, may be just enough to help people find the strength to deal with their weaknesses.
It’s all about the New Hampshire primary.
No one said it was easy, Spin, but unless and until you stop the behavior, there can be no progress. No one’s putting a gun to your head. Stop the behavior!
Agreed, Zafar.
I don’t doubt it. If you were happy with what you were doing – i.e, you didn’t think it was ruining your life – why would you disparage yourself with the term “addict”?
I was deeply saddened to read Mona Charen’s post. Chris Christie’s video was one of the most evocative ones I have ever seen. I am moved to tears every time I watch it. I have sent copies of it to my progressive friends. Chris Christie did a great job on Fox News Sunday, expanding on his video, and explaining that this does not mean that he believes in throwing money at the issue. I stand with Chris Christie.