New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of 12 remaining Republican presidential candidates, spoke at an intimate rally at a pub last night, 24 hours before the start of the Iowa Caucus.
Christie spoke of his supporters in Iowa and his desire to be a great commander in chief. What really stood out, however, was when he went after the United States Senate during his speech, comparing it to a grade school.
Christie started in on his analogy by asserting that senators are no better than elementary school children who know what time they are required to report to school — or the Senate floor — each morning and when they are allowed to leave it. He said senators and students are both allocated a recess every day where they can take a break from the job at hand, and both parties share a summer vacation.
“[As students you] joyously run away from your responsibilities and go home to convince your parents that the year you just had was better than the one you actually had,” Christie said. “In the United States Senate, they send them home for summer vacation to come see us to tell [us] that they’ve actually accomplished something …”
These are important comparisons to note. Many candidates are quick to demonize a governmental body, issue or opposing candidate without giving concrete reasons. However, Christie was very clear in this speech about what he finds to be wrong and right.
The most striking part of the picture Christie painted came when he compared the work of a senator to that of a governor. He blasted the Senate, chastising senators for going to work each day with a mission to accomplish, like a student with an assignment, and a decision about some legislation already made according to the wishes of others instead of for the good of the country.
At this point, it seemed Christie was disappointed because governors go to work each day not knowing what might hit their desk and what decisions they might have to make.
This analogy is significant because of the public’s attitude toward attacking Congress. Christie very clearly makes a point of explaining the problems concerning the Senate and its similarities to elementary school students, and plays off of these likenesses to appease the people he is speaking to.
In a field of candidates who are scrambling to get Iowa voters out to caucus for them tonight, Christie’s analogy catered to a public he thinks is fed up with the antics of a childlike Senate. He is comparing grown men and women to children incapable of doing anything other than following mindless directions and working for themselves.
Rallying voters behind the “peaceable overthrow of the government,” as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz put it at his campaign rally in Iowa City, Iowa, yesterday, looks like a popular strategy for Republicans heading into the final hours before the biggest event of the 2016 presidential campaign thus far.