Herein you will find our InsiderNJ 2021 Retrospective edition, which dives into the main currents of the year’s politics against the backdrop of an ongoing national drama.

State government does so much damage that as a coping mechanism one can at least hope for good theater. The trouble is that in addition to bad government, courtesy of the Democrats, we get bad
theater, courtesy of the Republicans.

Take that little early December display by Assemblyman Erik Peterson outside the Assembly chamber, when he tried to turn his angst over having to display proof of vaccination into a West Side Story showstopper. “This is America,” Peterson railed in a stentorian voice, suggesting that he and Assemblyman Brian Bergen would burst into a George Chakaris-Rita Moreno rendition of
“America” while transforming the statehouse into a New York City rooftop.

It never happened.

Peterson at best presented all the inspiration of Officer Krupke without a soundtrack, left to choreograph a YouTube temper tantrum, undistinguished by rhetoric, let alone singing and dancing.

At least Democrats abandoned most of the board list that same day, sparing the state another avalanche of things it neither wants nor needs. …