For a state that's tired of watching its governor stand behind President Trump like a bedraggled shadow puppet, Phil Murphy is a breath of fresh air.



In his inauguration speech on Tuesday, he vowed to fight "Washington's all-out assault on New Jersey," and defend our state against punishing Trump policies on everything from taxes to oil drilling to health care.



But this wasn't just a series of liberal applause lines, although there were plenty. Murphy brought the crowd to its feet with a defense of American values, vowing to protect people from all countries - and "that includes Haiti and the continent of Africa," a clear jab at the president.

Phil Murphy sworn in, replaces Chris Christie as N.J. governor



"We will resist every attempt to define who is, and who is not, a real American," he said.



How refreshing; a governor who sticks up for his state's interests, and basic decency for a change.

For all his thuggish bullying, Christie used to go to bat on stuff like that, too - standing by his appointment of a Muslim judge in 2011, for instance, and denouncing the "crazies" in his own party who insisted we were on a path to becoming a "Sharia state."



But he's since abandoned that equanimity. It was all part of his rollover to Trump, the man who questioned Barack Obama's citizenship, wanted to ban all Muslims from entering the country, falsely insisted that he saw thousands of New Jersey Al Qaeda supporters cheer on 9-11, and said the U.S. should be taking people from "Norway," not "shitholes" like Haiti.



Christie made it clear that he was more concerned about his own political ambitions than the good of our country or state. That's how he got to his 14 percent approval rating.

He refused to join lawsuits filed by more than a dozen other states to challenge Trump's decisions to end protections for young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, or eliminate the federal subsidies that help New Jerseyans afford health care.



And unlike other, outspoken Republican governors and members of the federal opioid panel that Christie chaired, our governor made hardly a peep about Trump's attempt to gut Medicaid - even though this would have destroyed Christie's own campaign to fight addiction in New Jersey, by killing drug treatment.



So it was good to hear Murphy repeat over and over: "We will resist." He called out Trump's tax gifts to rich corporations at the expense of ordinary New Jerseyans. He vowed to fight attempts to divide families and strip protections from striving young immigrants, and stand up to the Trump administration as it attempts to defund our tunnel to Manhattan and slash health care for millions.



All areas where Christie failed to lead. But most of all, Murphy made it clear that he embraces his role as a spokesman for the resistance.



He has license to take this tack. After all, he won by tying his opponent, Kim Guadagno, to Christie and Trump. When she released a race-baiting, fear-mongering ad that attempted to smear Murphy, he said: "What you're doing is what Donald Trump does, and Chris Christie; you pit us against them. You cast a pall over entire communities of people. It's un-American."



On Tuesday, he provided the alternate vision, one much better suited to our state.

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