What we saw today was a failure of leadership, not a defeat for the brave immigrant communities of New Jersey and all the caring allies who stood with them. When the history of this time is written, it will show that many of our supposed leaders backed down, but that we the people never did. And we never will — with irresponsible, unrepresentative government like this, we are faced with an unchanged landscape of disappointment and danger, and an undiminished necessity and determination to act. For what thousands of New Jerseyans worked to achieve, and 33 towns and six counties throughout the state declared was the will of their constituents, for what was hard-won and fairly negotiated through the entire State Legislature and passed by them, to be undone by one inattentive and cowardly man is the very definition of autocracy. It’s not the kind of governance we will expect or accept.