When there was outright slavery, people understood the moral component of political issues. When people and their politics no longer care about moral issue, then freedom becomes lost.
Yet slavery is back in the US, big time. It is a form of indentured servitude. A very comfortable prideful form. It is being captured for life in debt. It is even in being a salaried employee, with withholding and medical plans and pensions. Those are sinecures -- yes, a very plush form of slavery, but still a form thereof. And if unionized the slaves vote the line the master lays out -- not in totality, but in much stronger measure then freemen would.
I agree with your comment about how important it is to free people to care about moral issues.
And you described NJ to a “T”. How true.
Debt as a new form of slavery is an interesting thought. Two of my three adult children have freedom, but one, alas, is in its grip and will be longtime before he is free like his siblings.
Wrong choices have long consequences.