The Massachusetts disease

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Feb 04, 2004

I've always had a soft spot for Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. Although I don't generally agree with him, I find him a very personable guy. Maybe that's because we are both natives of Massachusetts.

In a column that appeared yesterday, Dionne said that Republican strategists are wrong to depict John Kerry as a wacky liberal, simply because he comes from Massachusetts. He argued that "people who think Massachusetts is a culturally or politically demented place have never been to Massachusetts."

Sorry, E.J, but I think Massachusetts is culturally and politically demented, and I've lived here for 40 years.

But don't take my word for it. The day after that Dionne column appeared, the state's highest court took the culturally and politically demented step of abolishing marriage as it has been understand for the last several thousand years. Now we're about to learn whether the state's legislators have the sense and integrity to overturn that result. I'm not optimistic.

Ah, but Dionne does have one bit of evidence to support his contention that Massachusetts is, deep-down, a conservative place. The state's football team is called the Patriots.

True, true. And the New Jersey hockey team is the Devils. Come to think of it, I've noticed some strange trends in politics there recently...