Blue state, blue Christmas

bostonherald.com ^ | 12/21/2010 | Michael Graham

[massmike]

Welcome to Massachusetts, the North Pole of liberalism.

To the rest of America, we are a remote political outpost, the last place left where invoking the name “Kennedy” is meant as a compliment, not a punchline. While the rest of America is undergoing political climate change, we’re holding off reality. We’ve got just enough electoral elves - government workers, union stooges and members of the “Where’s my SSI check” club - to still work their magic.

But when the new Census numbers are reported later today, the Massachusetts left is likely to get a lump of coal. We are almost certain to lose at least one congressional seat, and that’s just the beginning......

[Clintonfatigued]

Massachusetts ping

[Cowman]

Most of the problem with blue states like MA are from the takers of government funds outnumbering the non takers and therefore the voting public consistently votes for the candidate most likely to hand them even more. If we could eliminate this (perhaps by making it illegal for takers of largess to vote) the non takers would have a chance to fix things.

Since government unions are a large part of the above problem, and since the states are nearing fiscal collapse, I have wondered if they could do what some corporations have done and file bankruptcy so they could reconstitute as a non union entity.

We may need a legal opinion on this

[acapesket]

Welcome to Massachusetts......More like the s***hole of stupidity.

[MrB]

government workers, union stooges and members of the “Where’s my SSI check”

Massassachusetts is the model which the left would have the rest of the country follow. A few very wealthy individuals who are immune to the vagaries of government dictates, and the groups listed above.

[Jacquerie]

“Massassachusetts is the model which the left would have the rest of the country follow”

A few weeks ago I called C-Span during an interview of a newly elected radical left Congressman from the Detroit area.

I informed the audience that if they wished to see where democrat party and labor union governance would take the country just visit Detroit, no, take a holiday in Detroit.

There must have been some technical problem, for my phone then went to dial tone.

[CaptainAmiigaf]

Ah, Massachusetts, where the seeds of the American Revolution was planted. What is today the harvest? What is today’s crops?
The growth of the textile industry of the USA. Gone away as a distant memeory along with Union jobs.
The miracle of RT 128 and the birth of electronics and computer industries. Gone far away these many years. Goodbye more union jobs.
Vast numbers of SHOE manufacturing factories. Long gone with the wind, along with thousands of union jobs.
Automobile production factories, cursed and vilified by their union workers. Long closed and empty
Shipbuilding, tool making, camera inventors and makers, steel and wire mills, vast GE plants, clock manufacture.
I grew up in Worcester, listed in my 7th grade geography book as “THE MOST WIDELY DIVERSIFIED MANUFACTURING CITY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!”
What do we have today? A couple of great engineering schools surrounded by the most radical liberal colleges and universities, each dedicated to the sacred task of NOT educating their students in anything useful. Wonderful.

[Melchior]

I once was given a tour of central Mass by an employee of DEC (which I imagine is long gone). I was truly boggled when visiting the old mills, and could easily visualize the birth of the American industrial revolution. One of the mills had been converted to a computer plant. It seemed to have it all; electricity, water, good location. It lacked only one thing, a willing workforce. Oh, and I forgot, it was also faced by crushing taxes.

[Buckeye McFrog]

and apparently Hugo Chavez is trying to divest himself of Citgo, so they won’t be able to buy votes with free heating oil any longer

[GOPsterinMA]

yep...

[krogers58]

I am a graduate of one of those engineering schools (WPI) you mention. In Worcester, they have a cooperative agreement amongst all the colleges where if there is a class you want to take, and its not offered at your school, you can take it at another one where it is offered. It was always fun watching students from some of those other schools come over to our campus and take some of our classes. You could always pick them out by their clothes, and pretty much know they would drop the class half way through the semester. Its a real shame what has happened to the manufacturing corridor that extends through central Mass, down through CT. Many vacant, beautiful old mills. Water power in abundance, but we were unable to compete with those countries that chose to subsidize their industries, and drive us out of the business. They, in essence, exported their unemployment to us, whilst we imported their finished products.