[Dysart]

Former Mayor of Arlington, TX goes to NE and recalls our better founding days recalling the era of self-determination in the struggle for individual liberty and dares to hope for redemption. Imagine that.

[basil]

I don’t think he will find a lot of that in today’s Boston.

[smokingfrog]

It may have been the birthplace of freedom, but few people in that part of the country understand what we were fighting for or respect the constitution these days.

[Gaffer]

Actually, I find it disheartening that so many of these iconic bastions of liberty are located in rabid liberal locals infested by both city, state and federal workers representing the pure tyranny of today’s Democrat government. Under the petty control of bureaucrats that use them like pawns on a chess board, the latest of which was closing of some of them during the so-called ‘shutdown’ along with the Federal Parks.

A pox on them all, and as far as I’m concerned they have been overrun by the enemy.

[Ditter]

I am a friendly Texas girl and we lived in Groton Conn. for almost a year while my husband was in the USCG. We lived in town not on the base and I don't remember making one single local friend in that town. After that we lived in Yorktown Virginia for 2 years and I made lots of friends. New England sucks.

[Da Coyote]

Today’s Massachusetts would best serve patriotism by becoming a target range for the Air Force.

[taildragger]

The MA State House has a trigger lock on a musket on display, I am not optomistic. IMHO all conservative of any salt have left and the remaining young folks are propagating with like minded apparatchiks. I escaped years ago, and have trouble going back from a epistemological standpoint, love to see the relatives, but it feels like I have entered a foreign country....

[Sparky1776]

[Gluteus Maximus]

Boston might well be the capital of East Libtardistan - one of the two countries we will form as a home for anybody who voted for Obama in 2012 - together with their families, of course. I was thinking that Hartford, CT might be a good candidate for capital of East Libtardistand, given their amazing celebration of diversity, but hey, whatever they want. It’s the libtards’ call. All I know is that all libtards are moving there, and soon. The economy is going to go “pop” very soon, and then we’ll begin Operation Boxcar.

[vladimir998]

Warning: Explicit Lyrics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvUMV1N7eGM

[Gay State Conservative]

Patriotism has been in very,very short supply in New England for some time now.If you look at the Congressional delegations of the six New England states you'll find some of the filthiest,most despicable,utterly amoral pieces of excrement to have ever walked the earth.

[Venturer]

This is a joke right? Freedom in Liberal North east?

Tell the a-hole that wrote this this to try open carry .

[Alas Babylon!]

Having lived in Massachusetts for 3 years while stationed at Otis AFB, Cape Cod, and as an eager student of history, I went everywhere and sought out all the historical sites, famous and little known.

One thing I have concluded is that the Puritan spirit which founded the colony has never died. There is a greatness to that spirit but also a vile pettiness.

The spirit of greatness led to the independent streak that brought forth the Revolution and the ideal that brave men fight, even to the death, for their liberty; and an enlightenment again in the 1800's that led to abolition of slavery (despite my Southern-ness, a good thing), modern treatment of the mentally ill, and universal public schooling. You may argue these things, but they helped build America beyond what we had. I celebrate all these things.

The evil twin of Puritanism was the Massachusetts habit of grossly caring about other people and what they're up to. There is a tendency to be dissatisfied of others, especially if they're enyoing themselves in any potentially dangerous manner (to the Puritan observer), whether mental, physical or spiritual.

This spirit led to the banshiment od Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams in the earliest days of the colony up to and including the Salem witch trials. It abatted a bit but is always there. Whether imposing ridiculous safety rules like no right turn on red light(one of the last states to finally repeal this,)only allowing shotguns to hunt deer or banning "racey" books in Boston, the state is full of nannies screaming "You can't do that!" No fireworks, no gun shooting in the backyard, drag racing, no burning trash out back, no filling in swamps to make new land--all banned. Try to add a building extension or a plain old backyard shed without a permit. And fees for anything fun!

This nanny statism can be summed up by the following quote:

“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
― H.L. Mencken

[who knows what evil?]

Few things renew American patriotism better than a trip to New England.

Any 4th of July fireworks show in the south would do a far better job.

[Fiji Hill]

New England has some sites of interest to conservatives.

• Plymouth Notch, Vt. has changed little since Calvin Coolidge lived there. In Coolidge's home, you can visit the parlor where his father swore him in as president in 1923. Up until a few years ago, the Coolidge family operated a cheese factory nearby which offered cheese for sale to visitors.

• On my last visit to the region, I also visited New Hampshire, where I saw the Ballot Room at the Balsams Hotel in Dixville Notch, where in presidential years, the first ballots on Election Day are cast at midnight. Just about every presidential candidate visits the hotel during a presidential election year.

• Conservatives visiting New Hampshire might also want to visit the site where the Manchester Union Leader was once located and stand on the spot where the political career of Sen. Edmund Muskie (D-Me.) crashed and burned when he broke down and cried amidst a tirade against the paper's publisher, the outspoken conservative William Loeb.