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New Hampshire went blue because, in the late 1980s, a MASS exodus migrated from greater Boston to the Nashua/Manchester area to escape the Bay State's crushing tax burdens. NH was famous for having no state income tax, no sales tax, no user fees...and the highest SAT scores in New England. But the new MASS arrivals didn't want to acculturate to the "live free or die" lifestyle and were horrified by the lack of state and municipal services. The rest is history.

I feel your pain, but Connecticut has long been blue ...due to its industrial base and historical romance with unions. But it has changed from a gritty Abe Ribicoff blue to a Charlie Rangle blue not in small part because of 20-year flood of New Yorkers into western CT.

Maine...what can you say about a Chapter 7 state? Maine was once a province of MASS and is being recolonized by a new flood of MASS retirees and vacation property owners. Since state tax policy has been so successful in driving all industry to the South, the selling of Maine to MASS is actually regarded as a leg in the state economic development policy (The other leg is selling all future revenues from the Maine Lottery to balance the 06 budget).

So that is why you may want to focus your loathing...