What also does the trick is the decaying mill towns and urban neighborhoods that are strongly inclined to vote Democratic. To be sure, voters there are generally less liberal than suburban professionals can be, but they do provide the Democrats with large majorities in many elections.
Actually I blame the media. The MSM up here engages in nothing short of mass brainwashing. Two of the three major stations in Boston completely ignored 9/11 ceremonies while they were going on. Fortunately FOX has a channel and is fighting back.
Someone asked about the unions in RI. Just heard this morning that retired firemen in Cranston(?) get paid holdidays. It came up because they are going to add 9/11 to the list of holidays. Now explain to me how a retired person ona pension earns holiday pay? Unreal.