WHY CAN'T A WOMAN BE MORE LIKE A MAN (From OJ)

Bay State Nation: What if America were more like us? (Robert David Sullivan, Commonwealth Magazine, Summer 2004)

But just how liberal is John Kerry's home state? For people who actually live here, the adjective is oversimplified, to say the least. Outsiders may see the Bay State as overprotected, permissive, and complacent—or "soft," to borrow a concept from Michael Barone's new book Hard America, Soft America. But Bay State natives are more likely to view their state as a tough, competitive place that encourages hardball politics and economic innovation. Indeed, a 1998 study by California State University professor Robert Levine concluded that Boston was the fastest-paced city in the US —based on how quickly people walked, how many people wore wristwatches, and the speed of interactions with Post Office staffers. Whatever they might think in Texas, few of us in Massachusetts actually spend hours at a time listening to our iPods and reading the latest issue of The Nation at Starbucks. Most of us don't even have the time to read the latest pop sociology findings from David Brooks, supposedly every liberal's favorite conservative.

Massachusetts is misunderstood. That's not to say that every preconception is a misconception. But the caricature of the Commonwealth is sufficiently off-base as to require serious adjustment. The question is, how to set the record straight?

Perhaps the best way to define the character of the Bay State, in politics and civic life, is to ask: What if America were more like Massachusetts?

In my mind's eye, I can see you shuddering.

This is a failed attempt to make some pretty dry statistics interesting by asking, what if the rest of the country was just like Massachusetts. Fortunately, it's not, but it would help if the article actually understood Massachusetts. Sullivan presents only a snapshot of the state and ignores any historical context. Massachusetts is a northeastern urban state (3/5's of the population lives in the Boston metropolitan area), so it is more liberal than, say, Mississippi. But the key fact about Massachusetts isn't so much that it is liberal as that it is in thrall to the Democratic party. Massachusetts now has the highest percentage of Democrats in its legislature and they can, when disciplined, override the Governor's veto and do anything they wish. This article tries to boast that Massachusetts scorns federal pork, but really Massachusetts, which sends only Democrats to Washington, can expect no favors from a Republican controlled federal government.

Posted by David Cohen at July 15, 2004 11:21 PM