http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7220-2004Feb2.htmlBy E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, February 3, 2004; Page A19
Can't supporters of the Bush administration think of something more original than issuing fatwas against "Massachusetts Liberals"? Does this President Bush honestly think that if he ends up facing John Kerry this fall he can just rerun his dad's campaign of 16 years ago against Michael Dukakis?
As John Edwards likes to say about almost everything, this is personal for me. My blue-collar hometown of Fall River, Mass., was solidly Democratic, but as conservative in its values as you could imagine -- family, church, neighborhood, hard work and patriotism were the drill. I'm grateful I grew up in such a pro-family environment. That's why the parody of Massachusetts as an exotic, left-wing place infuriates me.
My state is full of cities and towns such as Fall River -- Lawrence and Pittsfield, Fitchburg and Greenfield, Worcester and New Bedford. I'm sorry, but people who think Massachusetts is a culturally or politically demented place have never been to Massachusetts.
This is about more than John Kerry, who can defend himself. It's about how certain forms of cheap bigotry don't even get challenged. The right wing's attack on Massachusetts is a sign of intellectual laziness. It's easier to parody a people and a place than to defend a set of ideas.
more
_____________________
A stirring defense of his native state against the Rethugs "cheap bigotry." A great read!