Massachusetts, bastion of the left. Right?
On car bumpers across Massachusetts, Mary Ann Marshall still sees reminders of the moment her home state's political identity changed overnight. "Nixon 49, McGovern 1: We were right," the stickers read.
Many residents who voted in the 1972 presidential election view the state's lone dissent against Richard Nixon with some pride. After all, Nixon's second term brought the debacle of Watergate and the continuing quagmire of Vietnam. But ever since the Bay State went for antiwar candidate George McGovern, it has been viewed as a bastion of liberalism, a sort of Soviet Republic with brownstones and funny brogues.
"This is a 32-year-old false charge that continues to stick," says Ms. Marshall, a Democratic consultant.
Yet Massachusetts is hardly Cuba with a lot of chowda. It is far more mainstream ideologically than people think - and has been becoming more conservative in recent years. Demographic shifts, combined with changing political attitudes, reveal a state with broad currents of political and social conservatism - even in the heart of the Democratic party.
This is a state that has elected three consecutive GOP governors, voted twice for Ronald Reagan, and is facing a concerted push to reinstitute the death penalty. Even the old "taxachusetts" label may be an anachronism: The state that had the second-highest taxes in the nation in 1979 (behind New York) is now ranked 13th. In 2000, voters came within five percentage points of passing a referendum that would have abolished the state income tax altogether.
"Cambridge notwithstanding, Massachusetts is hardly more liberal than the rest of America," says Robert Reich, a labor secretary under President Clinton, who is often viewed as one of the state's resident liberals.
The Bay State's image is important. If local son John Kerry were to become the Democratic nominee, Republicans would certainly try to affix the "Massachusetts liberal" pin to his lapel. Some have already been doing so. They will also play up his close ties to Massachusetts' other senator, Edward Kennedy, who many Republicans like to portray as a sort of Maoist with big earlobes.
And why not: In 1988, the first President Bush had considerable success pigeonholing his opponent, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, as a liberal by stressing his record and roots in the Bay State as well as by portraying his advisers as a "Harvard boutique."
Now, with the state legislature this week taking up the gay marriage issue, the second Bush White House hopes to be able to use the nationwide culture war to its advantage in the November election if Kerry is the nominee. Even though the legislature is not likely to approve gay marriages, the fact that the state's highest court did is something the Republicans will try to use against Kerry in more conservative states.
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