The Bluest State

What's Happened to Massachusetts?

At one time, Americans thought of Massachusetts with pride. It was the place where the charge against British oppression was incubated and first battle of the Revolutionary War was fought. What do Americans picture when they think of Massachusetts today? They think of taxes on everything that moves. They think of unctuous, doomed Presidential candidates from Michael Dukakis to John Kerry. And, most of all, they think of "Kennedy Country" - not the moderate politics of John F. Kennedy, Jr., but a place influenced by the ideology of his little brother, Ted, a punch line for bad political jokes and the relic of a dream gone bad. Over the past thirty years, Massachusetts has been the test kitchen for the baby boom's political impulses and instincts, with devastating results that have national implications. Unfortunately, the story of Massachusetts' decline has national implications. Other states share its problems. And the cautionary tale of their mishandling in Massachusetts speaks to a broader issue. What's gone wrong with the Democratic Party? Jon Keller, a veteran political commentator, shows how the collapse of the Massachusetts Miracle into the Massachusetts Miasma mirrors chronic failures within the Democratic Party and American liberalism in a timely warning to the party for the election ahead.