By Lawrence Henry on 2.16.07 @ 12:04AM
Massachusetts is divided between the old Bostonians and the new bohemians.
There is something funny about Massachusetts.
This state -- a commonwealth, actually -- holds a national
reputation for liberalism of the most ingrained sort. Our senators,
the seemingly eternal Kennedy and Kerry, can be counted on for
doctrinaire statements on just about any political cause. One of
our representatives, James McGovern, is an apologist for Castro.
Another, Barney Frank, is a completely out-front homosexual who
once allowed a gay prostitute to run a business from his own
home.
At the state level, our politics are dominated so thoroughly by
the Democratic Party that it has become a joke. Certainly, their
corruption has become a joke. Local talk show host Howie Carr has
said that if the state legislature had a liquor license, it would
be closed down as a public nuisance.
So why does it go on like this? Why doesn't any agent for change
come up through the political ranks and work a revolution of some
kind? The formerly solid south went through a political revival.
Why can't it happen here?
Because there are two Massachusettses, that's why. And one
Massachusetts has almost nothing to do with the other.
IT'S SOMETHING LIKE THE TOWN AND GOWN SPLIT in a university city --
and, indeed, our schools -- we have so many -- have a great deal to
do with it. People come here for their educations, and many of them
like the place for its old eastern urban charms, the beauty of the
countryside, the sophisticated verve of life in a great
intellectual gathering-place, and they stay.
They stay after graduation, they stay for jobs in the area's
high technology and financial services sectors, which employ a lot
of brainpower and offer significant opportunities to make lots of
money. They buy charming New England properties, of which there are
a lot. They meet people very much like themselves, which is to say
intellectually curious and quirky, smart, well-traveled,
well-educated, and fun. They associate with those people, and not
with anyone else -- who needs anyone else?
If the local politics seems a little weird, well, mostly these
new people, these people from elsewhere, don't pay much attention
to it. They'll laugh and gripe about the funny things that happen
in the curious local political culture, but they won't have
anything to do with it. If the taxes are too high, if local
politicians keep getting jacked for drunk driving or for running
illicit businesses out of their offices, well, that's just local
color.
THE GRADUATE POPULATION GETS SWELLED by new people who move here
for jobs, for the ambience, for New England homes, and for one very
palpable benefit: Boston marks the northern end of the eastern
urban strip. It is much less crowded here than in the New York or
D.C. areas. You are much closer to the outdoors, and deal with
traffic much less. At the same time, you can lead a sophisticated
urban life.
The upshot is that you can spend an entire full lifetime here
and never have anything to do with anyone who has a New England
accent. Unlike some other old, established places -- Charleston,
South Carolina comes to mind -- there is no particular reason for a
newcomer to want to be welcomed into the native establishment.
There are in fact two establishments. There is the native
establishment of former Speaker of the House Tom Finneran and
Senate President Bob Travaglini. And there is the establishment of
mutual fund executives and the officers of high technology
companies, augmented by the academic-artistic-bohemian
counterculture. So far as I know, the native establishment has no
bohemians.
Sometimes one establishment hires a figure from the other for
political advantage or protection. Tom Finneran, after retiring
from the legislature, had been tapped to lobby for the High
Technology Council, but then he unfortunately had to plead guilty
to a perjury indictment.
But for the most part one cohort has nothing to do with the
other. It has been that way for decades. Absent some extraordinary
personality or stroke of coalition-building, it will probably stay
that way for years to come.
topics:
Taxes, Education, Business, NATO
