The American Spectator

Buy the Book

Massachusetts Blue

By Lawrence Henry on 3.7.08 @ 12:07AM

(Page 2 of 2)

At the end, we all learn, as Keller puts it, "In most states, I'd be considered a card carrying liberal." But he also describes himself as "a liberal who's been mugged." And then, in a wonderful peroration, he sums up the faults of the Massachusetts political model:

"...addiction to tax revenues...disrespect for wage earners...phony identity politics…reflexive anti-Americanism..obnoxious political correctness...featherbedding...NIMBYism...authoritarian distortion of the balance of government power..."

Unfortunately, he thinks that liberal policies like racial and gender quotas, gay marriage, judicial intrusion into schools, dovish responses to foreign policy challenges, and welfare are all just fine. It's just the execution that messes them up.

In this, he resembles no one so much as the old-time committed Marxist who claims that communism has never really been tried properly, never mind all those dead people. No, Mr. Keller, all those faults, so lovingly and perfectly described? That's what liberalism is, not the way it's gone wrong. That's what government does. It churns out people like John Kerry and Michael Dukakis.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Foreign Policy, Business, Abortion, Books, Law, NATO, Communism