WBUR On Trump

For John, BLUF:  They just don't get it.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Friday last, rushing to a meeting in Downtown Lowell, I caught the end of a WBUR show with Mr Bob Oakes (and Shannon Dooling).  And here is an extract:

Republican analyst Todd Domke and Democratic analyst Dan Payne, WBUR’s political team, have their own theories on Trump’s rise in Massachusetts.

Domke, who is not a Trump fan, blames the state’s Republicans.

“Without any opposition in this state to Trump from Gov. Charlie Baker, Republicans, some, view Trump as an almost safe, establishment choice,” Domke said.

To be fair, Baker did say this week that he probably won’t vote for Donald Trump.

Payne thinks Massachusetts might just be exhibiting its occasional political crankiness.

“Massachusetts is liberal, but in the recent past it has voted for ‘Scoop’ Jackson, a conservative Democrat. It voted in 1984 for Ronald Reagan for president. So every so often, we behave like the rest of America,” Payne said.

Give me a break.  Senator "Scoop" Jackson, a Democrat from Washington State, was my favorite in 1972.  That is not "recent".  As for Mr Domke's comment, it is a sign of someone who doesn't travel much outside Boston itself.  And, if Scoop Jackson is the recent past then we can say that in living memory Massachusetts was a Republican state and is returning to its past.

The bien-pensant just don't yet get it.

Mr Trump, and Senator Sanders, are a product of the problems in DC.  They were created, as political figures, by the likes of President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Republican Congressional Leadership.  The People want change, they just don't want it to change for them, except maybe for lower taxes.

Regards  —  Cliff