Central Massachusetts is too Conservative

In 2008 I wrote the following piece in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette about what to expect when Senator Kennedy dies:

If not for the Kennedys, Massachusetts wouldn’t be a liberal state outside of the greater Boston area, where universities and affluence abounds and the Berkshires, where wealth and artsy idealism predominate.

If not for the Kennedys, most Irish-Americans living in Massachusetts wouldn’t be liberal or Reagan Democrats. They would be Independents or Republicans, because they generally honor self-sacrifice of personal wants out of respect for the order and authority their Catholicism brings.

If not for the Kennedys and the Irish experience when first arriving in the United States as hard-pressed immigrants (and perhaps due to the more conservative French-Canadian influence in Central Massachusetts) we in Central Massachusetts would be more like Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire than Minnesota, with its liberal Scandinavian influence.

Now that the Kennedys have officially transposed the “Spirit of Massachusetts” into the “Spirit of California,” betting their franchise and liberal brand names on Barack Obama, what will be next for our beloved Massachusetts after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy from the campaign trail?

We’re too thoughtful to act without mind-centeredness, but I fear that we in Central Massachusetts are too conservative in our natures to trust in the freedoms liberalism allows.