There seems to be a misconception about the east coast...
I'm from the east coast. Massacusetts, to be exact. I know, I know- it's one of the most liberal states in the country (a piece of conventional wisdom I happen to disagree with).
Why do I disagree with that? I mean, we were the only state not to vote for Nixon. Well, anyone from MA knows that it's a specific kind of liberalism here. The kind of liberalism that elects Republican governors term after term (not any more, but...); the kind of liberalism that embraces the idea that no one is better than anyone else- none of us is in a position to judge. But, I digress...
What I really want to get at is the image conservatives have of the eastern seaboard. To listen to some on the right, from Boston south to D.C is one, huge, elite cocktail party. Welfare queens drive around in cadillacs, while gay couples have sex in the street and children are taught about sex before they can read. We've all got pHD's, and at these elite cocktail parties (which never seem to end), we thumb our nose at the middle of country and have salons about imposing communism onto all those poor saps. Nobody works because of our pinko state governments, and we're chiefly concerned with robbing people's freedom.
I'm tired of this shit. Both my parents worked (still do, for that matter), I got a job at 14 and have had one ever since. There was no question in my parent's minds what my future held as I grew up: a college degree. The majority of my graduating class in highschool went on to some form of college. People all across this great state work hard, every day. You're telling me lobstermen and fishermen don't work hard?
Our supposedly unbearable tax burden is put to use keeping our schools among the top in the nation, and keeping our services running fairly well. Sure, there are problems. The MBTA could be better run; and the Big Dig is an ongoing fiasco/boondoggle.
I know I'm rambling here, but I'm tired of hearing about how my state, and other like us want to usher in the some kind of Communist dictatorship. It simply isn't true. There's plenty of good old fashioned, blue-collar Amercicans all over the place, even IN Boston. The culture here is one of personal responsibility, but tempered by the reality that sometimees the whole of us must take action to attain certain goals, and give everyone a fair shake. We've got a well educated populace, one that values reasoned analysis over blind ideology or demogoguery.
Let's not forget, it was a group of Progressives in Boston during the 1760's that began agitating for change, and eventually seperation from Britain. The Founding Fathers were NOT conservatives- by their very actions, they were Revolutionaries.
Let's set the record straight about the east coast.