That may be your experience , it is not familiar one to me . I am much more familiar with red neck conservatives like the Thomas M. Finneran in "liberal" skins . His criminality was the sham of representing his business partners and ideology , while in office . Finnerans ideology ran counter clockwise to most of his words making him more of a mealy mouthed red neck conservative in "Liberal" skins . His blatant opposition to any but stiff necked conservative policy , sadly , suffocating the will of his community is legendary .
There is also a sort of urban myth that Massachusetts is a "Liberal" place passed on to rile the crazies that are attracted to the empty drum of right wing pieties .
Massachusetts is a middle of the road place where wackoes from the right sneak their poisonous nostrums with all the guile of a con man selling perpetual motion machines . From the Bulger crime family to 20 years of right wing nonsense from the corner office , Weld , Celluci , Swift , Romny . Calling the Massachusetts voters liberal is not a thoughtful way of realising just how things are here .
The only thing being shepherded in Massachusetts , or nannied , is right wing shinola . The problem is these authoritarian suckups have a much higher tolerance for lies , lying , and screaming wolf than the ordinary shlep . This means busy people don't make the necessary time to confine these right wing loonies , and their ilk . So they persuade the natural constituency of end timers , rapture seekers , and racist tea baggers , etc , along with cleaning up their act for just in time prime time . Then it is easy sneaking past those of us who should known better , giving us the worst of both worlds . The forty year jihad against thoughtful debate by screaming "Liberal" as an imprecation has led to the dumbing down of the electorate . The refusal of qualified folks to enter the cess pool of right wing corporate funded "grass roots" echo chambers excess , which is the devolved public square , has brought us quickly to the brink of disaster .
Nanny state , indeed .
For the wealthy a public teat that has seen the privitisation of much government service that has given us one quarter of the service for four times the cost , this is heaven . The hollowed core of government being the last assault left for the croney capitalists to monopolize the entire movement to destroy the quaint idea of government of the people , by the people , and for the people . By using the tired old scapegoat of "Liberals" to funnel public money to private individuals by crying wolf about nanny this and nanny that . The aim is no regulatory authority outside of the folks saying , sorry that number is no longer in use . Any thought of bringing attention to bear on the multiple crimes of neglect , fraud , nepotism , and much worse as the culmination of monopolising the former power of the state into a final ponzi scheme stripping participation of the public in public affairs is growing very dim . The attempt to eliminate the last restraint on the accretion of power to the wealthy is on its way and the forty year joke at the expense of "Liberals" will finally be spent . Soon we can start to rightfully hate the scheming right wing plutocrats whose croney capitalism seeking to monopolise every facet of wealth and power will be the new hate , the new so called "Liberals" .
Sigh ...