Last month I griped, and stocked up, in response to my state's raising sales taxes and imposing them for the first time upon booze, which already has hidden taxes. I haven't practiced civil disobedience yet by crossing the border into sales-tax free New Hampshire. But a state representative, dumb enough to be making the trip with his look-at-me-I'm-important license plate, has. While my civil disobedience stems from my opposition to the tax hike, this gentleman actually voted for it. The Boston Herald noted that he blamed the incident on "Republican demagoguery." He told a newspaper in New Bedford, "Unfortunately, I think that's why the Republican Party is in such bad shape in Massachusetts. The electorate here is smart enough to figure out what they're up to." An electorate that chose this man as representative of it can't be all that smart.

What sums it up for me is when I talk to or overhear people every day complaining about the expense and/or political corruption here in the Baystate but when reminded that the same weasels are consistently voted back into office, there are blank stares.

A "hello, Mc Fly" moment is in order.

Folks around here are either dumb, beaten or suffer from a serious disconnect with regard to cause and effect.

This is absurd to the point of satire.

ASDF, I think you hit it on the head with your last thought. I suspect people simply don't make the connection between their political beliefs/actions and the effects of those beliefs/actions. One might even call that dumb.