The Democrats wanted a couple of Republicans to kick round.
Had there been a couple of within the neighborhood of the get together’s conference in Springfield Saturday, the get together might need gotten some consideration.
However the one two Republicans operating statewide to date in 2026 are gubernatorial candidates Mike Kennealy and Brian Shortsleeve, and each had been campaigning elsewhere.
However that didn’t cease Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll from attacking them anyway.
Outdoors of the locals, although, hardly anyone, together with the media, knew the Democrats had been even on the town.
There was no visitors jam worthy of a Springfield cop, though get together leaders claimed some 4,000 Democrats, with nothing else to do on a glowing fall day, attended. Yeah, proper.
Granted it was an points conference and never a gathering to appoint candidates for the 2026 election, however even the problems had been well-worn uninspiring Democrat platitudes.
The conference begged for some Democratic controversy, somebody to face up and converse in favor of constitution faculties, as an example, or for cracking down on prison unlawful immigrants, or for banning males from enjoying in ladies’s sports activities.
But it surely was to not be. The get together, after a kerfuffle, adopted the identical platform it adopted 4 years in the past, and 4 years earlier than that.
But it surely has labored, so why change?
Massachusetts is a one-party state the place the Democrats maintain each U. S. Senate seats, all 9 Congressional seats, and each branches of the Massachusetts Legislature by overwhelming margins.
Twelve of the state’s 14 sheriffs are Democrats and there is just one Republican among the many state’s 11 district attorneys.
If there are any Republican County commissioners round, they need to be captured and despatched to an oddity museum.
Regardless of the same old and anticipated assaults on President Donald Trump, the get together leaders led by instance, nevertheless, when it curtailed ugly feedback from some Democrats over the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the political chief of younger faculty conservatives.
In distinction to the nasty remarks about Kirk from Seth Moulton, the whiney congressman from Salem, Rep. Richard Neal, 76, the dean of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation, set a average tone on the conference, calling the Kirk assassination “inexcusable.”
“We can’t and can and won’t let this type of violence be normalized,” he mentioned.
Sounding like Kirk speaking to a school crowd, Neal mentioned, “That is what democracy seems like, individuals gathering peacefully exchanging views and dealing by means of variations with out worry.”
This was in sharp distinction to Moulton’s wholly partisan trash speaking feedback basically blaming Trump and Republicans for political violence, and by extension, Kirk’s assassination.
“Let‘s have an sincere dialog in regards to the origins of this political violence and why it has risen so dramatically since Donald Trump‘s first time period,” Moulton mentioned on CNN final week.
Moulton was solely outdone by newly elected Democrat Governor’s Councilor Mara Dolan of Harmony who attacked and smeared the useless Kirk personally.
She was additionally important of Gov. Maura Healey for following Trump’s proclamation to decrease the American flag in honor of Kirk. Dolan objected to the flag reducing as a result of Kirk “was not an elected consultant of the individuals,” like she is.
Dolan, an activist, lawyer and public defender, mentioned of Kirk: “He was racist, sexist, homophobic, and didn’t help Massachusetts values of justice and freedom.”
Others imagine that Kirk introduced religion, hope, which means and goal to the lives of tons of of hundreds of younger individuals.
Dolan ought to have adopted Gov. Healey’s lead and let it go at that.
Healey mentioned, “What occurred to Charlie Kirk is horrific and we condemn it within the strongest doable phrases.”
Amen.
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas will be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
