In 1978, Gov. Michael Dukakis was kind of a more feminized, beta-male version of Maura Healey – smug, supercilious, abysmally unsuccessful, often wrong but never in doubt.
He was of course heavily favored to win reelection.
But on primary night, the Duke was crushed by a pro-life, pro-death penalty, tax-cutting ex-NFL lineman named Ed King. In the Democrat primary! Everyone was shocked.
One of Ed King’s top operatives was an ex-state rep from Hyde Park named Angelo Berlandi, whose conversation made Michael Proctor and Sean Goode seem like choir boys.
At Anthony’s Pier 4 election night, a reporter asked Angelo how the street guys from Boston had crushed the imperious Harvard snot from Brookline.
“We put all the hate groups together in one pot,” Berlandi said, “and let it boil.”
Exactly! Last weekend on the Cape I told this story to Mike Minogue, the Republican frontrunner for governor. I like Minogue, but his campaign – not so much.
I think he needs fewer Beltway consultants and more Angelo Berlandis.
I understand, Massachusetts is totally different now than it was in 1978. Most of Ed King’s voters are dead or have fled. It may be impossible for a conservative to win here under any circumstances.
But damn, Minogue has unlimited money, and he’s squandering it on feel-good TV spots in a campaign against the worst governor in state history – even more terrible than Charlie Baker.
Here’s my free, unsolicited advice for Mike Minogue: No more Mr. Nice Guy!
Fire up Angelo Berlandi’s kettle. You don’t have to use the phrase “hate groups,” but think about all the, shall we say, afflicted groups that you could micro-target with millions of dollars worth of social media.
Remind them of how the Democrats have screwed them over the past four years.
(And forget broadcast TV – unless it’s football, nobody’s watching except in the nursing homes. All that money on Channel 5? It’s like bombing the rubble.)
Here’s who you should be going after, call them whatever you want:
How about those 2.3 million voters who in 2024 voted for a legislative audit, and the hacks totally refuse to allow it. That’s 72 percent of the electorate.
Are you in a hate group if you think the state should be cooperating with the feds in getting illegal alien criminals off the street, instead of trying to protect Maura’s beloved “residents?”
Does your blood pressure rise a little every time you see a court docket involving a heinous violent criminal and it includes a notation: “Interpreter present?”
Do you like, or dislike, the Parole Board letting out scores of bloodthirsty convicted killers because they’re “emerging adults?”
Were you appalled, not only by the pro-abortion bill Healey signed into law last week, but by the coven of shrews behind her clapping and cheering at the thought of legalized infanticide?
When you pick up your utility bill and you see nine separate surcharges – including ones from both “transit” and “transmission” – are you part of a hate group if you wonder if you’re not being scammed?
Do you think ICE agents should be allowed to park in downtown Boston?
Is it only MAGA people who wonder why a $2 billion courthouse contract in Springfield goes to a group of fat cat Democrat insiders including Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s jailbird husband who did 10 years in prison as a drug dealer and now claims to be an “empowerment consultant?”
Were you fired or cancelled for not getting the COVID jab, for not following the science that turned out to be a total scam?
Did you work to get signatures on either the rent-control or the income tax cut referendum questions, only to see both of them tossed by the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) because they would have inconvenienced the entrenched hackerama?
How are those bike lanes working out for you?
Do you ever wonder about the propriety of Gov. Healey nominating her wrinkly old Sapphic soulmate, whom she dumped for a 25-year-younger heartthrob who once worked under her in the AG’s office, for a $227,000-a-year sinecure on the SJC?
It’s not exactly alimony but….
Do you enjoy having to drive to New Hampshire to buy menthol cigarettes, but not marijuana?
Are you happy about the billions of dollars in welfare fraud, like $7 million stolen by Haitians out of a 150-square-foot storefront in Mattapan Square?
How about the two Stoneham cops stealing $40 million in MassSaves funds – and not a single cop in Massachusetts could be bothered to investigate the heist?
Are you a member of a hate group if you wonder whether the state needs either a heat resilience coordinator or an undersecretary of decarbonization?
Have you ever asked yourself why the state needs a Muslim Commission, but not a Methodist Commission, or a Jehovah’s Witnesses Commission?
If you have ever considered whether genital mutilation of children is good public policy, you may be a member of a hate group – at least as far as Maura Healey is concerned.
If you’re mean-spirited enough to believe that felonious state cops should lose their pensions after being convicted of COVID welfare fraud, you may be ready for the pot – the kettle pot, not THC.
How about everybody who lives in those “MBTA communities” where the state wants to build so-called low-income housing for illegal aliens with no income? Are you a hater if you object to having your nice peaceful wrecked by gangbangers?
Are the public schools in your community getting better or worse?
Do you sometimes wonder why, when the state has a $70-billion budget, local aid to your town is being cut, yet more and more billions go to the “Gateway Communities,” i.e., illegal aliens?
Have you ever asked yourself, is Maura Healey really a Catholic?
Can you imagine what Angelo Berlandi could do with all these “hate groups?” He – and Mike Minogue – would need a bigger pot.
Alas, Angelo Berlandi ain’t walking through that door. But Spencer Pratt’s crew, or somebody like them, could be, if only Mike Minogue would start paying attention.
Hey Minogue, throw another log on the fire!