I just got back Sunday from a week-long trip to New England.  My base of operations was in the Boston area, but we visited areas along the coast from Martha's Vineyard to Kennebunkport, Maine, during the week.  For the conservative, these areas, particularly the eastern part of Massachusetts, are truly the belly of the beast.

Visiting the only state to vote for George McGovern - the home of Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Barney Frank, and Mike Dukakis -  is always an enlightening experience.  If you're from a part of the country where people work hard, go to church, and vote traditional values, it's hard to imagine a place where the majority of the people reject those values.  The only other place in this country, and perhaps the whole world, to compare with it is the coast of California.  Of course, there are people in both those places who share traditional values, but the fact is that the majority of people in Massachusetts reject them in favor of collectivism, the normality of extremely deviant behavior, and peace-at-any-price pacifism.

For example, on Tuesday, our second day in the area, we drove down to Falmouth, on the southern tip of Cape Cod, to join friends for a day trip to the coastal island of Martha's Vineyard.  From Falmouth, the Vineyard is a short 45-minute trip on a passenger ferry to the quaint New England fishing village of Oak Bluff.  From there, one can ride a transit authority bus all over the island, but since this was just a day trip for us, we elected to ride to the next village, Edgartown, for lunch and a short walking tour of that village.  While walking around, I came across a car belonging to one of the young women who seemed to be one of the Vineyard residents bearing bumper stickers with brilliant messages such as, "War is not the Answer!"  I didn't get the chance to read them all, because I didn't want to stare, but I got the message.  

Anyone who's at all familiar with the Vineyard knows that even the smallest home sells for a small fortune in this resort of resorts, so that the only young people who can afford to live here are trust fund kids with family money handed down by hard-working parents or grandparents.  And this is what really frosts me.  These young people have no clue what sacrifices people have made to ensure they could enjoy their freedom and prosperity.  I don't just mean their parents and grandparents but all the other Americans of those generations and generations before them who have worked hard and made sacrifices, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice, to make this nation what it is today - the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world, a place where citizens have the freedom and security to enjoy their hard-won prosperity.  Liberals are in general clueless people who have no idea how life really works or what motivates their fellow citizens to achieve excellence, but trust-fund liberals are the most clueless of them all.  Most of these people have never had to work hard for anything in their life, so it never occurs to them that anyone might ever have to do that.  To them, it's just natural to expect everyone to contribute high taxes to support people who don't work.

A couple of days later, we visited some other friends in Maine's resort of resorts, Kennebunkport, more widely known as the home of the former President noted for asking us to read his lips and then believe he wouldn't raise taxes - suckers!  Kennebunkport also has its own variety of trust fund liberals.  One house in particular that was pointed out to us on our windshield tour of the town was a "gentleman" who inherited a rather large fortune, then proceeded to fritter it away after deciding to forgo a college education - who needs education when you inherit millions of dollars? - by traveling the world.  This individual ultimately decided to buy a seaside home in Kennebunkport, which has now fallen into extreme disrepair and appears for all the world to be the last asset he has left.  This "gentleman," who I can also guarantee you hasn't ever earned an honest dollar in his life, is also of the leftist persuasion.  To him, money is just something we should all give away, just as he has.  It is, after all, much more important to be "caring" than to be successful and help build a better, more prosperous society.

Unfortunately, New England is home to many of these characters, career losers who happened to inherit small - or large - fortunes.  None of them ever earns a dime of his own, which is probably why they believe that the whole world is divided into two types of people - those who have money because they're lucky, and those who don't because they aren't.  Come to think of it, there might be an upside to the death tax.  It's not enough of an upside to get me to support it, but every cloud does have its silver lining.