It took lots of people by surprise in January when Massachusetts — possibly America’s most liberal state — voted to put Republican Scott Brown in the U.S. Senate seat that had long been occupied by the late Ted Kennedy, an extremely liberal Democrat.
Well, we won’t pretend that Massachusetts is suddenly becoming a “conservative” state, but the Massachusetts Senate did something recently that certainly would seem out of its ordinary political character. The Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation to make it far harder for illegal aliens to get taxpayer-funded medical care, higher education and housing. It would also forbid the state to contract with a company that knowingly hires illegal aliens, of whom there are nearly 200,000 in Massachusetts.
The vote in favor of the new rules was a stunning 28-10.
“Whoo hoo! They voted for it. Must be an election year,” the head of the Greater Boston Tea Party, part of a nationwide group of conservative activists, told The Boston Globe. She said the legislation was even stronger than what the Tea Party activists had asked for.
And in liberal Massachusetts!
Arizona has been criticized harshly by some for enacting its own anti-illegal-alien law recently. But in the midst of the harsh and sometimes bitter criticism, this fact has remained: Most of the American people in survey after survey have said they support Arizona’s attempt to fight illegal immigration — particularly given the federal government’s failure to do so.
While Massachusetts’ law does not go as far as Arizona’s, it is nonetheless amazing that even in such a liberal state, lawmakers are waking up to the public’s opposition to illegal immigration.