Book Log 2008 #43: The Bluest State by Jon Keller

Keller, who has spent his career as a local political journalist, seems like just the right person to write a critique of the one-party, hack-heavy Massachusetts political system. And in places the fit between subject and author is just right, with Keller skewering the way folks like Tom Finneran played power games while not addressing state-wide economic issues like job growth and a lack of affordable housing.

But things don't work so well in most of the book, in which Keller blames pretty much everything on the outdated policies and values of the "boomer liberals," which in most cases is a Kennedy or John Kerry. And, of course, these folks hate America, don't give to charity, think religion is bunk and are to blame for the whole PC thing (seriously, there's a whole chapter on PC language and thinking that would have made some sense if the book was written ten years earlier).

I think my issue with this book is similar to the one I had with Thomas Frank's What's the Matter With Kansas? (which is mentioned a few times in the book as well). Both have an interesting premise and the material to really support it, but things drift as the book goes on. Maybe I'm just fated to be disappointed in contemporary political writing.