Quincy. Live near a Red Line station and you’re golden.

I forgot about that. Really played themselves on that one.

Yeah, if MassGOP was living in the real world, they would have supported Baker and would have likely held on the Governership and picked up a few down ballot positions, as well. Who knows? But, instead, they chose to indulge their fantasies and run a guy who embodies their darkest desires, but can’t actually manage to get elected to anything ever. Going all in on bad judgements. I’m a democrat, who almost always votes for democrats, but I was generally happy with the work Baker did. But MassGOP has managed to make themselves completely irrelevant to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Lots of people are keying in on MassGOP running Diehl after Baker “retired”, but I think there’s more to the story. For a long time MassGOP was run by Kirsten Hughes, who was fairly moderate; at least, she and Baker have a lot in common. MassGOP shifted far right like the rest of the GOP, and in 2019 it was clear Hughes wouldn’t have the votes to continue on, so she didn’t run. She was replaced by Trumpian Republican Jim Lyons. He truly represents the Massachusetts Republican Party. He and Baker have always had a frosty relationship, so I suspect Baker “retired” because he knew he wouldn’t have the support of MassGOP. So he went out on top. He didn’t lose a primary or otherwise suffer any embarrassment from his own party and left the Governorship with a winning record. Strategically a great move. He’s completely untarnished by any of this. But I think it’s important to recognize that Baker “retired” because he knew that the politics of continuing would harm him and put him in a position that would make him weaker. For himself, and I believe for the benefit of the Commonwealth, he stepped aside, knowing the GOP would self-destruct one way or another. I hope this doesn’t come off as a criticism of Baker. I think he did the right thing for all the right reasons. I really just want to emphasize that the cancerous nature of the GOP has been influencing the decisions of policy makers for several years. Baker didn’t just get tired and decide to retire; he made strategic decision based on what was happening in his own party and found that the best route was to retire. That was probably a difficult realization for him. I’m grateful that he didn’t try to fix the unfixable, and chose the best path for Massachusetts.