Class Interest, Liberal Style

A year ago almost everyone I knew in Boston was agonizing over how to be liberal when it seemed no longer really an option. Two men were running for governor of the only state that voted for George McGovern. One was a wealthy Republican who had supported a candidate to the right of Ronald
Reagan in the 1980 presidential primaries; the other was an angry Democrat who had managed to offend Cambodians, blacks, working mothers, environmentalists, abortion rights activists, and the elderly. People said it was a choice between a Republican and a “fascist,” and they would sound each other out over the phone, warily, not wanting to give too much
away in case their own feelings happened to be the wrong ones. In private they tossed between William Weld and John Silber like a flu sufferer unable to find a comfortable position in bed.

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