Why Did Trump Do So Well in MA?

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Massachusetts--all of Massachusetts--has a bigger racism problem than anyone there would like to admit.

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Massachusetts--all of Massachusetts--has a bigger racism problem than anyone there would like to admit.

Isn't that true of most places?

Yes, I think a lot of white, left-leaning areas have the same kind of "We're the north, we can't be racist" attitude.

Granted, I haven't spent much time in Boston. I live in a suburb which has a good number of Hispanics.

I haven't either, and I live even further away from Boston than you do, but I have definitely heard from people who have spent time there that Boston is extremely racist.

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Massachusetts--all of Massachusetts--has a bigger racism problem than anyone there would like to admit.

Isn't that true of most places?

Yes, I think a lot of white, left-leaning areas have the same kind of "We're the north, we can't be racist" attitude.

We're talking about Trump so we're not talking about left leaning areas. We're talking about little towns.

Little towns in Massachusetts are usually left-leaning. Although we are talking about the Republican primaries so maybe "culturally liberal" would be a better term.

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Trump won in pretty much the same places as Scott Brown, no?

Not really, no.

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Trump won in pretty much the same places as Scott Brown, no?

Not really, no.

OK a qualification: towns won by Scott Brown in 2010 were the strongest for Trump.

Didn't mean to imply that Boston etc. voted for Brown.

Well, Trump's best city/town was Revere, which did vote for Scott Brown.

In general, though, there isn't much of a correlation, especially in the west.

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See "Boston Against Busing," there is an ugly racial undercurrent in parts of MA politics which is probably true today as well.

If that's the case, how did Obama win Massachusetts against McCain and Romney?

Trump didn't win the majority of voters in Massachusetts. He won a plurality of Republican primary voters.

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He won a plurality of Republican primary voters.

Including in Newton.

True. And most of the liberal towns in Western Massachusetts as well. I'm not entirely sure what your point is, though.