Letters to the Editor
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New Hampshire
As a former resident of the Granite State, I want to point out a few things that should have been mentioned in this article.
Jeanne Shaheen was a popular Democratic governor who chose to run for the US Senate in 2002. She almost won. She would have easily been reelected governor. NH does not fit into the Dem / Rep mold of the rest of the country.
NH has a strong tradition of military service AND distrust of the government. In our current situation, where the federal governent is misusing our military, and using the individual service personnel as dispensable commodities, it should be expected that the voters of NH would favor the other party.
This was a good and interesting article. But the thing about New Hampshire is that it is New Hampshire. If you haven't spent a lot of time there it is hard to understand it. They still really believe that government cannot be trusted, needs to be small and manageable (those 400 members of the legislature are part timers that are only paid a few hundred dollars a year), and watched closely. They also beleive that everyone has neighborly and civic obligations that cannot and should not be fulufilled by the government. The last bastion of what this country used to stand for. And the first place to expect the people to rebel against authoritarianism, regardless of which party it is coming from.