FIGHTING WORDS
Healey’s war on Trump won’t win Bay State any favors
Gov. Maura Healey’s unrelenting criticism of Donald Trump could come back to haunt her, and Massachusetts as well.
As things stand now Trump has better than a fiftyto-fifty chance of beating Joe Biden and becoming the next president.
If he does, it will be woe for Healey and wretchedness for Massachusetts.
And if you think Healey has problems now getting fellow Democrat Biden to sign off on funds to help pay for the illegal immigrant invasion of Massachusetts, or for building a Cape Cod bridge or two, just wait until Trump is in charge.
We will be filling in the Cape Cod Canal before he approves federal funds for anything that Healey wants.
Trump will have a sign outside the White House reading: “Massachusetts Need Not Apply.”
Whatever else the Republican Trump is, he is not a man who forgets a slight or forgives an insult and Healey, a
Trump-hating progressive, has given him both.
Still, that is no reason to take down any “Hate Has No Home Here” signs. Because it does.
Trump remembers how Healey as attorney general sued him some 100 times during the four years he served as president, suits that included Trump’s stricter border policy.
Most of the suits went nowhere, but they showered Healey with a lot of attention.
And when Trump, seeking to curb illegal immigration, declared the border crisis a national emergency, Healey was quick to accuse him of “an illegal power grab.”
Yet Healey last August declared her own illegal immigration state of emergency for Massachusetts.
She also called out the National Guard to deal with the overflow of illegal immigrants who descending upon the state to take advantage of its generous welfare policies.
No one has accused Healey, in her imitation of Trump, of a power grab.
The unrelenting Healey, a Biden campaign surrogate, last week called Trump a liar over his policy statement proposing that abortion policy be left up to the states. She said Trump still was still antiabortion.
Echoing Trump, Healey said, “Don’t let Donald Trump lie his way out of this. With today’s position he is supporting horrific abortion bans across the country.”
Healey as a Biden supporter has every right to attack Trump. But as the governor she also represents the state of Massachusetts which is dependent on the president for federal funds.
This is not to say that she should tone down her criticism. But a little political discretion could go a long way.
There is a good chance that the man she hates might be the next president and fill out his second four-year term. And if so, what does she do then?
Healey, who will be up for re-election in 2026, will have to spend two awkward and unproductive years as governor under a Trump presidency, if he is elected.
Healey’s success as governor—and political future—could be gravely at risk if Trump wins, even if he does not, as expected, carry Massachusetts.
Both Biden in 2020 (2.3 million votes) and Hillary
Clinton in 2016 (1.9 million votes) beat Trump handily in Massachusetts, but in both cases, Trump received over one million votes.
Those Trump votes— and then some—are out there while Hillary’s votes are gone, and Biden’s votes are going.
A significant win by Trump, along with a substantial showing in Massachusetts, could bolster a Trump-supported candidate to run against Healey in 2026.
And that opponent need not be a Republican from all but extinct Republican Party.
Instead, it could be a Trump endorsed moderate/conservative Democrat running against the Trump-hating Healey in the 2026 Democrat primary.
It would be much the way conservative Edward J. King, later labeled as Republican President Ronald Reagan’s favorite Democrat governor, knocked off liberal Democrat Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1978.
Lesson learned, a more experienced, restrained and somewhat humbled Dukakis came back to oust King four years later.