The strong support shown by local voters, who mirrored voters across the state, for maintaining the current sales tax rate, was an affirmation that voters, as angry or as disillusioned as they may be, have not lost complete control of their senses.
Had the ballot question that proposed halving the sales tax been passed, Massachusetts would have been plunged into a proverbial Dark Ages. However, the average voter saw through the outright lies being put forth by the backers of Question 3 and decided that it was a bad idea.
Voters also showed their support for the state’s affordable housing law by rejecting Question 2, which sought to repeal Chapter 40B. Again, this was a victory for common sense over irrationality.
Yes, most of us these past few years have felt the urge to shout, “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore,†which is what the madman newscaster (played by Peter Finch) exhorted his listeners to do in the classic movie Network from the late 1970s.
Life may be imitating art every day on Fox News these days (e.g., Glenn Beck), but the average citizen is not as easily misled by these loudmouths as the pundits believe. At least in Massachusetts, sanity prevailed at the ballot box on Tuesday.