Arlington, Massachusetts —
The Boston Tea Party wasn’t really about the tea, and it certainly wasn’t about the Mohawks though those were the costumes the colonists wore as they dumped the boxes overboard.
In Tuesday’s Democratic Senate primary in deep blue Massachusetts, longtime Sen. Ed Markey is harking back to those revolutionary roots as he pitches himself to voters as the anti-establishment candidate against Rep. Seth Moulton – despite arriving to Washington just three years after Joe Biden did in 1973.
Although the language of the left-wing insurgency surrounds the race, under the surface, the contest for many appears to be less about ideological issues or governing philosophies than a smash-up of ambition, efforts to secure Democratic power in the state in the future, and personal pique.
Markey, 80, in one corner, is vowing to keep fighting for left-wing ideals, which include some successes and some that he hasn’t passed in all his years in power so far. In the other, Moulton, the 47-year-old decorated Marine and six-term congressman who has frustrated Nancy Pelosi and many other Democrats by repeatedly challenging their leadership, has staked his campaign on generational change.
