Charlie Baker and the Rise of One-Party Rule

At least once a week during the past two years, a flock of protesters could be found outside the seaside home of the Republican governor of Massachusetts, airing their grievances about the man they call “Char-lie Baker.” (It rhymes with pie—get it?) Two years of “Char-lie Baker” would be a lot for any person to take, especially when the clamor is coming from members of your own party.

The gatherings began in April 2020, when more than a dozen anti-lockdown demonstrators , horns blaring and Trump flags hoisted high, back and forth past the governor’s white Victorian. For months after, picketers convened on the grassy median on Baker’s street in Swampscott, wielding life-size cutouts of Donald Trump or, sometimes, Confederate flags. The organizer of the weekly visits Baker of after Election Day 2020, citing an “abundance of caution.”