Why Democrats ♥ Martha's Vineyard

What makes the island so superior to every place else in America that Democratic presidents are willing "to brave the elitist label by seeking succor there," as Todd S. Purdum says below.

Julia Wells, editor, Vineyard GazetteJill Nelson, authorSkip Finley, radio broadcast executiveAlan M. Dershowitz, Harvard Law SchoolTodd S. Purdum, national editor, Vanity FairCharles J. Ogletree Jr., Harvard Law SchoolJohn Harris, editor in chief, Politico

Republicans Once Slept HereJulia Wells is the editor of the Vineyard Gazette, a 163-year-old weekly newspaper. She lives in West Tisbury.

So why pick Martha's Vineyard? Barack Obama said it best himself, when he was on the island two summers ago. He called it a place where "I can wander around in shorts and not shave in the morning and no one talks about it."

He got it right.

The island is a place where you can be yourself. People don't lock their doors. Children can walk to their town libraries after school unaccompanied by an adult. It is a place where class lines are blurred, where you will find carpenters, electricians and landscapers bumping elbows at cocktail parties with some of the country's wealthiest and most influential people.

The Vineyard was a community long before the word became a cliche. And it's not all rose-covered fences either; isolated from the mainland, with high rates of alcoholism, depression and domestic violence, the island can be a hard place to live in the winter. In summer it draws plenty of wealthy elite, lately specializing in Democrats. But it has not always been a bastion of Democrats.

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Thirty-five years ago when I started working as a reporter here, the island was still a Republican stronghold. Prominent summer residents included members of the Forbes family (who still own nearby Naushon Island). They came to the island for the saltwater fishing and duck hunting, and their homes were for the most part rustic camps or old farmhouses. They also were ardent conservationists and many are responsible for the large parts of the island that remain protected areas today.