"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."
— L.P. Hartley
They do things differently in Portland, but not because it is a foreign country, although many Americans might wish it were: At this moment, it is one national embarrassment too many. Rather, the tumults in Portland, which is a petri dish of progressivism, perhaps reveal something about Oregon's political DNA. A century ago, the state was a bastion of reaction.