It’s a fool’s errand to guess how well a political candidate is doing in an election season by counting campaign signs posted on the lawns of potential voters.

If an outsider were dropped from space into southeastern Massachusetts and taken for a drive through Dartmouth, Acushnet, Freetown and the like, they might think they’ve arrived deep in Trump country.

From my observation, based solely upon where I’ve driven, it would appear former President Donald J. Trump has a significant advantage over Democratic challenger Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump’s signs appear to outnumber Harris’s signs by a significant amount but as usual, perception is not always reality.

A recent Trump rally sponsored by the Mattapoisett Republican Town Committee attracted over 600 supporters. Trump merch sells like hotcakes.

Massachusetts has come a long way since 2016, when Trump faced off and eventually defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States. Massachusetts Trump supporters were too intimidated then to display their support for their candidate for fear of being canceled – or worse.

Though support for Trump appears to be stronger in Massachusetts than during previous runs in 2016 and 2020, don’t kid yourself as this is a Democrat stronghold, and Trump has never done well here.

Clinton collected 60.8 percent of the Massachusetts vote in 2016 to Trump’s 33.5 percent. Trump fared even worse against Joe Biden in 2022, collecting 32.1 percent of the vote to Biden’s 65.6 percent.

Trump has never had the support of statewide officeholders in Massachusetts, even though Republicans held the governor’s office in both elections. The entire delegation to Washington, D.C. is controlled by Democrats.

One loyal Trump supporter from the start, former Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson, runs the Trump campaign in Massachusetts.

“We are hearing from Democrats that they are voting for Trump, and doing so with real emotion and enthusiasm,” he said.

“We have Democrats asking neighbors, who are displaying Trump yard signs where they can get one,” Hodgson said. “Of course, we are happy to accommodate.”

Trump is unlikely to carry Massachusetts in November; no Republican presidential candidate has won Massachusetts since Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale here in 1984.

Don’t tell that to Hodgson, who says, “We have a real shot!”

The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller’s, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.

BOSTON – Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell has filed a lawsuit against TikTok, alleging the social media giant deliberately exploited young people.

Do lawsuits against social media companies get results?

It’s the latest in a series of lawsuits brought against big social media companies. But is it the best way to fight back?

“Virtually every young person in this Commonwealth uses TikTok,” said Campbell. And for many kids, she added, it’s become an addiction that’s hazardous to their mental health. “Teens report using TikTok for hours a day, often late at night, and this is no accident. Rather, it’s a result of TikTok intentionally designing its platform to keep our young people glued to their screens, all in the name of profit.”

So Campbell has joined more than a dozen other states in suing TikTok to change its tactics. And if that sounds familiar, it’s no wonder. Campbell and other AGs filed a similar suit against Meta last fall. That case is dragging on, as this one likely will in the face of TikTok’s deep pockets.

“The lawsuit becomes a stick. It becomes an incentive to make that social media company do it,” said WBZ-TV legal analyst Jennifer Roman. “The downside of it, though, is to what cost?”

Why doesn’t Congress make laws regulating social media?   

Roman noted cases like this demand lots of time and money – taxpayer money. And in the meantime, the alleged mental health crisis rolls on.

“During that extended period of time, nothing is changing from TikTok,” Roman said. “They’re not gonna change until they have to.”

Congress could pass laws to bring the tech companies to heel, but they don’t, leaving the courts to play what seems like an endless game of whack-a-mole.

“Technology is just moving at such a rapid pace, and the wheels of justice do not move quickly,” noted Roman. “So we’re never gonna keep up with what’s on the horizon, what’s coming next and what those impacts may be.”

Some of these lawsuits have gotten results. A federal judge ruled this summer that Google and it’s ubiquitous search engine was an illegal monopoly.

But it took nearly four years of legal wrangling to get there, and the appeals process is expected to take at least another five years.

So it seems clear that with the kinds of profits these companies are making off the way they operate, other parties – like parents – are going to have to step up to deal with the mental health fallout. Because – to adapt an old cliche – changes in technology circle the globe while social responsibility is still putting its pants on.