Science & Tech Quote by Rick Boucher

The tell here is the word actually. Boucher isn’t bragging about tech; he’s preempting a stereotype. A mid-century politician talking about his three-computer setup is doing reputation management in real time, signaling: I’m not one of those lawmakers who treats the internet like a suspicious new food. The sentence is built like a checklist, almost bureaucratic in its specificity - desk in Washington, home, laptop for travel - because the point isn’t wonder or enthusiasm. It’s normalcy. He’s trying to make digital competence sound as routine as having keys in your pocket.

The subtext is generational and institutional. In the years when congressional tech literacy was a punchline (and when policy debates about telecom, copyright, surveillance, and broadband were accelerating), a politician needed to prove he wasn’t legislating in the dark. “Three computers” reads quaint now, but at the time it’s a credential: I can follow the conversation, I live in the infrastructure I regulate, I’m not outsourcing my understanding to staffers or lobbyists.

There’s also a subtle class and power signal: multiple workspaces, constant travel, the portable office. It’s a portrait of governance as mobility - decisions made between Washington and home, carried on a laptop. The quote works because it’s defensively mundane: a politician using the language of everyday tech habits to claim legitimacy in a policy arena where ignorance carries real consequences.