PrintJune 18, 2007
JFK, neo-con.
John F. Kennedy's memory has been so thoroughly media-massaged by now that some people think Ted Kennedy, now growing old and fat, must be ideologically just like his deceased older brothers. They were all Kennedy kids, right?
Wrong. Jack and Bobby Kennedy had far more in common with today's neo-cons than any Democrat alive today, with the possible exception of Joe Lieberman. JFK was a passionate Cold War liberal, at a time when patriotism was not yet twisted into its opposite. Jack really did earn his combat medals, unlike copycat buffoon John F. Kerry. And Jack's eldest brother Joe died fighting in World War Two.
"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans-born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage-and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world." (Emphasis added)
That was JFK's Inaugural Address. How un-Politically Correct can you get? Did he get UN permission to say that?
Which raises an interesting question. If JFK were president today, what would he have done about the 9/11 terrorist assault? What about Saddam Hussein and doomsday nukes spreading to kamikaze regimes? We'll never know, but my guess is that JFK would be a pretty passionate neocon today.
"...I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago. ...the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe-the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God." (Emphasis added)
Oops! There goes the G-word twice in one paragraph. Who is this reactionary freak?
A neocon is a liberal mugged by reality. Well, JFK was mugged by reality in more ways than one: By the death of brother Joe, by his own experiences in combat, and by his carefully hidden ailments. JFK actually resembled today's media's Satan Made Flesh, President George W. Bush, more than any Boomer Leftie now in a position of power. Would somebody please tell them?
Martyrdom does funny things to public memory. JFK's assassination in Dallas was the first of many emotional shocks for the youthful Boomer Left. It helped to radicalize them, and it taught them to hate Dallas.
Jack Kennedy was killed by a Marxist show-off, as it happens, just like his brother Bobby was killed by a Palestinian zealot. Dallas had nothing to do with JFK's death, other than providing the Dallas Book Depository as a sniper perch; but just ask any Boomer liberal how they feel about that city. And indeed, in their minds, Dallas, TX is now fused with everything they hate about the United States of America.
It all reflects the fiction-driven universe of the modern Left, which cannot tolerate the dissonance of having a Marxist and a Palestinian assassinate their first great political heroes. So they erase those inconvenient facts about the Kennedy assassins from their consciousness, and blame it all on Nixon and Reagan. (The Boomer Left was never all that enamored of hard facts from the start. A very thin and blurry line separates reality from fantasy in their minds. What else was the Decade of Love, the Sixties, but an elaborate group fantasy?)
Contrary to Camelot myth, it was JFK who first beefed up US troops in Vietnam to fight Ho Chi Minh, not his hated successor Lyndon Baines Johnson. It was JFK who picked Robert MacNamara to be SecDef, and solidly backed his ideas to fight Communist insurgencies around the world. On foreign policy Kennedy ran to the right of Nixon in 1960, charging that the United States suffered from a "missile gap" in its titanic struggle with the Soviet Union. Just think --- in 1960 the Democrats were stronger on national security than Richard M. Nixon. They even tried to out-do Nixon's anti-Communism. Jack and Bobby were out to assassinate El Jefe Fidel with explosive cigars. That's hard to fit into the legend of Camelot. Stubborn facts.
Arguably JFK was not a very good Cold War leader, giving contradictory orders in the Bay of Pigs, barely managing the Cuban Missile Crisis, and spending far too much time chasing skirts when he should have been paying attention to his job.
Domestically, Kennedy ran on a tax-cut platform, simply unimaginable for today's Dems. The NASA Moon Landing program he started reflected a real passion for national greatness. No multicultural wimp, JFK.
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." (Emphasis added)
Are you listening, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? Are you paying attention, Jack Murtha?
No doubt Kennedy had the most talented group of sycophants and PR flacks in history. He was protected by a solid liberal media phalanx, happy to cover up for Marilyn Monroe and all the rest. Jack Kennedy also had his share of corrupt relationships, down to Joe Sr.'s arrangement with Chicago Boss Daley to throw the Illinois vote to the Democrats in 1960. Richard Nixon would have won, had the votes been counted honestly.
How would JFK feel today about characters like Al Gore and John Kerry, or John Edwards? The only thing they have in common with Kennedy is his signature hair cut. What would he say about orotund blowhard Teddy, who has done more to undermine our dysfunctional immigration system than anyone else in the last 40 years? Is that what John F. Kennedy would want as a family legacy to the United States?
How would JFK think about the Screaming Left, which has now become so powerful? About foreign policy mavens like Madeleine Albright, Sandy Burglar and Valerie Plame? How about Dick Durbin and Harry Reid? About Hillary running as the jilted wife for all the women of America?
We'll never know for sure, but history suggests that JFK would have felt utterly disgusted by today's crew of Democrat leaders. Today's Left does not sound any different than the Marxists he so despised --- one of whom assassinated him, after all. As president, Jack Kennedy had more in common with Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bush than with any Democrat frontrunner today.
Chances are that JFK would be pretty tough on terrorists and fascist regimes rushing toward nukes. Once you're mugged by reality, you just don't want it to happen again.
Scratch John F. Kennedy and your find a neocon.
James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/
