What is a more difficult moral dilemma than dealing honestly with the history of one’s adversary than during the immediate post-mortem of that adversary’s death?
Surely, we celebrate without gloating when evil dictators who threaten the world’s security and brutally oppress their own populations at the time of their passing. When a dangerous murder suspect turns up dead, we stand relieved. We look at those who lived reckless lifestyles who meet their end with a sense of, “they had it coming, didn’t they?”
How do we deal with those who function within our system but we feel are clearly dangerous to our way of life? How do we maintain our resolve when there is a genuine outpouring of grief for our greatest adversaries who we’ve worked so hard to defeat and discredit through the years?
What is the right way for us to put the death of Ted Kennedy in perspective?
One thing is for certain, the death of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy will serve as a rallying cry for the extreme left, those who believe in big government solutions and all aspects of the Liberal creed as it has evolved to what it is today. From early in his career, Ted Kennedy championed notions of government run health care for all. What clearly will develop in the hours and days ahead is a highly emotional attempt to make Ted Kennedy a martyr for the current push for the government seizure of our ability to choose our own health care options.
Sure, this is not the time to trump up insults and personal attacks against Ted Kennedy, but we must be clear and truthful what he represented because his legacy will live on, and in the short term, his name and spirit will be attached to so much monkey business the Democrats will attempt to thrust upon us.
With the election of John F. Kennedy as President in 1960, the short-lived era of “Camelot” was upon us, for the romantic Democratic mindset, this youthful President with his fashionable wife represented an American kind of royalty. The association between Democratic leaders and Hollywood fell into place with even a drunken Marlyn Monroe singing a sultry happy birthday to the President. However, the concept of an American royal family ran deeper into the operation of government itself. Robert Kennedy became his brother’s attorney general. Thus it was in keeping with the family business that Teddy would run for Senator for Massachusetts in 1962. Just barely a year later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas so it was then Bobby’s turn to move up as the standard bearer for the Kennedy clan. He’d remain in the justice department long enough to antagonize Lyndon Johnson severely, but clearly his personality was too strong and his political differences too intense to stay with the Johnson administration. Using New York’s favorable laws, Robert ran for New York Senator putting the two surviving Kennedy brothers both in the United States Senate. The attention remained riveted on Robert as he became one of the country’s most outspoken critics of the Vietnam War leading him to run for the Presidency in 1968. Lyndon Johnson realized he couldn’t possibly battle the Kennedy charisma and political machine, so he stepped aside. As the primary season marched along, Robert Kennedy looked like the inevitable winner and more emotion went his way with the shocking assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968. Robert Kennedy wove the civil rights conviction of Dr. King in with the carefully crafted image of Kennedy idealism as his candidacy exploded. It was on to California which could very well have been the coronation of the Democratic nominee.
As the victory celebration was winding down, a 24 year old Palestinian shot Robert Kennedy at close range with a .22 caliber pistol throwing the Democratic Presidential sweepstakes in chaos and a family’s tragedy into misery beyond belief having lost the first son, Joseph, in an aircraft accident in World War II, but now with two more brothers both murdered, Edward Kennedy stood alone.
Ted had neither the great legacy of PT-109 fame and charisma of John, nor did he have the intense focus and drive willing to take on the Mafia and Lyndon Johnson’s war policies like Robert. He did have the Kennedy name, but Teddy was seen as the runt of the litter, the spoiled little rich boy with a little too much love for the party life, but now he was the family leader. He’d have huge shoes to fill and be under constant scrutiny.
As the days of Richard Nixon began, America wondered how Ted Kennedy would serve as a member of the opposition, but before his political identity could really take shape, he created his own disaster. While the whole story will never be known, while America was drawn to the Apollo 11 moon mission on July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy was partying on Chappaquiddick Island at Martha’s Vineyard. Leaving the party with a former aide to his brother, Robert, Mary Jo Kopechne, he drove off the Dike Bridge into Poucha Pond Inlet leaving Kopechne trapped in the car while Kennedy swam for safety. Kennedy did not report to authorities until after Kopechne’s body was found the following day.
While the uproar was substantial and questions unanswered, Kennedy copped a plea of leaving the scene of an accident receiving a two month suspended jail sentence. Kennedy went before the cameras acknowledging, "I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately" but denied being drunk or having a relationship with the deceased young lady.
Subsequent investigations under orders from the Massachusetts highest court concluded parts of his statement were not true. A grand jury investigated but issued no indictment only confirming “negligent driving.” Despite a continuous buzz and much criticism over the Chappaquiddick tragedy, Kennedy won his second term to the senate with 62% of the vote.
Through the 70’s he became a firm fixture of the Democratic party in the Senate to where he would be seen as the true anchor of the most liberal faction of the Democratic party that was had been moving substantially to the left in the wake of the Great Society and Vietnam war becoming less the party of the working class but more one of a far reaching big government agenda.
Jimmy Carter, who was one of the first wave of “new Democrats” supposedly more pragmatic and less big government oriented, posed a contrary philosophy for the direction of the party, with the two of them forming opposing polarities of the party leading to Ted Kennedy to challenge Jimmy Carter, the incumbent President, in the 1980 primary elections which were hotly contested. Though Carter had enough delegates to win the nomination, Kennedy took his fight to the convention but the tactic was futile having won just 10 primaries to Carter’s 24. Kennedy’s attempt to free up committed delegates failed so Kennedy withdrew his challenge but he still had much fight left in him delivering a stinging address asserting the values of Liberalism. The Democrats beat up each other so badly in the 1980 campaign, but the tide of conservatism led by Ronald Reagan would be unstoppable, but Ted Kennedy would soldier on in the Senate as the personification of almost everything Reagan’s reforms were aimed at undoing.
As the tide of rational conservatism, a new sense of American pride, and renewed clout of the free enterprise system swept the land, Ted Kennedy was the most powerful voice for the big government, “great society,” welfare state approach. If Republicans and conservatives needed to mobilize their faithful, simply invoking the name of Ted Kennedy activated the forces. Kennedy fought Reagan’s build up of national defense and his foreign policy initiatives which led to the fall of Soviet communism.
While his political efforts continued, his health and behavior became the subject of scrutiny and ridicule shown as an obese heavy drinker. His reputation and perception of acting above the law as an immoral sot than being implicated with his nephew, William Kennedy Smith who many believe used the Kennedy clout and wealth to beat a rape charge. Ted Kennedy testified in that trial.
At no time did Kennedy’s ability to polarize the debate and perhaps set the stage for the partisan struggles that followed than his behavior during the hearings for Reagan Supreme Court Nominee Robert Bork. Viciously attacking Bork as the personification of everything the liberal movement believes, his angry tirade still echoes on Capitol Hill.
“Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens ...”
These over-the-top remarks helped rally the forces sending Bork’s nomination to defeat creating a new concept in Washington politics where anyone whose reputation gets beaten and bloodied through vicious insinuations and character assassination is known as being “borked.”
Every subsequent Republican nominee except perhaps David Souter who proved to be one of the court’s most Liberal justices appointed by George H.W. Bush got the “Bork” treatment in some measure.
On a personal level, Ted Kennedy’s wild ways were tamed considerably upon marrying his second wife, Vicky, much younger who helped him overcome his health and behavioral demons focusing on his political goals. She ruled over him with a firm, caring hand.
He was no friend of the Clintons who were much more political opportunists than committed ideologues for Kennedy’s liking never the less, his position as the face of the Democrats in the Senate remained unchallenged. While President Clinton often pursued a more pragmatic agenda though appointing generally very left wing judges, Kennedy was seen as the heart and soul of the left wing base of the party but as the 90’s came to an end, more vicious and further left members of the Senate including Charles Schumer, John Kerry, and Barbara Boxer became much more vocal and more clearly hard left figures than Kennedy who took on more a roll of elder statesman.
To the surprise of some, he partnered with President George W. Bush to enact No Child Left Behind, a measure that was hard to take by both the extreme left and right, but on most scores, he was one of the Bush administration’s worst nightmares.
In 2001, Hilary Clinton became Senator of New York in much the same way Robert Kennedy did as only setting up residence in New York essentially in time for the election. Many saw their relationship as rivalry for supremacy within the party. Thus when the Presidential field for 2008 developed, Ted Kennedy enthusiastically endorsed Barack Obama for President giving the inexperienced Illinois radical senator a huge boost and instant credibility.
Kennedy suffered a massive brain seizure on May 17, 2008 which revealed he had a malignant glioma, a lethal brain cancer. Regardless, to the fullest extent possible, Kennedy supported Barrack Obama and the push for the government seizure of individual health care.
Having served over 46 years in the Senate, Ted Kennedy’s imprint is enormous. Unquestionably, as one of the Senate’s most staunchly left wing voices and one of the institution’s most outspoken voices, few senators appeared more polarizing than the Massachusetts Democrat.
Time will tell what his long lasting legacy will be and who will assume his high profile voice in the Senate. He unquestionably leaves a leadership void. Will there be a more moderate alternative or will it give members like Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd to play a bigger role.
Right minded citizens cannot let opportunists use his death as an emotional wedge to elevate support for the government health care seizure.
Surely, we celebrate without gloating when evil dictators who threaten the world’s security and brutally oppress their own populations at the time of their passing. When a dangerous murder suspect turns up dead, we stand relieved. We look at those who lived reckless lifestyles who meet their end with a sense of, “they had it coming, didn’t they?”
How do we deal with those who function within our system but we feel are clearly dangerous to our way of life? How do we maintain our resolve when there is a genuine outpouring of grief for our greatest adversaries who we’ve worked so hard to defeat and discredit through the years?
What is the right way for us to put the death of Ted Kennedy in perspective?
One thing is for certain, the death of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy will serve as a rallying cry for the extreme left, those who believe in big government solutions and all aspects of the Liberal creed as it has evolved to what it is today. From early in his career, Ted Kennedy championed notions of government run health care for all. What clearly will develop in the hours and days ahead is a highly emotional attempt to make Ted Kennedy a martyr for the current push for the government seizure of our ability to choose our own health care options.
Sure, this is not the time to trump up insults and personal attacks against Ted Kennedy, but we must be clear and truthful what he represented because his legacy will live on, and in the short term, his name and spirit will be attached to so much monkey business the Democrats will attempt to thrust upon us.
With the election of John F. Kennedy as President in 1960, the short-lived era of “Camelot” was upon us, for the romantic Democratic mindset, this youthful President with his fashionable wife represented an American kind of royalty. The association between Democratic leaders and Hollywood fell into place with even a drunken Marlyn Monroe singing a sultry happy birthday to the President. However, the concept of an American royal family ran deeper into the operation of government itself. Robert Kennedy became his brother’s attorney general. Thus it was in keeping with the family business that Teddy would run for Senator for Massachusetts in 1962. Just barely a year later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas so it was then Bobby’s turn to move up as the standard bearer for the Kennedy clan. He’d remain in the justice department long enough to antagonize Lyndon Johnson severely, but clearly his personality was too strong and his political differences too intense to stay with the Johnson administration. Using New York’s favorable laws, Robert ran for New York Senator putting the two surviving Kennedy brothers both in the United States Senate. The attention remained riveted on Robert as he became one of the country’s most outspoken critics of the Vietnam War leading him to run for the Presidency in 1968. Lyndon Johnson realized he couldn’t possibly battle the Kennedy charisma and political machine, so he stepped aside. As the primary season marched along, Robert Kennedy looked like the inevitable winner and more emotion went his way with the shocking assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968. Robert Kennedy wove the civil rights conviction of Dr. King in with the carefully crafted image of Kennedy idealism as his candidacy exploded. It was on to California which could very well have been the coronation of the Democratic nominee.
As the victory celebration was winding down, a 24 year old Palestinian shot Robert Kennedy at close range with a .22 caliber pistol throwing the Democratic Presidential sweepstakes in chaos and a family’s tragedy into misery beyond belief having lost the first son, Joseph, in an aircraft accident in World War II, but now with two more brothers both murdered, Edward Kennedy stood alone.
Ted had neither the great legacy of PT-109 fame and charisma of John, nor did he have the intense focus and drive willing to take on the Mafia and Lyndon Johnson’s war policies like Robert. He did have the Kennedy name, but Teddy was seen as the runt of the litter, the spoiled little rich boy with a little too much love for the party life, but now he was the family leader. He’d have huge shoes to fill and be under constant scrutiny.
As the days of Richard Nixon began, America wondered how Ted Kennedy would serve as a member of the opposition, but before his political identity could really take shape, he created his own disaster. While the whole story will never be known, while America was drawn to the Apollo 11 moon mission on July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy was partying on Chappaquiddick Island at Martha’s Vineyard. Leaving the party with a former aide to his brother, Robert, Mary Jo Kopechne, he drove off the Dike Bridge into Poucha Pond Inlet leaving Kopechne trapped in the car while Kennedy swam for safety. Kennedy did not report to authorities until after Kopechne’s body was found the following day.
While the uproar was substantial and questions unanswered, Kennedy copped a plea of leaving the scene of an accident receiving a two month suspended jail sentence. Kennedy went before the cameras acknowledging, "I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately" but denied being drunk or having a relationship with the deceased young lady.
Subsequent investigations under orders from the Massachusetts highest court concluded parts of his statement were not true. A grand jury investigated but issued no indictment only confirming “negligent driving.” Despite a continuous buzz and much criticism over the Chappaquiddick tragedy, Kennedy won his second term to the senate with 62% of the vote.
Through the 70’s he became a firm fixture of the Democratic party in the Senate to where he would be seen as the true anchor of the most liberal faction of the Democratic party that was had been moving substantially to the left in the wake of the Great Society and Vietnam war becoming less the party of the working class but more one of a far reaching big government agenda.
Jimmy Carter, who was one of the first wave of “new Democrats” supposedly more pragmatic and less big government oriented, posed a contrary philosophy for the direction of the party, with the two of them forming opposing polarities of the party leading to Ted Kennedy to challenge Jimmy Carter, the incumbent President, in the 1980 primary elections which were hotly contested. Though Carter had enough delegates to win the nomination, Kennedy took his fight to the convention but the tactic was futile having won just 10 primaries to Carter’s 24. Kennedy’s attempt to free up committed delegates failed so Kennedy withdrew his challenge but he still had much fight left in him delivering a stinging address asserting the values of Liberalism. The Democrats beat up each other so badly in the 1980 campaign, but the tide of conservatism led by Ronald Reagan would be unstoppable, but Ted Kennedy would soldier on in the Senate as the personification of almost everything Reagan’s reforms were aimed at undoing.
As the tide of rational conservatism, a new sense of American pride, and renewed clout of the free enterprise system swept the land, Ted Kennedy was the most powerful voice for the big government, “great society,” welfare state approach. If Republicans and conservatives needed to mobilize their faithful, simply invoking the name of Ted Kennedy activated the forces. Kennedy fought Reagan’s build up of national defense and his foreign policy initiatives which led to the fall of Soviet communism.
While his political efforts continued, his health and behavior became the subject of scrutiny and ridicule shown as an obese heavy drinker. His reputation and perception of acting above the law as an immoral sot than being implicated with his nephew, William Kennedy Smith who many believe used the Kennedy clout and wealth to beat a rape charge. Ted Kennedy testified in that trial.
At no time did Kennedy’s ability to polarize the debate and perhaps set the stage for the partisan struggles that followed than his behavior during the hearings for Reagan Supreme Court Nominee Robert Bork. Viciously attacking Bork as the personification of everything the liberal movement believes, his angry tirade still echoes on Capitol Hill.
“Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens ...”
These over-the-top remarks helped rally the forces sending Bork’s nomination to defeat creating a new concept in Washington politics where anyone whose reputation gets beaten and bloodied through vicious insinuations and character assassination is known as being “borked.”
Every subsequent Republican nominee except perhaps David Souter who proved to be one of the court’s most Liberal justices appointed by George H.W. Bush got the “Bork” treatment in some measure.
On a personal level, Ted Kennedy’s wild ways were tamed considerably upon marrying his second wife, Vicky, much younger who helped him overcome his health and behavioral demons focusing on his political goals. She ruled over him with a firm, caring hand.
He was no friend of the Clintons who were much more political opportunists than committed ideologues for Kennedy’s liking never the less, his position as the face of the Democrats in the Senate remained unchallenged. While President Clinton often pursued a more pragmatic agenda though appointing generally very left wing judges, Kennedy was seen as the heart and soul of the left wing base of the party but as the 90’s came to an end, more vicious and further left members of the Senate including Charles Schumer, John Kerry, and Barbara Boxer became much more vocal and more clearly hard left figures than Kennedy who took on more a roll of elder statesman.
To the surprise of some, he partnered with President George W. Bush to enact No Child Left Behind, a measure that was hard to take by both the extreme left and right, but on most scores, he was one of the Bush administration’s worst nightmares.
In 2001, Hilary Clinton became Senator of New York in much the same way Robert Kennedy did as only setting up residence in New York essentially in time for the election. Many saw their relationship as rivalry for supremacy within the party. Thus when the Presidential field for 2008 developed, Ted Kennedy enthusiastically endorsed Barack Obama for President giving the inexperienced Illinois radical senator a huge boost and instant credibility.
Kennedy suffered a massive brain seizure on May 17, 2008 which revealed he had a malignant glioma, a lethal brain cancer. Regardless, to the fullest extent possible, Kennedy supported Barrack Obama and the push for the government seizure of individual health care.
Having served over 46 years in the Senate, Ted Kennedy’s imprint is enormous. Unquestionably, as one of the Senate’s most staunchly left wing voices and one of the institution’s most outspoken voices, few senators appeared more polarizing than the Massachusetts Democrat.
Time will tell what his long lasting legacy will be and who will assume his high profile voice in the Senate. He unquestionably leaves a leadership void. Will there be a more moderate alternative or will it give members like Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd to play a bigger role.
Right minded citizens cannot let opportunists use his death as an emotional wedge to elevate support for the government health care seizure.
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