We live in a nation with many problems. We are beset by foreign enemies and torn apart by internal divisiveness. The spirit of partisanship which George Washington warned against so many years ago has become an unreasoning monster that destroys our ability to unite and function effectively as a nation. The names, the faces and the enemies may be different, but the challenges we face today are not so different from those we have faced at other vital turning points in our history.
One of those times of crisis came with the transition from World War II to the Cold War. In that era we were fortunate to have the leadership of John F. Kennedy - at least for a few years - to set the standard by which we would meet the challenges of that era and remind us that the fight for survival was meaningless without fighting just as hard for the freedom on which our nation was founded - not only for ourselves, but for the world.
Kennedy had all the advantages and the aptitudes of a privileged birth, but also an understanding of the basic needs that bind men together no matter what their station. A man who embraced and defended the basic values of America - not self-righteous moralizing or sanctimonious religiosity, but the basic values of the Republic as laid out by our founding fathers - the freedom of the individual, the value and quality of life and the importance of an equal opportunity to pursue prosperity. He understood Thomas Jefferson when he said "that government governs best that governs least," and he sought to provide a government of quality of ideas and leadership rather than quantity of bureaucracy and spending.
Kennedy came to the White House at a young age, after a period of warfare and during a time of domestic conflict. He transcended the limitations of political partisanship which had blackened the previous decade and embraced ideas which were anathema to the majority of his own party and supported in many cases only by his opposition. He was a northerner in a southern party, an elitist in a populist party, a liberal in a conservative party and an internationalist in an isolationist party. Rather than being weakened by these contradictions, Kennedy drew strength from them and made his party and the nation better as a result.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - MT
Fine article Dave. I liked your question "where is the John F. Kennedy for our times?" Makes me wonder, though, how you could make such a perceptive statement and still defend Bush as often as you do.
2 - troll
* We face a huge and implacable enemy which seeks not only our destruction, but to enslave the world to a philosophy which is totally alien to the liberties on which our nation and our civilization are based.*
huge - ? sounds like you are talking about Islam rather than a group of Islamic terrorists...has it come down to another crusade after all - ?
troll
ps: better speech writers - there's the ticket
3 - Michael J. West
Dave, much as some people will deny it, you are a writer who always seeks out the nuance in political issues. Nicely written.
4 - Alethinos
Excellent post Dave. Really. Thank you for the insights.
Alethinos
5 - Dave Nalle
Fine article Dave. I liked your question "where is the John F. Kennedy for our times?" Makes me wonder, though, how you could make such a perceptive statement and still defend Bush as often as you do.
Perhaps I once thought that Bush had the potential to be that new-era JFK.
dave
6 - Natalie Davis
Awesome piece. Sadly, what you say is true.
7 - Maurice
Excellent writing, Dave. Your 2nd to last paragraph is right on the money. It is that very thing that causes us to end up with a politician like Bush.
I have the feeling President Bush's thinking is as muddled as his speech.
8 - Michael
Dave,
I agree that politics is unhinged. But I must say that those in power (bush administration) have steered this country dramatically to the right. What we need is a moderate leader with rational thought. As of November 2004, bush was not that man, yet somehow received a majority of the votes (the mushroom cloud and gay marriage probably had something to do with it). We now have to wait until 2008 for a canidate, but my guess is it will be another loss for america whichever 2 are choosen by the wealthy.
9 - Dave Nalle
Michael, I think the rightward swing of the Bush administration is entirely illusionary. It's what the left wants you to believe, but the evidence to support it just isn't there at all.
And remember, Kennedy was of the wealthy class and chosen by the wealthy, yet he managed to retain his identity and to attempt to innovate, so that's not the part of the system whcih is necessarily flawed.
Dave
10 - Michael
Dave,
Ok, I will agree that the labeling of bush as far right conservative should be blamed on hollywood and michael moore, along with cindy sheehan, john kerry and schumer, but let us agree on something.
He is a bad president, no matter which party he comes from. This country is worse off today because bush and his administration have been in the decision making seat. And I do not intend this to be a liberal statement, only an observation of the facts.
11 - JR
Kennedy was pretty conservative for his party; one of the reasons he didn't get trounced like Stevenson is that he was relatively hard-line on Communism, at least publicly. And he was dragging his feet a bit on social issues, as opposed to LBJ once he took power. Kennedy talked like he was holding back a lot for the second term, but that is no guarantee he would have followed through.
And Vietnam surely would have gone better had Kennedy lived; he was already becoming disenchanted with the policies in place, and Johnson was about the worst person to have inherit that particular problem.
What bothers me about Kennedy is that most of the perception of his greatness seems to be largely based on the mythology built by his administration's tremendous skill with the media. I happen to think he was leading the country in the right direction, and that he was extremely intelligent and increasingly capable, but his actions showed little of the idealism expressed in his speeches. Was he really a great leader, or did he just fool us into believing it? Is fooling us good enough?
A big difference between Kennedy and Bush, if you don't accept that Bush is simply nowhere near as intelligent, is that Kennedy was only second generation wealthy. The personal drive and discipline of the recently underclass, long since atrophied in the Bush clan, was still fresh in the Kennedy's at the time.
12 - troll
teetering on the brink of full blown fascism the last thing the US needs is a charismatic Leader to step up and sweep the people off their feet...be careful what you get nostalgic about - political mediocrity might be highly underrated
troll
13 - SonnyD
Never thought I would say this, but I find myself agreeing with troll. Great speech writers are hard to find and the ability to sell a good speech is rare, also. A person blessed with both, plus a charismatic personality, has the ability to lead masses where ever they choose - like lemmings to the sea.
I was never a JFK worshiper, never built a shrine in my back yard like some did. But, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I believe he loved his country, but he had weaknesses. Whenever I hear his name, my first thought is always Bay of Pigs. A lot of people died because they believed they would have US backing that never came.
My second thought is Marylin Monroe. I don't know why, I didn't care what he did on his own time as long as he kept it out of the Oval Office. Maybe it was just sympathy for his wife and family that must have heard the gossip.
That said, when he died I did feel terrible and shed some tears. I didn't vote for the man but when he became president, he was my president and I hoped for the best for him. It is sad so many people, now, have lost that feeling. One country, one people, one president.
14 - Chief Wiggum
The sooner the remaining Kennedy's are dead or out of politics the better off we will all be.
15 - Natalie Davis
Ah, a man's inhumanity to humankind...
16 - dave nalle
troll, I really have to differ with your assertion that we're on the brink of a fascist police state.
Even the most extreme measures of the Patriot Act are impractical to apply or only impact a very few people in very limited circumstances. The war on drugs is more of a threat to liberty and most off its outrageous violations became law more than two decades ago.
We ahould be vigilant, but perhaps a bit less paranoid.
dave
17 - Silas Kain
Dave,
Perhaps I am locked in that childhood innocence lost 42 years ago but there's a huge part of me that believes we are hungering for a leader with vision, focus and the ability to meet the challenges of our times. JFK said "Ask not what your country can do for you; but what you can do for your country." That's what's lost, Dave. We've become so demanding of our country that we've forgotten our individual responsibilities to it. Leaders come in all shapes and sizes existing at local and national levels. While it may seem that we are faced with a leadership drought I honestly believe that this is a temporary condition which can be corrected. Thanks, Dave. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours as well as everyone else here at BC.This was such a beautiful piece. I can recall the assassination of JFK as if it were yesterday.
I was three days shy of my 8th birthday when he was cut down in Dallas. I remember going home from school and finding my mother in tears in the living room. What made it worse was the fact that she's deaf and in those days we didn't have closed captioning. As a CODA (child of deaf adults) I became my parents' personal translator. For those three and one half days I was transfixed in front of our black and white television translating everything being said by David Brinkley, Chet Huntley and Frank McGee. I remember classical music being played that first night on the screen. My parents were devastated. I remember Jack Ruby snuffing out Lee Harvey Oswald's life. I remember John-John Kennedy saluting his daddy and feeling sorry that we shared the same birthday. I remember the difficult time I had in explaining the backwards boots in the stirrups of that lone horse in the funeral procession. And, oddly enough, I remember the devastation painted on the face of France's Charles DeGaulle.
That Christmas my Dad crafted these beautiful pecan and mahogany picture frames with the President's official picture in them. He made at least a dozen giving them to family members as gifts. That was the first time in my life where I saw how much my Dad's woodowrking craft was a labor of love. As a matter of fact, President Kennedy's picture still hangs in my folks' living room as a constant reminder of what was and what could have been.
Little did I know that the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy would be just the beginning of a most tumultuous time in American history. From November, 1963 until the election of Richard Nixon in 1968 it seemed that I was giving my parents one tragedy after another. That's quite a burden on a kid who was just 8 years old. Over the years I've learned that there are thousands of persoanal stories about how people were affected. Those bullets fired in Dallas had far reaching effects into families in ways that we will never fully know.
The deaths of JFK, MLK and RFK along with the struggle for civil rights and the VietNam War shaped the person I would become. As I have recounted many times in private, had I not had deaf parents I may never have developed my love for politics, America and journalism. The Good Lord gave me a unique gift and opportunity. There were times I screwed that up but for the most part I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Many of us here at BC grew up during those times. I want to repeat a few of your words here:
18 - Dave Nalle
Great response and reminiscence, Silas. You should have written that up as your own entry for the 22nd, or save it for next year.
I was a bit younger when JFK was assassinated, and living in Jordan and not terribly in touch with events in America.
My first real recollection associated with JFK came a couple of years later when I was back in the states and at the same school as his kids and the subject came up in gym class - boys had separate gym class from girls, so Caroline was not there; I vividly recall the teacher going through the events in detail with chalk diagrams on the tarmac of the outdoor basketball court. Totally fascinating fo 8 year olds.
Of course I remember MLK and RFK much more personally, as I wrote a bit about last year on MLK day.
Dave
19 - Anthony Grande
Hey! Wasn't Kennedy the one who almost blew it in the missle crisis? Wasn't he the one who is the cause for the failure of the Bay of Pigs where several thousand Cuban refugees were left cold sitting on the shores of Cuba like sitting pig targets for Castro? Wasn't Kennedy the one who made a deal with the commies that he would not mess with Castro and save our Cuban brothers from communist poverty?
Where is Kennedy? He got sent to Hell by the Mafia because he betrayed them after they got him elected.
20 - Anthony Grande
Oh and I forgot this part, wasn't Kennedy the one who led our boys into the Vietnamese jungle?
I mean if it weren't for the draft I would support this move of his but I know how you liberals hate the Vietname War, so I thought I would bring it up.
21 - Dave Nalle
And as for leaders of JFK's caliber, I'm sure they are out there, doing good in their own communities. I'm just afraid they no longer feel the call to national service or are repelled by the current political environment.
Back at the turn of the century Gov. John Altgeld of Illinois wrote:
"What would be my advice to
the young man of today who is anxious to beome a millionaire? If you wish to get rich very quickly, then bleed the public
and talk patriotism. This may involve bribing public officials and dodging public burdens, the losing of your manhood and
the soiling of your fingers, but that is the way most of the great fortunes are made in this country now."
And from what I can tell the climate has gotten slowly and steadily worse to the point where leaders of principle either shy away from politics or end up corrupted by it before they can reach the national level.
Dave
22 - Anthony Grande
So are you saying that Kennedy didn't do that kind of stuff, Dave?
Kennedy won the deciding state of Illinois because he bargained with the Mafia and the Mafia rigged the election for him in turn Kennedy wouldn't appoint his brother to Attorney General. Kennedy gets elected and appoints Bobby anyway. For this Kennedy got his brains blown out.
Not corrupted, eh?
Ask his dad. Yeah, the bootlegger.
23 - Ebony Ghost
Dave, this is an excellent article. And, you're right. There's no reason to expect that a man of his caliber would put himself into the dog and pony show that passes for elections in this country.
As for the speechwriters, if they're the ones who actually believe the high sounding words, they should be the ones we're electing.
24 - troll
Dave - bugger the Patriot Act...the interesting thing about it is how quickly it was implemented - 'leaders' follow the trends emerging from the body politic
what yardstick can one use to 'measure' the level of fascism in a population - ?
how about willingness to surrender personal responsibility and choice for the greater good of the Nation...lets do a survey search
but becoming a fascist state might be like falling off a mountain - everything seems to be under control right up to that last scramble to catch your balance
In #2 I questioned the assumption of your article that the US faces a daunting enemy - any comment - ?
As for Kennedy - it was the shining idealistic rhetoric of his administration that convinced many to go kill for their country thus enabling the slaughter that was Vietnam
I'm afraid he went to hell
troll
25 - Chris
Great Question, I agree with your point that a leader of Kennedy's Caliber can't "weed through" all the bs that is in place in the parties. Having said that I think Barak Obama might have potential?
Who knows, i really liked his speech at the DNC, and i agree with his goal to see "purple" (red and blue mixed). This country needs a moderate leader that actually cares about the majority of the American Public.