Presidential candidate John F. Kerry is most definitely not
President John F. Kennedy. But as Kerry’s personal history
and the history of his party reveal, it is not for a lack of
will.
Kennedy has been the silent but not inaudible icon of the
Democratic Party. He has been the inspiration and the ideal behind
every Democrat of recent generations. The young energy,
intellectual prowess, smoothness of speech, wealth and polished
firmness that characterized Kennedy are attractive to the common
voter, let alone to the studied Democratic strategist. It helps, of
course, that Kennedy was murdered, which gained him sympathy from
the judges of history and immunity from the verdicts of future
history textbooks.
In the 1980s, Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart often
put his hand into the flap of his jacket, a confused habit Kennedy
had. Vice President Dan Quayle was notoriously chastised by Lloyd
Bentsen, who said, “Senator, you’re no Jack
Kennedy,” after Quayle compared Kennedy’s Senate record
with his own. More recently, President Bill Clinton often spoke of
Kennedy’s influence on his career in public service and in
areas that will not be discussed here.
But the influence and similarity seem to be most pronounced in
Kerry. The famous initials, a wartime record in the navy, an Ivy
League education, an upbringing in Massachusetts, tremendous
wealth, a solid Senate record and a brief family connection
certainly shed light on promising resemblances.
Resemblances also abound in Kerry’s style as a
presidential candidate. His pronunciation of words, the modulations
of his speech, his intellectual manner ““ his pose and his
poise ““ all remind us of the president that once was. Not
really because we see Kennedy in Kerry ““ far from it ““
but because he wants us to.
Kennedy might remind political ideologues of a man of honor and
charisma. But this memory would be only a predictable aftertaste of
the beliefs he inherited ““ through parent, school or
generation. To the historian or the political analyst, or even to
us, we see a man who at once set the democratic political standard
to be unreachably high, but the political character standard to be
inadequately low.
It is for these reasons that John F. Kennedy must be dethroned
as the Democrats’ ideal.
Kennedy lived and breathed in the time when Republicans and
Democrats agreed on staple American issues ““ national
security, relative economic freedom, and so on. He was a committed
anti-communist whose work on a labor committee convicted a
communist union officer. He was a cold warrior who fought with
personal interest and special zeal to surpass the Soviets in
science and military. He increased troops in Vietnam from 500 to
16,000. In his inaugural address, he declared to the world that the
United States would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardship … to assure the survival and the success of
liberty.”
What he promised to protect abroad, Kennedy determined to uphold
at home. In December of 1962, Kennedy proposed and Congress later
passed the largest tax cut in history up to that point. He demanded
“an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and
corporate income taxes.” He did it for the economy and for
the virtue of liberty.
But today’s Democrats, and particularly John Kerry, would
have none of this. Kerry’s torturously conceived anti-war
stance and his promised tax hikes fly in the face of
Kennedy’s policies and the convictions from which they were
derived.
What Kerry has hung on to and what the Democrats must let go of
is a shallow rendition of Kennedy’s personal style. After
all, under youthful elegance, there was youth. Throughout his 1960
campaign and his presidential term, Kennedy had a considerable
stint with adultery ““ he slept with prostitutes, flight
attendants, actresses and even supporters. In retaliation, the
nominal Jackie Kennedy went on expensive shopping sprees to
redecorate the White House. Amid these tussles and confusions,
depravity and vanity, the Kennedy family created a presidency that
was truly royal.
But the success of these strange circumstances depended on the
needs of the times ““ needs we do not share, times we cannot
now understand. The successes depended on a young and unique
character ““ youth we do not have, and distinctiveness that
has been copied time after insufferable time. Simply put, John
Kerry is too old and too late to be another John Kennedy.
At this juncture in history’s tale, in these present
struggles of terrorism and conviction, John Kerry looks like a sad
and hopeless parcel of history. Only his own style might vindicate
him and his party ““ and the icon he will never be.
Hovannisian is a second-year history and philosophy student.
E-mail him at ghovannisian@media.ucla.edu.Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.