General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: June 4, 1968: When America truly started going down the wrong track [View all]NNadir
(38,688 posts)RFK's assassination was a tragic event to be sure, but I am not convinced that he was a great man or that his survival and possible election to the Presidency would have been a good thing.
As an adult who has spent some time reading into the historical legacy of the Kennedy family rubbing off the sheen of the obvious charisma to get at the cores of the family beings, I'm not convinced that RFK Jr, the antivax nut in the cabinet is as much of an anomaly as is generally assumed.
The decline and fall of the United States, now accelerating into a death spiral has far more complex origins - the chief one being the distribution of wealth and the transformation of media into an instrument of propaganda - than the assassination of a marginally ethical political figure from a family isolated from reality by wealth and privilege. To my mind the only true liberal in that family was Ted, and it was only after he matured into such a role. He certainly didn't start there.
If nothing else we ought to consider the family's treatment of women to consider their ethical purview.
For the record the greatest Democratic President of all time, FDR, despised the family patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy, and for good reason.