Where do you dig this krep up. Dukakis a little known conservative governor? He was more liberal than Obama is and far more liberal than Kennedy. The thing he had in common with Zero is that he was also a control freak who did not pay any attention to the wishes of the electorate.
"Lone Wolf" wrote: > Ted Kennedy and the decay of American liberalism > 27 August 2009 > > The death of Massachusetts Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy on Tuesday > marks the end of the Kennedy family’s role as a major force in > American politics. Ted Kennedy, who succumbed to brain cancer at age > 77, served 47 years in the Senate. He was the last significant > political representative of a family that loomed large in American > political consciousness for more than half a century. > > Ted Kennedy died some 46 years after the horrific events in Dallas > that ended the administration and the life of his brother, John F. > Kennedy, and 41 years after the assassination of his remaining > brother, Robert F. Kennedy. (Joe Jr., the eldest brother, was a navy > pilot in World War II. He was killed when his plane exploded in August > of 1944). > > The political careers of the Kennedys span the entire post-war period. > Their personal tragedies are intimately bound up with the maelstrom of > American politics and the explosive character of class relations in > the United States. The assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy not > only devastated the Kennedy family, they brought to close a whole > stage of American liberalism. > > John F. Kennedy represented, in all of its contradictions, the > Democratic Party as it emerged from Roosevelt’s New Deal. He was > elected to the US House of Representatives from Massachusetts’ 11th > congressional district in 1946 and to the US Senate in 1952. He > entered Congress only one year after Roosevelt’s death and the end of > World War II. His father, Joseph Kennedy, a millionaire businessman, > had served in the Roosevelt administration. > > When Kennedy began his political career, American liberalism was > already deeply compromised by its association with American > imperialism and its embrace of anti-communism. Its decline was covered > over for a period by the immense resources of American capitalism, > which enabled the Democratic Party to make certain concessions to the > working class. These, in turn, were bound up with its alliance with > the right-wing labor bureaucracy. > > The United States emerged from World War II as the dominant world > imperialist power. American liberalism adopted the technique of > combining idealist rhetoric with collaboration in criminal > interventions by the US State Department, the CIA and the military > directed against the international working class. > > Even as it presented itself as the global champion of democracy and > freedom, the Democratic Party depended for its electoral success on > its control of the “Solid South,” which was based on its defense of > racial apartheid in much of the US. > > These contradictions would play a major role in the mounting crisis > that beset the Kennedy administration and its successor, that of > Lyndon B. Johnson, whose Great Society program of social reform > collapsed under the weight of the disastrous war in Vietnam and > economic problems linked to the unraveling of the post-war economic > boom. > > John Kennedy’s political career spanned the halcyon days of US global > dominance and the beginning of the breakdown of that dominance. > Kennedy was elected president in 1960 as a Cold War liberal. In the > White House, he attempted to marry a program of moderate domestic > reform with a more aggressive projection of American power > internationally. His administration was quickly caught up in the > contradictions of American capitalism both at home and abroad. > > Initially indifferent to civil rights, Kennedy became embroiled in the > political reverberations arising from the mass mobilization of African- > Americans in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and early 1960s. > He was assassinated in November of 1963. > > The Kennedy administration ended as events in Vietnam were driving it > toward a military escalation and full-scale war, a policy that was > undertaken by the Johnson administration. > > The presidential bid of Kennedy’s younger brother Robert as a belated > opponent of the Vietnam War also ended in gunshots in June of 1968. In > a turn of events pregnant with historical irony, Robert’s death paved > the way for Richard Nixon, who had been denied the presidency by John > Kennedy in 1960, to win the White House eight years later. > > The coming to power of Nixon was a turning point for American > liberalism. It marked the end of the period when the Democratic Party > represented a force for even limited social reform. > > Edward Kennedy, the youngest brother, won election to the US Senate in > 1962. His political career was permanently scarred by his personal > recklessness, which exploded in the tawdry episode in Chappaquiddick > in July, 1969, which involved the death of a Kennedy campaign aide. > More important, however, were vast changes in American politics and > the Democratic Party that gathered strength in the 1970s. > > Following the debacle of the McGovern campaign in 1972, the Democratic > Party moved sharply to the right. Underlying this development were > profound changes in the global economic position of American > capitalism, signaled by the breakup of the post-war Bretton Woods > monetary system and the ending of dollar-gold convertibility in August > of 1971. > > In 1976, the Democratic Party turned for its presidential candidate to > Jimmy Carter, a conservative southern governor. The uneasy > relationship between Carter and Kennedy broke down later in the 1970s, > leading to Kennedy’s bid to unseat Carter and win the Democratic > presidential nomination in 1980. By then, Kennedy himself had shifted > in a conservative direction, as epitomized by his vocal support for > deregulation of the airline and trucking industries. > > The Democratic Party, underscoring its turn to the right, rejected > Kennedy. His oft-quoted “the dream shall never die” speech at the 1980 > Democratic National Convention was, in fact, the last hurrah of > American liberalism. By then the program of American liberalism had > long since become hollow. Lacking any political substance, it > increasingly assumed a demagogic character. > > Following the half-hearted presidential campaign of Minnesota Governor > Walter Mondale in 1984, the Democrats turned in 1988 to a little known > conservative governor, Michael Dukakis, and a conservative southern > governor, Bill Clinton, in 1992. > > After 1980, there was little substance left in Kennedy’s professed > devotion to social reform, despite his becoming the perpetual target > of right-wing Republican attacks, which demonized him as an > unrepentant liberal. From then on, Kennedy became what could be called > a political minimalist—eschewing any serious attempt to enact major > social reforms. > > The American political establishment as a whole had shifted far to the > right, as embodied in the free market nostrums of Reagan. These > provided the political justification for a relentless assault on the > living standards and social position of the working class, which > continued under the Clinton and Bush administrations and continues > today under Obama. > > In death, Kenney is being eulogized as the “Lion of the Senate” —a > master legislator and advocate for the common man. While the personal > tragedies of the Kennedys evoke in the public a certain sympathy for > Ted Kennedy, the fact remains that his name is not associated with a > single serious social reform. He spent his final decade sponsoring > bipartisan measures of a right-wing character, such as George W. > Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act”—an attack on public education—and a > punitive bill targeting undocumented immigrants that failed to win > passage in Congress. > > Kennedy supported Obama in the 2008 election, in part out of animus > toward Bill Clinton, whom he privately despised. The dark irony of his > life is underscored by the fact that his signature political cause, > which he promoted for nearly 50 years—universal health care—has been > turned by Obama into a cover for a ruthless drive to gut health care > for millions of working Americans. A bill to slash health care costs > for big business and the government was being debated in Congress as > Kennedy lay dying. > > Barry Grey > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
