The Kennedy myth was always a fraud. Yet a very good book Camelots End reminds that at the bottom of the false fairy tale, the lies, the corruption were men.
The book is sympathetic to both Jimmy Carter, who had no ability to be President, and Edward Kennedy, who was unfit for the Presidency, though damned by family history to run.
That’s history, but pity is in order and the author, Jon Ward, has sympathy for his subjects, especially the Kennedy brothers. These men created in the image of God endured much, harmed more, and yet the last of them found some measure of peace.
This is a book about Senator Edward Kennedy, his run for the White House, and the worst President of the 20th century who beat him. Jimmy Carter ended Camelot by being a decent man. He was bad at being President, insufferable as an ex-President, but has outlived all his foes. He endured to the end and so now his reputation in the short term will be saved.
I was born in 1963, so I did not have to endure the spin, the lies, and the media frenzy. My folks did. My parents never fell for “Camelot” the legend of Kennedy, any Kennedy. They had been in ministry longspot a fraud and John F. Kennedy, fawning media and all the life story Daddy’s money could buy, was obvious.
My parents were, as they are now, not most Americans. We bought what we were sold and for a long time John F. Kennedy lingered at the top of popular polls for great Presidents.
The assassination of the President was horrible and then his brother was killed running for the office. The last brother, Teddy, was unfit for any office, but there, pushed into the Senate by family money and a sycophantic media and constantly urged to run for office by legend, office seekers, and ego.
Pity Teddy, who ran just too late for the fawning media he expected. Instead, he got normal questions from a real reporter, Roger Mudd. Mudd showed a Kennedy come to a battle of wits unarmed and that did not fit Camelot.
Kennedy expected to crush President Carter, who hit 19% in the polls.
Instead, Kennedy “umm-ed” his way to trouble and then ran a campaign as undisciplined as his life. The result was failure. Carter beat Kennedy like Rome beat Greece, Carter was the nominee, but Kennedy won the heart of the Party. Ronald Reagan sacked the Democrats.
This book reports honestly on the failures of both Jimmy Carter and Edward Kennedy and the long life that provided elite vindication for both. Carter broke most of the rules for being an ex-President and kept intervening in foreign affairs, sometimes to good effect, but often frustrating Presidents Republican (Bush) and Democrat (Clinton).
Carter is a decent man. Kennedy seems to have become a better one. This is the story of two men who inherited the Democratic Party of Franklin Roosevelt and destroyed it. In 1980, I recall watching the Democratic Convention and hearing Happy Days are Here Again and not understanding where this song, from forty years ago, had to do with anything. Carter and Kennedy had made us forget.
When I hear Lee Greenwood keep singing Proud to be an American I recall Ronald Reagan knowing my adult children have no idea why it moves me.
1980 is so long ago, but Reagan smashing Carter changed much. Kennedy anticipated the new Democratic Party still two decades away, but as a result destroyed the Roosevelt coalition. Reagan smashed the Democrats twice. Bill Clinton acknowledged this new reality and won by being a conservative alternative to Bush. Only when the demographics of the nation changed could Democrats in the Edward Kennedy mold become competitive again.
This is calm book, sympathetic to both men, especially worth reading if you missed the 1970’s the first time. Nothing is as it was then, but what was made what is.
Learn it. Camelot ended when reality caught up with the lies.
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