Ted Kennedy (1932-2009)

I think we, as a nation, have to take a long hard look at ourselves in terms of what kind of people we idolize. An incident, such as happened at Chappaquiddick, would have easily put the brakes on any Republican’s political career. And so it should. Republicans are routinely sidelined for far less. Wasn’t there one who couldn’t spell ‘tomato’; and another one who kept bumping his head while getting in and out of airplanes? Meanwhile, Dems get away with anything, cheating on taxes; abusing interns; lying under oath; stuffing classified documents into socks; running male prostitution rings out of brownstone basements; bribery; willful forgetfulness; even homicide, fancy that! (Did I say, “cheating on taxes?”) – I’m sure you can connect a Democrat name (or several) to every one of the crimes I have listed.

I’ve heard it inferred that Chappaquiddick was what made Ted Kennedy such an exceptionally good man; that the incident had haunted him throughout his life and he had vowed to atone for it by dedicating his life to public service. And, oh yes; he enjoyed sailing on his yacht.

Could an argument not also be made that Chappaquiddick disfigured good old Ted, and made him a menace? He was an outright elitist, after all. He wanted to force some version government of health care down the throat of every American (exempting himself, of course, and others of the ruling class elites); he wanted us to stop preparing for what are now certain to be energy shortfalls and embrace windmills (except where these might mar his view while out sailing). And didn’t he have something to do with education and immigration policy? And we all know how that is working out. It is almost as if he wanted to deliberately sabotage anything he could get his hands on. It’s almost as if he wanted to deliberately damage America – the land that had given him and his family so much. And, don’t forget, Ted Kennedy came out in support of Obama at a critical moment in last year’s campaign.

I saw the last part of the movie “Hair” (’79) yesterday. I had never seen it before and didn’t quite know what it was until the end. My wife told me the film was the signature of a generation. It was an innocent yarn containing a clumsy political message as well as a prediction at the end. The prediction came true. Those are the people who are now in charge. No longer innocent, they are bitter and out for revenge against God and country. They’re bitter because, despite everything, they’ve grown old. Many have a wreckage of relationships to look back on. They’ve become angry, determined to tear it all down which they see as being the next best thing to taking it with them.