CHAPPAQUIDDICK
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THERE. WE SAID IT. ANYBODY GOT ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY?
THE LAST OF THE 1960's KENNEDY BROTHERS IS DEAD. LET THE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION BEGIN!
YOUTUBE: ANOTHER KENNEDY FUNERAL
"Robert Kennedy Funeral- Eulogy delivered by Senator Edward Kennedy"
"Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why?' I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?'
"Teddy Was A Murderer. Teddy Was Fat. Teddy Was A Drunk. Teddy Divorced His Wife."
Worst of all, Teddy Kennedy was a liberal. And a damned effective one, too; a rarity in our conservatively-gridlocked government. Out of sheer Irish stubbornness, Teddy persevered. He never wanted to be a politician. He was never quite ready to go all the way. But he could not let the murder of his two older brothers stand. He could not let the assassins win. He may have been reluctant to pick up the banner and lead the charge, but he did pick it up and he did fight on. And for that we all owe him and his entire family our gratitude.
In our corporate medieval State, only the rich may hold high office. Those who are not extremely wealthy, or in their employ, are not even entitled to an opinion. We technoserfs do have the enhanced ability to communicate and express our opinions to each other, but no one in power will ever hear us: Except those who choose to take up our cause, out of enlightened self-interest, a guilty conscience, noblesse oblige, actual concern or whatever: It hardly matters why. There are so damned few millionaires and billionaires who are even aware much less concerned about the problems of the peasantry that we peasants can not afford to be too critical of them when they do work for us, the plebian majority, and not for their own ilk, the aristocratic minority.
So, even if all the worst things that the corporate technobility and their lackeys can say about such rare champions of the commoners should turn out to be true, all that really matters is that they fought for our side. They were among the very few who were willing to give us peons even a small voice in our own affairs. Without these few knights errant, we would have absolutely no say, and no stake in the grand illusion once known as the American Dream. And now that Teddy Kennedy is dead, we all have that much less influence on our own "democratic" government. So, yes, we have reason to mourn. Our healthcare may have just died with him.
As to the peccadilloes, real or imagined, we suspect that they are no worse than the high crimes and misdemeanors which mark every phase of the careers of our leading opponents on the corporatist side. And if Teddy Kennedy did commit any offenses, they were not offenses against us, the people. The worst offenses of all liberals and progressives combined would never rise to the level of perfidy and harm to the interests of average Americans as did conservative and crypto-Fascist crimes such as the Great Depression of Herbert Hoover; the military-industrial complex of Dwight Eisenhower; COINTELPRO, the Phoenix Program and the Watergate Break-In of Richard Nixon; the pardon of Nixon by Gerald Ford; the trashing of our standard of living and the Iran-Contra Affair of Ronald Reagan; the betrayal of our troops and the sell-out to the oil companies in the First Gulf War of George HW Bush; or the looting of our economy and the high treason of allowing or perpetrating 9/11 by George "Dubya" Bush and Dick Cheney. No amount of private personal wrong-doing by Democrats, real or imagined, will ever equate with the actual documented public official crimes against all Americans committed by Republican after Republican after Republican after Republican.
As to the events of 7/18/69, we have heard it said, in Teddy Kennedy's defense, that his brakes were tampered with, or that the bridge at Chappaquiddick was. We have seen accounts claiming that the Kennedy's realized this and that their slow response to that tragic accident was due to uncertainty as to whether to make an accusation that they could not immediately prove as to deliberate sabotage in that incident. They may have realized that, whether the "accident" was in fact an attempt at assassinating Teddy Kennedy, or merely an attempt at character assassination, all they could do was try to limit the damage, and soldier on in the cause of the common man.
If this was a cold political calculation, there are no warm ones. Nor were there many soldiers left standing to fight for us average Joe's & Josie's. The dark days of Nixon were upon us, JFK, RFK & MLK were dead, and Teddy and a handful of others in Congress were all we had. We are glad that they did soldier on in our cause, which otherwise might have been lost along with Mary Jo Kopechne's life. May she rest in peace, and may we some day know whether she was the victim of an assassination attempt gone wrong or not. (Unlikely as that may seem, more unlikely things have happened.)
What went right is that Teddy Kennedy became a senior member of our national legislature, able to use his power and influence on our behalf, which he did for almost another forty years. That is the real reason he was targeted, if not for assassination then for character assassination, every day of his life. He withstood that and, in doing so, justified the faith that working people everywhere had in him and his family. In poor and working class homes, black, white, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American, in all fifty States and various Territories, there are pictures hanging of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, icons of courage and sacrifice, symbols of justice and solidarity, reminders of our values and our aspirations. The late Democratic Massachusetts senior Senator Edward Moore Kennedy's portrait belongs in every household beside those other champions of social and economic justice.
The power of these images, the strength we derive from them, may be the reason why, until recently, the Right stopped even talking about making everlasting martyrs out of our liberal & progressive champions. It proved easier and more effective to simply slander them out of public life and end their political effectiveness: Thomas Eagleton, Edmund Muskie, Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, et al, fell victim to the corporate conservatives' "politics of personal destruction." A public used to suckling at the toxic glass teat with the perspicacity of newborns was easily led into voting against their own interests by the tame corporate media moo-cows. We can only hope that they are weaning themselves off that poisoned boob, and are coming to recognize their own interests and their own enemies.
Despite all the snide asides we will witness on the boob tube in the next days and weeks, let us all always remember, Teddy Kennedy was on our side. You can tell by the kind of people who will take one last opportunity to kick him, now that he is down for good. At least Teddy, often alone among the one hundred millionaires in the United States Senate, stood up for us. You done good, Mr. Kennedy. Thank you, and may you rest in peace.
.
.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!
THERE. WE SAID IT. ANYBODY GOT ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY?
THE LAST OF THE 1960's KENNEDY BROTHERS IS DEAD. LET THE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION BEGIN!
YOUTUBE: ANOTHER KENNEDY FUNERAL
"Robert Kennedy Funeral- Eulogy delivered by Senator Edward Kennedy"
"Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why?' I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?'
"Teddy Was A Murderer. Teddy Was Fat. Teddy Was A Drunk. Teddy Divorced His Wife."
Worst of all, Teddy Kennedy was a liberal. And a damned effective one, too; a rarity in our conservatively-gridlocked government. Out of sheer Irish stubbornness, Teddy persevered. He never wanted to be a politician. He was never quite ready to go all the way. But he could not let the murder of his two older brothers stand. He could not let the assassins win. He may have been reluctant to pick up the banner and lead the charge, but he did pick it up and he did fight on. And for that we all owe him and his entire family our gratitude.
In our corporate medieval State, only the rich may hold high office. Those who are not extremely wealthy, or in their employ, are not even entitled to an opinion. We technoserfs do have the enhanced ability to communicate and express our opinions to each other, but no one in power will ever hear us: Except those who choose to take up our cause, out of enlightened self-interest, a guilty conscience, noblesse oblige, actual concern or whatever: It hardly matters why. There are so damned few millionaires and billionaires who are even aware much less concerned about the problems of the peasantry that we peasants can not afford to be too critical of them when they do work for us, the plebian majority, and not for their own ilk, the aristocratic minority.
So, even if all the worst things that the corporate technobility and their lackeys can say about such rare champions of the commoners should turn out to be true, all that really matters is that they fought for our side. They were among the very few who were willing to give us peons even a small voice in our own affairs. Without these few knights errant, we would have absolutely no say, and no stake in the grand illusion once known as the American Dream. And now that Teddy Kennedy is dead, we all have that much less influence on our own "democratic" government. So, yes, we have reason to mourn. Our healthcare may have just died with him.
As to the peccadilloes, real or imagined, we suspect that they are no worse than the high crimes and misdemeanors which mark every phase of the careers of our leading opponents on the corporatist side. And if Teddy Kennedy did commit any offenses, they were not offenses against us, the people. The worst offenses of all liberals and progressives combined would never rise to the level of perfidy and harm to the interests of average Americans as did conservative and crypto-Fascist crimes such as the Great Depression of Herbert Hoover; the military-industrial complex of Dwight Eisenhower; COINTELPRO, the Phoenix Program and the Watergate Break-In of Richard Nixon; the pardon of Nixon by Gerald Ford; the trashing of our standard of living and the Iran-Contra Affair of Ronald Reagan; the betrayal of our troops and the sell-out to the oil companies in the First Gulf War of George HW Bush; or the looting of our economy and the high treason of allowing or perpetrating 9/11 by George "Dubya" Bush and Dick Cheney. No amount of private personal wrong-doing by Democrats, real or imagined, will ever equate with the actual documented public official crimes against all Americans committed by Republican after Republican after Republican after Republican.
As to the events of 7/18/69, we have heard it said, in Teddy Kennedy's defense, that his brakes were tampered with, or that the bridge at Chappaquiddick was. We have seen accounts claiming that the Kennedy's realized this and that their slow response to that tragic accident was due to uncertainty as to whether to make an accusation that they could not immediately prove as to deliberate sabotage in that incident. They may have realized that, whether the "accident" was in fact an attempt at assassinating Teddy Kennedy, or merely an attempt at character assassination, all they could do was try to limit the damage, and soldier on in the cause of the common man.
If this was a cold political calculation, there are no warm ones. Nor were there many soldiers left standing to fight for us average Joe's & Josie's. The dark days of Nixon were upon us, JFK, RFK & MLK were dead, and Teddy and a handful of others in Congress were all we had. We are glad that they did soldier on in our cause, which otherwise might have been lost along with Mary Jo Kopechne's life. May she rest in peace, and may we some day know whether she was the victim of an assassination attempt gone wrong or not. (Unlikely as that may seem, more unlikely things have happened.)
What went right is that Teddy Kennedy became a senior member of our national legislature, able to use his power and influence on our behalf, which he did for almost another forty years. That is the real reason he was targeted, if not for assassination then for character assassination, every day of his life. He withstood that and, in doing so, justified the faith that working people everywhere had in him and his family. In poor and working class homes, black, white, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American, in all fifty States and various Territories, there are pictures hanging of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, icons of courage and sacrifice, symbols of justice and solidarity, reminders of our values and our aspirations. The late Democratic Massachusetts senior Senator Edward Moore Kennedy's portrait belongs in every household beside those other champions of social and economic justice.
The power of these images, the strength we derive from them, may be the reason why, until recently, the Right stopped even talking about making everlasting martyrs out of our liberal & progressive champions. It proved easier and more effective to simply slander them out of public life and end their political effectiveness: Thomas Eagleton, Edmund Muskie, Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, et al, fell victim to the corporate conservatives' "politics of personal destruction." A public used to suckling at the toxic glass teat with the perspicacity of newborns was easily led into voting against their own interests by the tame corporate media moo-cows. We can only hope that they are weaning themselves off that poisoned boob, and are coming to recognize their own interests and their own enemies.
Despite all the snide asides we will witness on the boob tube in the next days and weeks, let us all always remember, Teddy Kennedy was on our side. You can tell by the kind of people who will take one last opportunity to kick him, now that he is down for good. At least Teddy, often alone among the one hundred millionaires in the United States Senate, stood up for us. You done good, Mr. Kennedy. Thank you, and may you rest in peace.
.
.
Labels: assassinations, Chappaquiddick, character assassination, JFK, liberal, Lion of the Senate, Mary Jo Kopechne, Massachusetts, MLK, RFK, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Teddy, working people's champion
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SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!
posted by Cosa Nostradamus @ 8/26/2009 12:03:00 AM
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2 Comments:
Cosa, this is your bestest, most powerful post to date. Wow.
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Merci beaucoup, Madame Skye. Thanks for stopping by.
We've all lost something which will never be regained. So many things that might have been...
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