Liberals have misread the last election. Obama ran as a moderate, intelligent, and sober guy. McCain ran as an incoherent, militaristic guy who was embarrassed about the most effective Republican wedge issues like immigration and the decline of the culture. McCain pulled his punches, the economy tanked and he had little intelligent to say, and Obama won. Liberals read this as a mandate for the extreme liberalism that Obama really believed in, always fought for, and effectively concealed. In the last few months, that real Obama and that real liberalism has manifested itself. It showed itself with the Professor Gates incident. It’s showed itself in the worrisome deficits Obama appears thoroughly unconcerned with. And it’s manifested itself in the Democrats’ health care proposals.
Now liberals everywhere, particularly politicos on the East Coast, are ga-ga over Senator Kennedy’s death. What can we say about him? I’ve heard from Senate staffers he can be personally charming and kind. He also occasionally engaged in bipartisan magnanimity, as in his actions after 9/11. That said, he has also been ruthlessly partisan, as in his defamations of Judge Bork and his soft-on-communism talk in the 80s. His personal demons bedeviled him throughout his tenure in the Senate, in particular a penchant for lechery and drunkenness. And, then, of course, there’s the Incident.
Like any human failing, his actions at Chappaquiddick are forgivable in the same way all is forgivable in the light of Christian truth. But it’s a serious thing. It’s criminally punishable. It’s shameful. In a just world, he’d be banned from offices of high honor on account of it. And if he had more character and less ambition, he’d have banned himself. Instead, he took advantage of the very un-American and womanly cult of personality that surrounds the Kennedy clan, the so-called mystique of Camelot. Well, if his admirers get to talk about Camelot, we get to talk about the Lady in the Lake.
Like health care and the CIA prosecutions, the love-fest over Ted Kennedy will remind the great majority of Americans that something is wrong. They have vague views of Kennedy as a drunk, a killer, a leftist extremist, and a beneficiary of nepotism and family money. The hagiography over this guy will remind them that the elites in media and government are quite unlike them; they don’t value what they value and don’t despise what they despise. Obama’s decision to get overly involved in this–apparently he’s scheduled to give a speech at Kennedy’s funeral–will be one more tone-deaf act from a guy whose understanding of America is incomplete. He certainly understands the hopes and dreams of young hipsters, white professional liberals, and black activists very well, as these were his people in Hyde Park. But he has no understanding of regular old middle class and working class white people of all ages who make up the bulk of apolitical and conservative-leaning voters in play. These are the independents. These were the ones who liked his talk of uniting America and were ready to throw in the towel on Iraq. These were the undecideds who broke for him. And these are the ones who are wondering if they made the wrong choice last November.
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I think it is interesting that bringing up the “incident” is looked upon as uncouth or extreme by most of left and mainstream. If he had done some jail time and shown some genuine remorse, it would be one thing. But he killed a woman and got away with it. There is nothing he could have done to make up for that except coming clean and accepting some sort of real punishment. The simple passage of time does not change that fact. We routinely hear about cold case murderors getting caught, and we rightly celebrate their capture, even though by that time their crimes are often ancient history. What is the difference here that makes Kennedy’s sin so forgivable and forgettable?
Teddy Kennedy was a noxious drunk, a sexual deviant and an unrepentant murderer posing as a U.S. Senator. The world became a better place the moment he assumed room temperature.
http://www.WheresTheHope.wordpress.com
The body is barely cold and the hate can’t restrain itself. Wow. Such a noble class of characters. Pathetic, man.
It’s one thing to trash liberalism and liberals; it’s quite another to piss on a man the very moment he’s died.
Grow the fck up.
I don’t think that pointing out that a man killed a woman and got away with it qualifies as “pissing” on him.
No? Fine. What about comment(s) number 2?
And how would you rate such splendid timing, in terms of common decency toward the deceased?
Btw, could you share, arguendo, the evidence you have that Kennedy is a murderer? Not your knee-jerk speculations, your evidence. I wasn’t there, like you, apparently. How did he murder her, MJK, exactly?
If the media, politicians, and the commentariat themselves were to observe a “moment of silence” for several weeks following the death of a prominent person, then criticism as well as lavish praise should be included. But no such reservation of judgment, obviously, has taken place among the Kennedy worshipers.
Predictably, the mass media have indulged themselves in a sickening display of fawning over the late senator. If his many non-admirers remain silent, the picture of Ted Kennedy as a great American, hero to the downtrodden, the last flower of the Camelot clan, etc. will be “set” like hardened concrete. For the sake of truth and refusal to let the leftist media write history, criticism too must see the light of day.
Whether leaving poor Mary Jo underwater in an air bubble that was exhausted over agonizing hours when Party Boy Ted could have immediately notified the authorities in time for her to be rescued — which there is little dispute about — was murder or negligent homicide is a question for lawyers to battle over. Either way, it speaks to his (lack of) character.
Umm. Good point. Best to not say just good things about the dead when they die. Hasten to add the negatives. Is that your standard practice at home?
Let us know when your funeral is planned so we can assure that balance imperative.
As to Chappaquiddick, clearly disgusting and disgraceful-his leaving the scene, recklessness, the booze. Plus the equivocations. But the grand jury passed on the murder rap, probably because of that damn legal tradition of evidence/proof.
I hate when that happens. Ruins an otherwise perfect narrative.
You don’t think it had anything to do with that other fine tradition of letting the Kennedy’s get away with anything? The facts are pretty simple. He drove a women off a bridge and left her to die an agonizing death when he very possibly could have saved her by simply reporting the accident. No one disputes that, and there’s nothing that can excuse that – it’s horrible, selfish, and evil, if we are even allowed to use that last word any more.
When somebody kills an innocent person, doesn’t get punished for it, and never shows true remorse, by golly, that pretty much outweighs everything else. So excuse us for not shutting up while the rest of the world canonizes this man, but that just doesn’t seem fair, particularly to the woman who didn’t get to live even a fraction of the long life Kennedy enjoyed.
To put it another way, what is more obscene – to talk ill of a man only recently deceased, or to let an unrepentant killer be lionized as a hero upon his death and to allow his victim to be dismissed as an irrelevancy?
Your points might have some credence if you exhibited some intellectual honesty.
Tell ya’ what: contact the grand jury and ask them if they made their C-quiddick decisions based on that tradition of “letting the Kennedy’s get away with anything.”
Get back to me when you’re man enough to accept a verdict that was based on an examination of the raw facts and evidence as opposed to, say, your warped perspectives.
Better yet, nevermind. That might ruin your world.
But do yourself a favor; quit pretending that MJK is somehow of any consequence to you or that you’re the only one in town to know she died. The story was news for, oh, two decades.
As to what’s obscene, you go right ahead and trash all the dead people you know. It should do wonders for your soul and keep you quite busy. Btw, when do we get an update from you on how MJK was a slut and a boozer and all the rest? Need that balance, ya’ know.
I actually think I am man enough to make up my own mind despite the verdict, but thanks for the irrelevent personal attack. I also happen to think that our expecations for our country’s leaders, and their ethics, actions, and legacies, do affect me and everyone else in the country. I will be sure to check with you next time though before I write about an issue so you can decide for me whether or not it is my business.
Dude, he killed an innocent woman, got away with it, and became one of the most powerful men in the United States. If you don’t think that’s a tremendous travesty and a stain on our nation’s integrity, I can only assume that you’ve allowed your ideology and/or partisanship to blind you to some basic moral truths.
“I actually think I am man enough to make up my own mind despite the verdict…”
Yes. Of course. Why did you think we ever thought differently. Your mind was made up before the incident ever happened. Dude.
Allow me to man-up and add that I’m relieved this creep is finally gone. It’s as if a stone was lifted from the nation’s heart on Aug. 25.
There’s a Latin saying, “De mortuis nil nisi bonum,’ and it means “About the dead, (say) nothing but good.” There is a certain wisdom, and a kind of honor in that philosophy. A dead man can’t defend himself. The family of the departed are grieving and don’t need to hear vitriol about someone they loved. http://asad123.wordpress.com
Asad123 is right. I will thus add that Ted Kennedy had the wisdom, the kindness of heart and spiritual strength not to subject my people and my culture to even more degradation and harm than he did. Clearly, he was less satanic than he could have been.
resh,
You’re a jerkoff.
The only tragedy is that Ted Kennedy lived as long as he did.
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