"As Kennedy tilted left, the Democratic Party generally followed."
Daniel J. Flynn in City Journal [click to read] offers a bit of perspective on how the Democratic Party drifted from a position of representing the people to representing the interests of a coalition of leftist interest groups. One leader of the journey leftward was Senator Kennedy.
"Massachusetts steadily drifted left. Where Massachusetts went, its longest-serving senator followed—and where Ted Kennedy went, the Democratic Party followed. Democrats lined up behind Kennedy because they believed in the Church of Camelot, because Kennedy embraced the FDR–LBJ activist-government model that had served the party well during its heyday, and because they had the tendency to mistake the most liberal voice in the room for the smartest voice in the room. The story of Democratic Party presidential politics between 1968 and 1984 reads something like Waiting for Godot, with the youngest Kennedy brother playing the title character."
But to look at brother John's legacy, turning back Soviet ships carrying missles to Cuba, cutting tax rates to spur the economy, one would have to conclude that JFK's legacy is far closer to Reagan's than the policies of Camelot today. Ted started out believing that unborn life was worthy of protection. When he occupied the National stage, however, he became a strong advocate of abortion 'rights.' At a time when many in his church were holding prayer vigils outside abortion clinics, the youngest Kennedy was overwriting the rights of the unborn with 'privacy.' Thus, he ceased to represent a great number of Catholics who hold to the sanctity of unborn life.
Gradually Camelot became less and less representative of the majority of Americans but continued to exist out of the myth that it did.
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