A salient passage from Niall Ferguson's London Times column today. The column is behind a paywall, but this excerpt, aiming at the distinction between Donald Trump and John Kennedy, is worth pondering.
Don't forget the 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning "Profiles in Courage." And to think it only took 50 years for Ted Sorensen to admit he wrote it (a year before he died). And Obama gave Sorensen a National Humanities Medal in 2009 for advancing all the Kennedy Administration's insanity.
Isn't the Kennedy PR machine great? Gotta love those Kennedys, and all those causes they "stood" for. So much recklessness to this day, supplemented by the explosive "Do you know who I am?" episodes.
Which one has uplifting rhetoric that raises the human spirit, and which one says "Make America great again" while sending rhetoric down into the gutter at every opportunity?
So one of them said "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."
And which one retweets race-baiting lies from neonazis and when caught says innocently “Bill, am I gonna check every statistic?”
So "uplifting rhetoric" excuses the most wretched behavior, most obscene sexual peccadillos, repeated excesses in the form of drug use, the follies of nepotism and the execrable folly of sending others to their certain deaths in a pointless war?
Got it!
Like KFK, I'll hire a poet before my next "hit", act of infidelity, moral depravity or bank robbery. Need to be remembered for that "uplifting rhetoric."
Guess that was Hitler's and Mao's mistake: NO uplifting rhetoric covering those mass murdes.
Anonymous at 4:43 PM said... Like KFK, I'll hire a poet before my next "hit", act of infidelity, moral depravity or bank robbery. Need to be remembered for that "uplifting rhetoric."
I don't know about KFK, but certainly good looking "likeable" people are very annoying to unattractive and unlikeable people. The first group can get away murder, sometimes literally, while the second just look like envious whiners for speaking up.
What's scary about unlikeable Trump is to see how easily he makes his own disasters, while a another leader with an ounce of self-control could cause ten times more mischief just by knowing when to keep his mouth shut.
Clearly there are many worse villains than self-confessional Trump and we're setting up the game plan for the worst of them to follow in his celebrity footsteps.
Camelot.
ReplyDeleteThe "sainted" JFK was not saintly.
ReplyDeleteSorry to mention. 1. JFK was definitely 4-F. He shouldn't have been accepted for office work! Joe Sr's influence did the deed.
ReplyDelete2. As commander of PT-109, LT Kennedy should have been court-martialed. It was the ONLY PT boat rammed by a Jap warship. Due to gross incompetence.
Instead, JFK was hailed as a hero. I don't doubt his patriotism or courage. And the back injury was constant agony.
3. Joe Jr was apparently jealous. Some dingbat had a cockamamie idea. Load a bomber w/explosives, and crash land it in Germany.
The lone pilot would bail out. Joe Jr. On a veritable Kamikaze mission. He died trying.
Ferguson's brief summary does the rest.
JFK Jr. took a virtual suicIde flight with his wife.
I pity the star-crossed family. - Rich Lara
Camelot, sainthood and PT-109...
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning "Profiles in Courage." And to think it only took 50 years for Ted Sorensen to admit he wrote it (a year before he died). And Obama gave Sorensen a National Humanities Medal in 2009 for advancing all the Kennedy Administration's insanity.
Isn't the Kennedy PR machine great? Gotta love those Kennedys, and all those causes they "stood" for. So much recklessness to this day, supplemented by the explosive "Do you know who I am?" episodes.
My favorite Kennedyism came from Sen "Chappaquiddick" Ted when asked why he bitterly opposed an offshore wind "farm":
ReplyDelete"But you don't realize... that's where I sail!"
Which one has uplifting rhetoric that raises the human spirit, and which one says "Make America great again" while sending rhetoric down into the gutter at every opportunity?
ReplyDeleteSo one of them said "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."
And which one retweets race-baiting lies from neonazis and when caught says innocently “Bill, am I gonna check every statistic?”
So "uplifting rhetoric" excuses the most wretched behavior, most obscene sexual peccadillos, repeated excesses in the form of drug use, the follies of nepotism and the execrable folly of sending others to their certain deaths in a pointless war?
ReplyDeleteGot it!
Like KFK, I'll hire a poet before my next "hit", act of infidelity, moral depravity or bank robbery. Need to be remembered for that "uplifting rhetoric."
Guess that was Hitler's and Mao's mistake: NO uplifting rhetoric covering those mass murdes.
Anonymous at 4:43 PM said... Like KFK, I'll hire a poet before my next "hit", act of infidelity, moral depravity or bank robbery. Need to be remembered for that "uplifting rhetoric."
ReplyDeleteI don't know about KFK, but certainly good looking "likeable" people are very annoying to unattractive and unlikeable people. The first group can get away murder, sometimes literally, while the second just look like envious whiners for speaking up.
What's scary about unlikeable Trump is to see how easily he makes his own disasters, while a another leader with an ounce of self-control could cause ten times more mischief just by knowing when to keep his mouth shut.
Clearly there are many worse villains than self-confessional Trump and we're setting up the game plan for the worst of them to follow in his celebrity footsteps.