Posted on 06/02/2008 5:45:23 AM PDT by Nextrush
The killing of Robert F. Kennedy has always been submerged in mythology spread by a liberal media and educational elite that has its own ideology and "theology" in mind.
Kennedy's killing is bunched together with the assassinations of his brother John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King in a "Holy Trinity" of martyrdom that is an object of idolization and worship.
It is ironic that all three men were far from deities, but all too human as has been evidenced by the details of their extramarital "relationships" that have emerged over the years.
The other common mythology that was spread at the time of Bobby Kennedy's assassination was that it was just another "senseless act of violence" that was "committed with a gun."
In the early aftermath of the attack on RFK ABC-TV anchorman-commentator Howard K. Smith was already suggesting the need for some sort of "gun law."
The hidden reality of Kennedy's killing is that it was an early act of terrorism directed against the United States for supporting Israel.
Robert Kennedy's assasin was Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan who chose to shoot Kennedy, an known supporter of Israel, on the first anniversary of the Six-Day War. The war when Israeli troops entered and occupied Sirhan's "West Bank" homeland.
There are streets all over Jewish sections of Israel named after the Kennedy brothers (the dead ones).
Lots of weapons and $$ were funneled Israel’s way while they were in office.
Probably the ONLY thing they got right.
I have always considered Bobby to have been the most liberal and dangerous of the brothers.
Killed by an islamist.
He was a dreadful little weasel who was completely unqualified for his position as AG and other than his brother's assassination was totally unqualified to perform in any elected office
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Ditto to that.
I was 13 that summer and remember both assassinations clearly. It was an awful time for our country. It’s startling to look back and remember how sad and angry my family was..die-hard Republicans all- they were Americans first and the dinner table talk was MLK and RFK all spring and summer. The MLK shooting enraged them- when RFK was killed they were worried, even scared.
I think that was when it first dawned on me that one can have disparate feelings and thoughts about an event or person. My family detested the Kennedy’s and their politics- yet they grieved over the loss of RFK.
According to most historians, LBJ and RFK hated each other’s guts. JFK didn’t particularly like LBJ, but he was pragmatic enough to know he needed LBJ to win in 1960 and by all accounts treated him decently as his VP.
After JFK’s death, the buried hatchet got resurrected. RFK tried to stampede LBJ into naming him VP in 1964, but LBJ wanted to get rid of him altogether, which he did.
1968 was fascinating politically. Some try to tell us LBJ would have pulled out of the race no matter the outcome of New Hampshire (Gene McCarthy came within 7 pts of LBJ). I say bullsh!t. No politician folds unless he’s forced to and LBJ was one of the best. He simply saw the handwriting on the wall. If he had won big in New Hampshire, LBJ would have continued on and would likely have been renominated.
RFK, waiting like a spider, took advantage and began to campaign. In my opinion, he was a shoo-in for the nomination and Nixon would have had his hands full beating him.
The Drive-By Media wasn’t quite as functional as the PR arm of the Democrat Party back then as it is now. However, they would have unquestionably pulled out all the stops for RFK. Camelot and all that. It is my considered opinion that RFK would have beaten Nixon.
Nixon ran a “law and order” campaign in response to the riots and other civil unrest of the mid-60’s. IIRC, Pat Buchanan had a key role in formulating that strategy. The perception was that Hubert Humphrey was soft on crime and criminals and Nixon successfully exploited that.
Yep, that's quite possible. The sympathy vote alone would've been hard for opponents (primary and general) to overcome.
I await Caro’s last volume on LBJ. There should be some interesting tales about the LBJ/RFK dynamic. Recall, too, that LBJ and Hoover were old drinking buddies and you know that pi$$ed off RFK, since he was nominally Hoover’s boss as Attorney General.
I like what you said about your family being “Americans first.” It’s sad, but I just don’t sense that kind of attitude anymore. I wasn’t born when JFK was assassinated and was only a toddler when the other assassinations happened. My father-in-law (who lived through the depression and fought in WWII) told me once that he was glad that his sons weren’t old enough to know what was going on because it was just a horrible, horrible time.
I remember. My friends and I were pretty upset. To us, Kennedy seemed like a ‘cool’ guy...he was young, wore his hair longish, sort of like us. It was all ‘image’. I wasn’t much into politics in those days (most people I knew who were my age weren’t. Lots of hippies were just into the ‘image’ thing, although now they’ll tell you different). I don’t remember there being any controversy over the use of a gun. Lots of people had guns. I had one...no big deal.
Actually it was quite a big issue. After JFK's killing the liberals and the Drive-Bys made a big issue about "mail order" since that's how Oswald got the rifle. Then after RFK, the catch phrase was "Saturday Night Special." The killings were a big reason for the gun control laws enacted then.
Even back then, there were some who reveled in the news of the assasination.
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When JFK was shot, I was working midnight shift in a classified, high-security USAF installation in Japan. As soon as my partner and I heard the first report on Armed Forces Radio, I went into the commo room, woke the "CQ", and told him what had happened. His response was, "Good! I hope they killed the SOB!" Then he rolled over and went back to sleep.
Since AFR was announcing that the "Secretary of the Navy" (turned out to be ex-Secretary Connally) also had been shot -- it sounded possible that an attempted mass assassination of USGov officials might be underway.
As the senior troop on site, I took the responsibility of issuing weapons and calling and waking our CO. He later thanked me -- in writing -- and verbally -- several times -- for taking that initiative...
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FWIW, the Japanese people were devastated. Thousands of school children rode the train out to our host base (Yokota) bringing flowers. I have photos of JN troops saluting both nations' flags at half-staff -- with tears in their eyes...
By pure happenstance we watched “The House of Yes” via Netflix over the weekend.
Funny flik about a woman obsessed with Jackie O and the assassination.
Worth a rent for a laugh.
Might want to skip macaroni for dinner that night tho.
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AM
JFK was the last (or,perhaps,the *only*) Kennedy male that was ever worthy of the slightest bit of respect,IMO.
The CQ shouldn't have been sleeping.
In my army, you could have been court-martialed for that.
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