All day today, I heard how Kennedy was loved by many people for his many acts of kindness. This made me wonder how he could have been such a kind and thoughtful person but still have done the kinds of things that he did. I think Kennedy's redemption was in the bottle and in the love of the world. When one didn't work the other took over. I think he really needed the approval of the world as a way of validating himself as a good human being. This may be true of many liberals such as Rousseau, Arthur Miller and John Lennon. Remember how Lennon was always working for world peace while abandoning his own son?
From many of the things that I have read about the Kennedy's, they are a very dysfunctional family. Even Jackie Kennedy tried to keep her kids away from the Kennedys. The Kennedys seem to be a combination of out-of- control ambition and denial. They seem to just pretend not to see anything that is unpleasant.
I didn't know about Rousseau, but from the many Lib people I have known, or known about, through the years, I can see that personal apathy you describe. Let your own children do without but “save the world”. I think the Kennedy family goes back to Joe, Sr. (the sins of the fathers visited upon the sons to the second and third generations). Joe and his family first made their fortune doing things that were against the law (bootlegging). That attitude of being above the law permeated through to his sons, his grandsons and who knows how far.
I, too, think Ted was trying to prove his worth as a human being. In a post a few days ago, someone was quoted as saying Ted Kennedy had deep conflicts with his faith and his political stances. His conflict was that he knew his church severely disapproved of some laws he promoted, yet he couldn't see ever departing from the uber-Liberal way. He would risk his political life by standing up for the unborn, for example, and he could not see a way of life outside politics and the power it gave him. Was it a Faustian bargain? Maybe. But like I said, it's between him and God now. No one can change the past.