Posted on 01/27/2011 1:14:16 PM PST by presidio9
The 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedys inauguration recently passed, and the event was marked by much hoopla.
There were nostalgic observations about the brilliance of JFKs Ask not what your country can do for you speech that frigid January morning back in 1960.
And there was also a fair bit of blarney, such as pundit Chris Matthews on The Colbert Report implying that JFK became president at a time when there were still No Irish Need Apply signs.
(Matthews, by the way, more than made up for this slip by writing a brilliant piece in The Washington Post about the very Irish, bipartisan friendship between Tip ONeill and Ronald Reagan.)
Things also devolved into the absurd when it was revealed that the History Channel would not be running a docu-drama based on the life of JFK and other members of that fabled clan. Apparently, certain Kennedy family members did not want the shocking news revealed that JFK might have had a roving eye!
What not many people have noticed is that all of these JFK memories came just as folks on the other side of the political aisle were celebrating the centennial of Ronald Reagans birthday.
Perhaps people have not linked these two events because JFK is arguably the most iconic Democrat of the past half a century, while Reagan is the most iconic Republican.
That being the case -- to go along with the fact that both Reagan and JFK have strong Irish roots -- it does beg the question -- who is the greatest, the most enduring, Irish American president?
JFKs Irish roots, of course, are beyond reproach. The story of the journey from the wharves of Boston to Harvard to the White House has been told many times.
Perhaps this is what Ronald Reagans son Ron Junior had in mind when he traced his own presidential dads roots in his new book My Father at 100.
Yes, we know Reagans dad was an Irish Catholic with a drinking problem, and that Dutchs great-grandfather, Michael, left Ballyporeen, Co. Tipperary, for the U.S. But Ron Junior traces the Reagan roots all the way back to 10th century Ireland. None of which is necessary. Because in the end, Ronald Reagans greatest impact on Irish America for better worse could be seen in the past several decades. In that sense, Reagan is very similar to JFK.
Fifty years ago, it may have been hard to find a No Irish Need Apply sign.
But many Irish were still working class members of tough ethnic neighborhoods, not to mention devout members of a foreign religion. (It was only in 1950 that Paul Blanshards best-selling anti-Catholic tract American Freedom and Catholic Power sold almost half a million copies.)
Thus, the election of JFK was seen as an arrival, if not to the mainstream, then at least respectability.
Ah, but how the times swiftly changed. That hard-earned respectability was often sneered at as JFKs noble 1960s veered off course and steered the U.S. into a period bordering on cultural anarchy.
A mere five years after JFKs death, Reagan, in his run for the governors seat in California, tapped into Irish American frustration. A group that had striven so hard for acceptance was now being told that it was lame and square to strive for acceptance.
As the old saying goes, you become more conservative when you actually have something to conserve. This was only more true by 1980.
And of course, it is easy to see a connection between JFKs poignant journey to his ancestral home in New Ross, Co. Wexford, in 1963, and Reagans trip to Ballyporeen some 20 years later.
But Reagan probably cemented his relationship with the Irish and other white ethnics in 1986 during the 100th anniversary celebrations for the Statue of Liberty which was seen as a new Plymouth Rock for generations of Irish Americans who had intermarried with other ethnic groups.
Whos the greatest Irish president? In just 1,000 days, JFK did set a tone and agenda remarkable for its ambition, from civil rights and the cold war to space exploration.
Reagan, though, was a game-changer. Even Democrats who have sought to carry JFKs torch -- Obama, Clinton -- have voiced admiration for The Gipper and even copied certain policies, from cutting taxes to cultural conservatism.
Again, for better or worse.
(Contact tomdeignan@earthlink.net)
“When Kennedy had the opportunity to overthrow Castro at the Bay of Pigs, he chickened out.”
Moreover, his youthful inexperience led the Soviet leadership to think they could get away with placing missiles in Cuba, bringing us closer to nuclear war than at any other time in history. JFK had the luck of the Irish to dodge a catastrophe during that crisis. By the time Reagan took office, the Soviets had reached parity or possibly attained slight strategic superiority in nuclear weaponry with the U.S. Yet I would argue that the U.S. was far safer under Reagan’s watch than JFK’s.
“Maybe because Reagan was from humble beginiings and worked for a living. OTOH, JFK lived off the ill-gotten gains of his bootlegging, criminal, womanizing, mafia-loving, daughter-lobotomizing father. Good character in the genes vs bad character.” Ya forgot NAZI-Loving too!
Assassin’s bullets have a habit of over-hyping their recipient’s historical reputations. JFK was a mediocre president, MLK was a quasi-communist and serial adulter, which you won’t hear much about these days.
I bet if that assassination attempt against Hitler had succeeded in 1944, he would have enjoyed a much higher reputation than he has today after committing a squalid act of suicide in his bunker...
Actually, I think the Marxism is inherent in your interpretation. You are equating the government with the country. I see them as two very different, if not competing entities. The way our founders envisioned America, if you are living up to your full potential as an individual, you are in fact serving the ideals America was founded on. One needn't serve the "state" i.e. government to serve one's country.
Reagan’s brain was functioning at a higher level when he left office?
MLK= Martin Luther King?
News to me that a card-carrying Republican in the mid 1960’s was a communist. Can you document that?
This may, in fact, have been JFK’s intent. Still, if you look at the Liberal intepretation of his statement, many people took his remarks to mean “Government Service”. You perhaps remember young people especially who saw this as a left-wing rallying cry to “get into” politics on behalf of misguided liberal causes.
As I see it, the primary purpose of government, is to Provide for the common defense. If I participate in this, I have indeed ‘served my country’. Beyond that, I think that most of us here, at Free Republic, would prefer to be left alone...
BTW, I did a Dogpile search using “Martin Luther King communist sympathiser” as the search term, and every link I clicked on was a refutation of the claim.
Even Snopes says NOT true.
IMHO, we let the left control too much of the vocabulary in our national dialogue, and they have long worked to forge equivalence between "government" and "country". Remember after OKC, Clinton's line, "You can't say you love your country, and hate your government"? I would beg to differ with him, and I suspect our founders would too.
In any case, IMHO, my "country" and its ideals were established by, and codified in the Declaration of Independence. The American nation is an idea, which I try to serve every day, and expect nothing from. As a veteran, I'm certainly not saying that government service is irreconcilable with serving one's country, and in fact should be perfectly compatible with it, but historically speaking, it does not always work out that way, and when some in government are their to serve themselves rather than the public, the interests of the government can be directly at odds with the interest of the nation.
JFK accomplished little. Most of his legacy is the result of Lee Harvey Oswald being a better marksman than John Warnock Hinckley, Jr.
The author is flawed. JFK delivered his inaugural speech on a cold day in 1961! NOT 1960. He was still running for POTUS in 1960.
Really, what did he accomplish? The Peace Corp? a great front for the CIA. Alliance for Progress? Ditto and a great tool for imperialism.
JFK did nothing and accomplished nothing but in that sense, he's the perfect leftist hero.
Well, lets just say the communist sympathiser label is not proven. He was certainly an adulter though.
Also bear in mind that back in the 60s, black people were still generally republican in their sympathies because Democrats were still associated with the old dixiecrats that had held sway in the South since the Civil War. MLK would probably have transferred his allegience like many of his friends such as Jesse Jackson did to the Democrat Party had he lived...
This assumes that we exist to serve the State. Few have caught on to the Marxism inherent in this line.
Actually, it was Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman Consul, philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, constitutionalist and Republican who said Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country, some time in the first century BC. A thousand years from now, historians will remember Cicero long after JFK has become a footnote in our American story.
Incidently, Cicero was peaking to the Senate, not the citizens, when he said it.
Cicero
Let's see: He ran against Nixon and would have run against Goldwater. Are you sure you're on the right website here?
Ron’s tax cuts, defeating the Cold War opponents, giving America confidence after Nam, and for valuing Const. as well as Biblical values makes Reagan easily the best Prez since Teddy Roosevelt. FDR, IKE JFK all have some cred because of military experience in war and love for the nation even if two of the 3 seemed to love Federal Expansion but at least they all loved America. I cannot say that about the present WH resident. I wish I could because of my age and patriotism but I cannot.
Reagan, though, was a game-changer.
Any adult back then with an ounce of political sense knew John F. Kennedy was one thing: he was telegenic. Period.
Without TV JFK would never have gotten enough authentic votes to enable the Mob and Democrat party fraudulent votes to steal the election.
Anyone remember Vaughn Meader comedy albums? The Kennedys were show business.. ruthless though when it came to getting what they wanted. Especially RFK.
Reagan was the real deal. JFK was fluff by comparison; superficial, a Senate super rich playboy -- and a playboy president. Surprise.
Where are the likes of Nixon & Goldwater today?
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