What Killed JFK (barf alert: "right wing" hatred threatens Obama..just as it "ended" JFK's life)

New York Magazine ^ | November 20, 2011 | Frank Rich

[Seizethecarp]

Immediately after the assassination and ever since, the right has tried to deflect any connection between its fevered Kennedy hatred and Oswald’s addled psyche with the fact that the assassin had briefly defected to the Soviet Union.

America’s violent culture wars had started before JFK was shot. They were all on display in Oswald’s Dallas. At least in 1963, polling showed that only 5 percent of the country—a fringe—subscribed to the radical anti-government views championed by the John Birch Society and other militants of the right. These days, that fringe, whether in the form of birthers or the tea party or the hosts of Fox & Friends, gives marching orders to a major political party.

…read Manchester or 11/22/63 or any other account of that time, and the vitriol that was aimed at Kennedy in life seems as immediate as today. It’s as startling as that “You lie!” piercing the solemnity of a presidential address like a gunshot—or the actual gunshots fired at the White House last week by another wretched waif. In the end, that political backdrop is what our 44th and 35th presidents may have most in common. The tragedy of the Kennedy cult is that even as it fades, the hothouse brand of American malice that stalked its hero stalks our country still.

[Java4Jay]

I believe our own government took out Kennedy. He was going to pull the advisors out of Vietnam and 'they' weren't going to let that happen.

[Texas Fossil]

What Killed JFK?

The bullet of a Commie Defector. (and possibly some friends)

Certainly not a person from the “right”.

[sodpoodle]

Are you sure that CIA chart is allowed in the public domain?

My supervisor says it’s EO material and I trust him.

[Texas Fossil]

Cuban Mafia payback.

[Finny]

Do not ever think that this is not their preferred solution to the enormous problem that Obama poses for them.

You said it, Brother FReeper. You're right about praying for the effectiveness of the Secret Service in protecting that bastard from being assassinated by his own. Will add it to my prayer list. I'm a big believer in the power of prayer.

[Fiji Hill]

This sounds like a rerun of 1963-1964, when the media tried to blame the assassination on conservatives. For example, a bestselling book, Dallas, Public and Private: Aspects of an American City by Leslie Warren (New York: Grossman, 1964) portrayed Dallas as a right-wing hotbed. Oswald's leftist background was just an inconvenient truth.

[11Bush]

Pray that the Secret Service continues to be as effective as they have been since that day in November, now so long ago.

You mean like Squeaky taking a shot at Ford, or maybe Hinkley actually shooting Reagan?

There is no stopping a determined individual from doing harm if he decides to do so.

[buffaloguy]

ahh...Frank Rich: Theatre Critic, foreign policy analyst and political pundit all rolled into one....

Or maybe not....

[Fiji Hill]

I say it was a mob hit. Was the Cosa Nostra liberal or conservative?

The Cosa Nostra practiced population control by killing a lot of people, so it was liberal.

[Barney Gumble]

I’ve seen this factually incomplete accounting of Kennedy’s assasination often, including something on the History Channel.

Kennedy was going to Dallas
Kennedy was facing protests by conservatives
Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald.

While all three statements are true, they leave out the fact that Oswald was a radical Marxist.

[gitmogrunt]

http://viewzone2.com/lbj/indexx.html

[Mr. K]

A bullet from the grassy knoll area killed Kennedy

As a Physicist there is NO WAY they can convince me otherwise, after seeing the Zapruder film.

[Nebr FAL owner]

When the RATS bring this up ALWAYS REMIND THEM THAT OSWALD WAS A COMMUNIST 8*> JUST LIKE THEM!

[The Duke]

I remember as a 10-year-old kid being puzzled at how much difficulty everyone was having trying to identify the killer. As a kid it just seemed like common sense to me that the killer must be the new President.

[sodpoodle]

****the right has tried to deflect any connection between its fevered Kennedy hatred****

There was no such thing as ‘right’ and ‘left’ in the 50’s-60’s. You were a Democrat anti-communist or a Republican anti-Communist. Women loved JFK’s looks and men loved his Navy exploits. He was ‘popular’ not hated.

The movement for racial desegregation was still embryonic and Southern whites were still Democrats - so it was not a racist-motivated assassination either.

[bgill]

Ooh, ooh! I know! I know! A bullet? Am I right, huh, huh? Am I right?

[Carl LaFong]

Ah, yes,
‘Tis the season.
Nov 22.
Kennedy Konspiracy Krismas.
Gentlemen, start your goofball theories!

[Travis McGee]

I guess this is what end-stage syphilis looks like in writing.

[elpadre]

the political polarization then was nothing compared to now. The Democrats controlled every part of government and could and did whatever they wanted.

[edpc]

Odd....in this day, Oswald would be part of an OWS event, not the Tea Party.