This Just In!
By Michael McGehee at Jan 28, 2008 |
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Caroline Kennedy: Obama offers 'same sense of hope' as JFK
Wait a minute. JFK wouldn't even meet with MLK untill it was obvious the civil rights movement was going to be successful; he escalated the war in Vietnam by bombing the south; he was behind the Bay of Pigs invasion and numerous other terrorist operations against Castro and Cuba; he almost got the world blown up during this misnomer, Cuban Missile Crisis; also, Latin America might have some more to say on his policies; and so on.
So what "hope" is she talking about?



By Albert, Michael at Jan 30, 2008 08:15 AM
Hi, Michael...welcome aboard.
Perhaps Caroline is right - that is, perhaps obama offers precisely the same sense of hope - and absense of real hope, as Kennedy - of course not her intended meaning.
Back then, it was interesting. Kennedy did inspire a huge upsurge of compassion and desire - not his intent, but he did - and a lot of that did actually, I think, percolate over into the emergence of social movements that of course went beyond anything he or any democrat at all has in mind...in the sixties.
I was, for example, as a little guy, inspired by kennedy\'s words and demeanor, youth, etc. - though I, like almost all others, knew nothing of his real policies, of course. Later, I suspect, masny others experienced radicalization via feelings of horror at hypocrisy, like I did.
The main difference now, I suspect, is that if obama were elected, and six months down the road all the hype and hope were extinguished by his actual actions, those who had been excited wouldn\'t become angry and further activated, but would just return to cynicism with the obama experience verifying their prior view - nothing is worthy or possible.
That\'s a very big difference between then and now. Kennedy mattered becuase arousing folks just based on charisma, etc. etc. mattered in that when the truth became evident we got angry, or many of his did, and we went further, not backward.
We can hope something similar happens again, but I suspect the time for that kind of radicalization at lies, etc., is past. People now are just too cynical and too knowledgeable to get upset by lies much less retain forward momentum just based on that anger. If people let themselves get excited by someone, obama, say, that is the abberation, and when they are let down, they won\'t move forward, but back.
What people need to get excited by, I suspect, if they are o become lasting fighters for change regardless of lies anyone might be telling, or bad policies, and so on, is vision and strategy - a view of the possibility of better relations and the road to them...
What do you think?
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