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Everyone knew... They named his presidency Came-A-Lot.
Very clever observation but only the top echelons of the Kennedy administration, the press and the secret service knew of JFK's dalliances. The public was completely in the dark. I first read about them in 1967 in an issue of the Realist magazine. See link.
????? Are you kidding? Liberals practically declared him a saint.
The people who voted him in were the people who fought WWII.
"Liberals" by 1960's definition. 21st century US liberals would call JFK a right wing zealot. JFK proposed massive tax cuts for the rich, hated communism and was a devout Christian, all things modern liberals despise.
I'm curious as to where you went to high school? In my high school, an announcement came over the PA that we were to return to our homerooms. That was in the middle of the last class of the day. Then a recording of a radio broadcast was played over the PA system announcing Kennedy's death. Almost instantly, the girls broke down and wept- some uncontrollably. The boys sat there stunned. No one laughed.
I was in 7th grade in suburban Houston that day and we all cheered; our parents all hated Kennedy (and Johnson), believed that at best they were unreconstructed New Deal Democrats; my parents and our neighbors were John Birchers who believed that the Democrats were trying to give the country to the blacks and finally to the Soviets.
They got mad at me when I insisted on watching the funeral, which utterly fascinated me. I remember so much of it, especially the riderless horse with the boots turned backwards, being led behind the caisson, and the lighting of the eternal flame at the graveside.
As far as I can tell, JFK seems to be the last (or one of the last) US Presidents that didn't bring about absolute hate from the other side.
So I wonder, if he were POTUS now, would he have been as loved?
JFK was president before the welfare state, affirmative action, abortion on demand, same-sex marriage, the politically correct military, terrorism on US soil, trade deficits, a near-zero fed funds rate, expanded involvement in other people`s wars, effectively open borders, free trade with Mexico and China, H1-b Visas, falling wages, bank bailouts, domestic spying, EPA, DOE, Medicaid, war heroes on a DHS watch list, abandonment of our vets by the VA, etc.
Where exactly would you expect him to fit into the political landscape?
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1960: Ask not what your country can do for you..
2016: How much free stuff is my country going to give me?
I don't think he'd go over well.
Kennedy would probably say raise the top tax rate to 50%(since he only lowered it to 65%), use the extra revenue to pay for college( you know, like he said in in 1963).
JFK would probably wonder how in the world the nation went so far right wing.
"Liberals" by 1960's definition. 21st century US liberals would call JFK a right wing zealot. JFK proposed massive tax cuts for the rich, hated communism and was a devout Christian, all things modern liberals despise.
That's absolutely as skewed a view as the saint JFK that was promoted after his murder.
JFK proposed those tax cuts because taxes had been set very high to pay off war debt, which had been largely paid off by the time he ran. I believe the top marginal rate was 90% or so, which he cut to about 70%. As a liberal, I think that's still a bit high, I think 50% would be better (it's just under 40% today). And it is a liberal principle to keep taxes sufficiently high to pay for elective wars, rather than borrow because you expect the war to pay for itself.
Yes, he did hate communist tyrants. I don't know that he was particularly upset by government social programs though. And he obviously approved of massive public works projects.
And how devout was he, really? His nearly-obsessive philandering is not sanctioned by any christian denomination that I know of. There's no evidence that his conscience was ever bothered by his womanizing.
Kennedy would probably say raise the top tax rate to 50%(since he only lowered it to 65%), use the extra revenue to pay for college( you know, like he said in in 1963).
JFK would probably wonder how in the world the nation went so far right wing.
How many people went to college in 1963?
What aspects of American life are "right-wing" relative to 1963?
From all the comments here, it looks like everyone really liked JFK. Nice to see.
Everyone liked Ike too.
It was the era more than the man.
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