LETTER: JFK couldn’t be a Demcoratic today
December 16, 2019 - 9:00 pm
Updated December 16, 2019 - 9:08 pm
How would JFK fare with the current Democrats? Adam Schiff’s impeachment report stated, “The president placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States … and endangered U.S. national security.” Robert Dallek’s “An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963,” states that in 1963 JFK told Sen. Mike Mansfield that he planned to withdraw from Vietnam in 1965. JFK feared a withdraw in ’63 or ’64 would jeopardize his re-election. Was this placing personal and political interests above national interests?
JFK said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg et al. would call that heresy. Free college, “Medicare for All,” etc. are their mantras.
JFK advocated a tax cut. In 1962 he stated, “The federal government’s most useful role is not to rush into a program of excessive increases in public expenditures, but to expand the incentives and opportunities of private expenditures.” I daresay JFK would be vilified by today’s Democratic candidates.
When Democrats roll out JFK’s picture at their convention, remember that the Democrats of today are not the Democrats of JFK’s time.