The American Spectator

Reader Mail

The Hating of the President

11.21.07 @ 12:01AM

HATRED THEN AND NOW
Re: Jeffrey Lord's JFK, Bush, and the Politics of Hate:

A fascinating and interesting article, Mr. Lord. Thanks. It happens to dovetail quite nicely with a recent book on the same subject, by James Piereson; Camelot and the Cultural Revolution. Your musings parallel those of Mr. Piereson, who posited the theory that the assassination of President Kennedy was the root cause of the unraveling of modern American liberalism.

Similarly, you quote from the book by the Kennedy sycophant, William Manchester (1967), who it appears, repeated a theme from another book written by another Kennedy acolyte, the recently deceased, unctuous, bow-tied popinjay, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (1965). Both men saw Dallas, Texas as a hot bed of hatred (right-wing, of course) spawned by the civil rights movement, rather than focusing on Cuba, the Cold War, and Communist provocateur and sympathizer, Oswald. Interestingly enough, both men made scant mention of Kennedy's Texas vice president, LBJ; probably because this fact did not fit well with their liberal template. For the past 40 years, liberals have vilified the South, while ignoring the more subtle, but still deplorable, apartheid of the North.

But you go farther than Mr. Piereson and bring us to today's unhinged American Left and how this theme has repeated itself, only this time, reversed, and far worse. It is the height of irony that these bourgeois-hating leftist "champions" from the '60s, are now seeking to impose on America, the most illiberal, undemocratic, and anti-individual policies, heretofore unseen in our history. The new politics of hate, pedaled by Hillary & Co., will, if successful, bring us a new world order, Orwellian style.
-- A. DiPentima

Mr. Lord writes that he was around at the time of the JFK assassination. I wonder how "around" he was. At the time, I was an adult, working for a living in Washington D.C., and active in GOP politics in Montgomery Co., Md. I know that the only reason for the JFK trip to Texas was to shore up support for the primary season that was upcoming in a few months. JFK was wildly unpopular with a large segment of his own party, and it was wondered if they could even keep him from being re-nominated. Even Walter Cronkite carried the speculation on the news, while offering that he didn't see how you could deny a sitting president the nomination of his own party.

It was precisely the far Left wing of the Dem party that disliked him the most. They loved brother, Bobby, but they were disillusioned with JFK. Yes, the right was not fond of him, but they couldn't have denied him the Dem nomination. The whole Texas trip was for LBJ and the then Texas governor, Connally, both wildly popular in Texas, to showcase their support for JFK and to cement the support of the Texas delegation to the Dem convention the following summer.

The Left was furious with him due to his across the board income tax cut that took the top rates from 90% down to 70%. They were especially furious precisely because the cuts worked and jump started the economy. They were also of the opinion that JFK had been way too bellicose toward the USSR and Cuba in the missile standoff. One popular opinion had it that, if brother Bobby hadn't stopped him, JFK would have gotten us into a shooting war with the USSR. Of course the defense establishment Right also was upset because they felt that he had given up too much in the negotiated compromise.

Look, I am not saying that the right side of the political spectrum was happy with him, they were not. However, the left side of the spectrum was really torqued off with JFK. I don't think he could have been denied renomination, but the convention was going to be a messy public fight. JFK was trying to hold together the forces of the center left, and hold off the forces of the far left and the Center Right of the Dem party. The whole thing was such a mess that the Democrat party was eager to join the Camelot believers and blame the killing on the GOP and the political right. The left was scrambling to cover up their dirty linen from public view.

And that is the way it was, and I was there at ground zero in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
-- Ken Shreve

After reading Mr. Lord's article I came away convinced he and probably the staff of American Spectator simply do not understand the situation regarding the dislike of President Bush.

To begin with, I sincerely believe that a major part of the dislike of President Kennedy was because of prejudice regarding his religion.

In regards to President Bush, he brought the vast amount of dislike on by himself through various ways which include:

1. Total disregard of what the minority party said or felt.
2. Absolute partisanship.
3. Gross incompetence.
4. Distortion of the truth.

Mr. Lord can conveniently attempt to put the blame in thousands of other ways. However, it is very clear that President Bush brought the dislike on solely by himself and he deserves every bit of the dislike he receives.
-- Robert Volland
New York, New York

NANNY STATUS
Re: Larry Thornberry's Another Blight on Old Blighty:

Letter to the Editor

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