There are two faces of American liberalism. The uglier visage was
described by James Burnham, who called it the "ideology of
Western suicide." But liberalism also played a storied role in
the American Century, contributing to the defeat of Nazism, the
death of Jim Crow, and a political consensus that endured fifty
years for better or worse.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, dead of brain cancer at age 77,
personified liberalism at its most decent and its most decadent.
In his personal life, "degenerate" might often have been a better
word. He took the Kennedy name from the glory of Camelot to the
disgrace of Chappaquiddick, vacillating between the two from his
famous Democratic National Convention address in 1980 to the
William Kennedy Smith rape trial in 1991.
The man who would become a beloved father figure to the sons and
daughters of his slain brothers, left another family's daughter
to die in an incident that would have ended virtually any other
politician's career -- and should have ended his. Yet Kennedy
paid less of a price for behavior that led to the death of a
human being than did professional football player Michael Vick
for cruelty to animals.
The senator from Massachusetts who spoke so eloquently and
movingly about the right of black Americans to live free of
humiliation and prejudice would go on to play sordid racial
politics. Ted Kennedy often casually smeared his opponents as
racists and bigots, most disgracefully during the confirmation
hearings of Robert Bork. Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court
was defeated in part due to Kennedy's ululations about segregated
lunch counters.
An early Cold War liberal who railed against the Viet Cong in
support of the Kennedy-Johnson interventions in Vietnam was by
Richard Nixon's presidency an ally of the Democratic Party's
McGovern wing. He would oppose the Reagan defense build-up that
helped ring down the curtain on the Soviet Union and instead
champion nuclear freeze.
The Catholic Democrat who believed government should protect the
weak from the strong would waver when there were votes to be had
from feminists but not the unborn. In 1971, Kennedy's liberal
compassion was consistent: "When history looks back to this era
it should recognize this generation as one which cared about
human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a
decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility
to its children from the very moment of conception." But he ended
his career voting to allow even partial-birth abortion.
Kennedy didn't just follow the liberal herd, however. Even after
his national stock plummeted, he was one of his party's most
effective and consequential legislators. Handed his brother
John's Senate seat like a family heirloom -- "If your name was
simply Edward Moore," his Democratic primary opponent noted
scathingly, "your candidacy would be a joke" -- he wasted no time
in making use of it.
Instead Kennedy cobbled together legislative majorities (often
bipartisan) that expanded the federal government's role in health
care, boosted immigration levels, raised the minimum wage,
increased environmental regulations, and enhanced legal
protections for the disabled. Even many conservative Senate
colleagues liked and admired him. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) told
an American Spectator dinner last year that Kennedy,
unlike many others on Capitol Hill, kept his word. Writing more
than a decade ago in National Review, John J. Miller
accurately described Kennedy's "clever mix of demagoguery and
pragmatism" that made him "adept at sweet-talking the odd
Republican" behind closed doors while he excoriated the GOP in
public.
In Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy would also outgrow his brothers'
shadows. While the Camelot mythology has lingered longer there
than in the rest of the country, Kennedy's deep Bay State
popularity had more to do with his ability to bring home the
bacon. Unlike his colleague John Kerry, who is seen as aloof and
disengaged from local concerns, Kennedy was as active in
Massachusetts issues -- even on behalf of the Boston business
community -- as he was the national legislative agenda. Kennedy's
staff was excellent and its delivery of constituent services
legendary.
Only once, in that Republican year of 1994, was Kennedy seriously
challenged for reelection. Mitt Romney briefly led him in
statewide polls. But Kennedy ran an effective advertising
campaign highlighting workers who had been laid off from Romney's
business enterprises. His base of senior citizens, liberals, and
partisan Democrats held firm. Kennedy withstood the GOP tide and
beat Romney by 17 points, even as Republican Gov. William Weld
won a second term with 71 percent of the vote.
Now that Kennedy is gone, it is hard to see a Democratic leader
on the horizon who possessses his unique blend of bipartisan
dealmaking and unrelenting liberalism. Kennedy didn't just bowl
Republicans over -- he often dragged them along with him, moving
the country incrementally to the left. Democrats had better hope
that their filibuster-proof Senate majority makes such skills
superfluous. They wouldn't want Ted Kennedy's dream to die on
their watch.
topics:
Ted Kennedy
