JFK's Grandson Skewers Ted Cruz: He 'Is No Jack Kennedy'

[Playinghardball]

Last edited Fri Jan 22, 2016, 12:11 PM - Edit history (1)

At a campaign event in New Hampshire last weekend, GOP hopeful Ted Cruz said that if John F. Kennedy were alive today, he would be a Republican.

Jack Kennedy Schlossberg is here to tell the Texas senator that he could not be more wrong. In a new essay for Politico, the former president's only grandson writes that Cruz's suggestion is "absurd."

"Were my grandfather alive today, he'd be excited about how far we have come as a nation since 1963, he would feel a sense of urgency about the challenges that lie ahead and he most certainly would not be a Republican," Schlossberg writes.

The 23-year-old, a self-described "student of [JFK's] life, legacy and administration," goes on to draw "stark" comparisons between Kennedy's beliefs and values and those of today's Republican Party.

[JFK] created new federal programs with ambitious goals, such as the Peace Corps," he writes. "He did not spend his years in the House and Senate devoted to obstructing the opposition. He certainly did not lead an effort, as Cruz did, to shut down the federal government to score political points and deny health insurance to millions."

>snip<
But in his Politico essay, titled "Ted Cruz Is No Jack Kennedy," Schlossberg flatly rejects Cruz's implication that he "is somehow taking up [JFK]'s mantle."

"Today, my grandfather would be 98 years old. He'd have no idea how to use a cell phone, and he'd be shocked by just how far the Republican Party has lost its way."

More:http://www.people.com/article/jfk-grandson-ted-cruz-no-jack-kennedy

[Docreed2003]

1. Excellent...thanks for sharing!!

[roguevalley]

7. sumbitch. Everyone in the family is good looking. What a great young

man.

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. Man, does he look like his uncle.

Great essay.

[JI7]

9. one of Caroline's daughters looks just like JAckie O

[patricia92243]

14. WOW! I've never seen her before - Jackie in the flesh!

[gratuitous]

3. Republicans are really fond of deceased progressives

They really like King and the Kennedys nowadays, don't they? Certainly a lot more than they ever did when they were alive. Now that St. Ronnie's mantle is slipping a bit, and history is taking its toll on his dubious legacy, conservatives really need to find some new icons and heroes to worship, so they plunder the Democrats.

[BuelahWitch]

4. Jack Kennedy had vision

What modern Republican is forward thinking enough to think up something like the Peace Corps?

[tblue37]

5. Your subject line is missing a "J"--and I spent some time trying to guess who "FK" was before I

finally started reading the post!

[Hoppy]

6. Gore Videl didn't seem to have the same opinion of JFK.

[Orrex]

8. Maybe "Jack Kanada" instead.

[moondust]

10. Patrick Kennedy agrees.

He was on The Last Word tonight talking about his uncle John. The JFK clips included this excerpt from his acceptance speech for the Dem nomination in 1960:

But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus. It would be easier to shrink back from that frontier, to look to the safe mediocrity of the past, to be lulled by good intentions and high rhetoric--and those who prefer that course should not cast their votes for me, regardless of party.

Frankly, much of this speech reminds me of the current choice between, say, "status quo pragmatism" and more visionary leadership in the Dem campaign.

[BuelahWitch]

11. Your last sentence nailed it. n/t

[liberal from boston]

13. Patrick Kennedy

Loved this--thanks for posting link moondust.

[patricia92243]

12. PLEASE fix your title line so more people will read this excellent post.