“America’s Total Breakdown: Our Post-Decency Era” (July 30, Josh Heath) is a lesson in fantasy, not reality. Somehow the author presents his belief that the years of President John Kennedy were THE decent years of a presidency; but, weakly veiled, it’s just one more article of Trump-bashing.
Mr. Heath did not live through those years and is ill-informed of the time.
John Kennedy’s signature to America is, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” That principle alone would remove JFK from the party of Democrats today. If JFK was truly what the public saw in the 1960s, I remain a fan of his. However, by the bar ostensibly set today, he doesn’t meet the mark of dreamy decency.
JFK got into the Oval Office with Joseph Kennedy Sr.’s money, labor union contacts and the politics of Chicago and then-Mayor Richard J. Daley, summed up with “vote early, vote often.” JFK was a big womanizer, including having a lot of cover to bring many into the White House.
Heath’s statement that Trump’s $1 trillion tax cut causing debt is bad while apparently Obama’s $832 billion “stimulus package,” selectively targeted, is somehow debt-resistant. It’s always ironic that Trump-haters have the chutzpah to proclaim 63 million voters were “conned” and in “fear” while that same crowd toiled feverishly, by any means, to escort the highly tainted Hillary Clinton into the Oval Office. Their anger is understood: Their scheme failed because of the “stupid” 63 million people.
Mr. Heath laments an era of three short years of Camelot he never lived. The fact is, if there had been Facebook, Twitter, and innumerable 24/7 “news” programs, that brief feel-good time would have had zero shelf life.
Betty Arenson
Valencia
