In the early 1960s, when John was President, and Bobby was Attorney General, and Teddy was a Senator, and the Kennedys seemed invincible, Republicans predicted, perhaps in jest, that "It was John in '60, Bobby in '68, Teddy in '76 and in '84--well, we all know what happens in 1984." Instead, the Kennedy presidential era lasted only three years, erased by two assassinations and a wrong turn at Chappaquiddick--three events that destroyed an orderly if temporary transfer of power from WASP politicians to Irish Catholic politicians, just at the moment when it was the turn of the Irish to lead America. It was the time of their time.
It was a Jewish New York lawyer and judge, Sam Leibowitz, who advised young politicians to, "First get on, then get honest, and then get honor," but it was three generations of Irish politicians who played the game that way. Tammany Hall, Jersey City's "Boss Hague," and JFK's grandfather, "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, were members of the first generation. They did what they had to do to "get on." Al Smith, the Democratic Presidential nominee in 1928, typified the second generation, very effective mayors and governors, who personally "got honest," despite the machine politics all around them. (Smith was known as "Honest Al," in contrast to the other Tammany leaders.) But it was the generation of John and Bobby and Teddy who were in line to "get honor." And get it they did; though it all ended in tragedy.
The tragedy engulfed all of us. Suppose the Republicans of the early 1960s would've been right. Suppose the three Kennedys had become President one after the other. Suppose it had been John, Bobby and Teddy instead of Lyndon, Dick, Gerald, Ron and Jimmy? Just think of what we might have avoided. Just maybe we wouldn't have gone to Vietnam, but we certainly wouldn't have had to live through Watergate, nor the arrival in Washington of Cheney and Rumsfeld. We would never have let the Ayatollah return to Iran, and we certainly wouldn't have tolerated the Iranian detention of 52 American hostages. Finally, we wouldn't have enacted the massive tax reductions that have put the profit back in individual greed, and started America down the path of national bankruptcy.
I believe the three Kennedy brothers were both practical and idealistic. They knew how to strive for noble causes, step by step. They would make deals, but only to benefit the best causes. They knew enough of their Irish heritage to understand bias and discrimination, and in their idealism, they wished to end it. They knew how to stand up to our rivals--JFK's response to the Cuban crisis brought about the fall of Nikita Khrushchev, and it was his declaration "Ich bin ein Berliner," that portended the fall of the Berlin Wall. Bobby fought for the civil rights of all Americans, especially blacks, and against corruption and the Mob. It took Teddy a while to grow up, but in the end, he was on the right side of the good. And all the Kennedys worked well with others. Unlike many of today's Democrats, they were smart enough to know that the perfect is the enemy of the good.
So, when I watched Teddy's funeral last weekend, and the tears came to my eyes, I was weeping not so much for them, but for what our country had lost by not having them around longer. I'm tearing up as I write this, so I think that I've said enough.