“Some call it socialism. I call it the Sermon on the Mount”
DAVID DUHALDE
I was around ten years old when my father and I arrived late to Ted Kennedy’s speech. I caught a glimpse of the senator and with his entourage waiting to enter the room as we rushed to our seats in the union hall. The light beaming from the auditorium shined on Kennedy. This only magnified his mythic image in my eyes.
He may have given a stump speech. For me, it was hearing decades of political history encapsulated in less than an hour. Kennedy remarked on meeting a construction worker who confronted the young candidate on never working a day in his life. The patriarch of Hyannis Port was startled by the comment. The laborer quickly added “you haven’t missed a thing.”
Kennedy was a complex figure. A troubled man in his personal life, but beloved by millions. A wealthy and privileged member of the ruling class, yet one who was reviled by conservatives of all economic backgrounds. A stalwart liberal who stood on the right side of many issues, but a politician ready to work for compromises with his Republican colleagues in the senate.
When Michael Harrington was dying, Democratic Socialists of America organized a celebration of his life. At the event, Kennedy famously said of Harrington’s beliefs: “Some call it socialism. I call it the Sermon on the Mount.” These two old Irish-Americans, while choosing remarkably different paths of public service, could still find common ground in their progressivism via their Catholic upbringings.
Ted Kennedy was my senator for the past several months. I’ve found my neighbors are still speaking of him in the present tense. It seems many are still surprised he is gone despite his long illness. Only time will tell how we’ll go forward without our liberal lion.
I have mixed feelings about Ted Kennedy. Generally he was on the right side. But “No Child Left Behind” was in large part his baby, and he was the prime mover in Congress behind the airline and trucking deregulation bills that were signed by Carter.
I’m mainly interested to see who’ll replace him in the Senate. I suspect it’ll be a neoliberal Democrat of the Deval Patrick variety.
Yes, even in his famed 1980 “concession” speech, which in parts was a brilliant defense of the fragmenting New Deal consensus he embraced some of neoliberal ethos of the time in calling for a return to “market rationality” in the airline and transportation sectors.
The legacy of the Kennedys were mixed. I always thought Harrington was a bit optimistic about who RFK was and what he would be willing/able to do if he did get the Presidency. But given the political climates and his class background I would say that Ted Kennedy was far more of a champion for working people than anyone could have asked for.
I definitely agree with both of your sentiments.
I will admit to having a bit of a soft spot for Teddy, but I just came across a good article in the Socialist Worker (of all places) that serves as a decent corrective to all of the Teddy worship that’s been going on out there: http://socialistworker.org/2009/08/28/myth-of-the-liberal-lion
See also this piece by DSA member Steve Early: http://counterpunch.org/early08282009.html
I really like that Early piece. Kennedy’s progressive stances and technical fixes carry less heft when weighed against his support more substantive, far-reaching measures that undermine the edifice of labor’s power and working peoples’ living standards (deregulation, GATT, etc.). I agree with Early: “The bar for determining what constitutes a “friend of labor” these days is only inches off the ground.”