There is, however, a key distinction between Mr. Bush’s homage to Mr. Reagan and Mr. Kerry’s essentially creepy aping of Mr. Kennedy. Bush is echoing those things about the Reagan presidency that actually contributed to its success: Reagan’s tax policies, his economic policies, his immigration policies, his rhetorical support of the religious right and his image as an amiable dunce. Kerry is doing something else. He has chosen not to emulate the policies of a successful president but the hairstyle and accent (and initials?!) of a president who, at best, didn’t have enough time in office to succeed.
Even odder, he completely ignores Kennedy’s policies — particularly his foreign policy. A few weeks ago, I was reading Kennedy’s inaugural address. Today, it could only be given by a conservative Republican, and the media would immediately jump on him for unilateralism, bellicosity and injecting G-d into the public sphere. Our new JFK is not our fathers’ JFK, and more’s the pity.
Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens, we observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning—signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago. […]
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support an friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
[…] We dare not tempt them [our adversaries] with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed. […]
Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation”—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
If President Bush said something like this, the exact same people who worship the original speaker would fall down in apoplexy.