RFK 'S LEGACY LINGERS FOR DEMS

Robert Kennedy’s assassination 50 years ago in 1968 was one of many tragic events that year that shook and shaped the U.S. for decades to come. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. Race riots rocked cities all across the U.S. in the wake of Dr. King’s murder. The Tet Offensive that year was the beginning of end of America’s tragic involvement in Vietnam. The 1968 presidential campaign installed a divisive and dishonest candidate, Richard Nixon into the White House.

The sad anniversary of Robert Kennedy’s murder is a time for Democrats to reflect on the legacy he left his party. Democrats still mourn the late New York Senator because he knew the answer to the party’s biggest challenge leading up to the 2020 presidential election, which is how to reconcile different groups who live on the fringe of society. The two groups are minority voters who are the foundation of the party and the white voters, at the low end of the social and economic pecking order and who were once Democratic stalwarts.

Robert Kennedy brought together both groups during his 1968 presidential campaign. His campaign showed Americans he could bring people together from different walks of life and provide stability to a nation in turmoil. In 1968, During Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign, downtrodden white, black and Latino Americans enthusiastically supported him in life and deeply mourned him in death.

My father was an enthusiastic supporter of the Kennedy family. He was also a Reagan Democrat in the true sense of the term. He voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 but he voted for Democrats most of the time. When I was young, I assumed that he was a diehard Democrat too. The Bannons are a very Democratic family. Dad was so embarrassed about his vote for Reagan he never said anything about it before he made a death bed confession to me.

 My father, like many current disenchanted white voters never attended college. He always anxious because he felt he was falling behind people in his company who had a college diploma. He succeeded without a college diploma because he worked hard and was very strict and disciplined. Everything about him suggested law and order. In 1980, he felt that the U.S. was headed to hell in a hand basket. Dad saw Reagan as the best choice to bring order to a chaotic nation. 

Like most members of my family, my father had a strong personal attachment to the Democratic Party and the Kennedy family. My father shared an Irish Catholic heritage with the Kennedys and my grandfather was a staunch New Deal Democrat. Dad always hid his feelings but I vividly remember how emotional he was watching the coverage of Robert Kennedy’s assassination. In 1980, he would have voted for Edward Kennedy instead of Reagan if the senator from Massachusetts had captured his party’s nomination.

Robert Kennedy’s was building a bridge in 1968. Donald Trump is literally and figuratively building a wall.

The thing that my dad liked best about Robert Kennedy and the other Kennedys was the family’s capacity to bring order to a divided nation by bringing warring groups of people together. Trump thrives on disorder by pitting groups against each other and encouraging fear. Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign was based on the hope that things would improve if people would work to achieve their common goal of racial and economic justice.

Lincoln said “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. Democrats need a nominee like Bobby Kennedy who can bridge the gap between the minority voters who are victims of racism and the white voters who are still struggling financially. America needs a president who can bring together people on the fringe of society whether they are black, white, Hispanic or Asian.

The United States is out of order now. We have a president who encourages rather than discourages racial bigots and Neo Nazis .Trump has made the GOP, the party of fat cats and plutocrats instead of keeping his campaign promises to help working families. The Democratic Party needs a candidate who can bring some semblance of order to a nation gone berserk.

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