I was abut to ignore the petty, classist, ad hominem rant directed at Gov. Ron De Santis’s wife Casey by the editor of The Daily Beast until I got to this sentence:
“The DeSantises will never be Camelot. Jackie and JFK symbolized the opposite of vulgar pettiness—they embodied youth, energy, a commitment to moral progress in the struggle for Civil Rights, and a country fresh with idealism.”
Unbelievable. The progressive punditry establishment is so desperate to distract from the ongoing Biden Administration disaster that it is stooping to Kennedy idolatry, the very essence of the Democratic Party’s hypocrisy, cynicism and deception. Someone mentioning “moral progress” in the same sentence as “JFK” makes me throw up in my mouth, to be blunt. Jackie Kennedy was an emotionally abused wife trapped in the humiliating job of protecting a serial adulterer, harasser and quite possibly rapist. How anyone can applaud the civil verdict against Donald Trump for a still-dubious sexual assault accusation and still say (or worse, believe), “Now Jack Kennedy, there was a President we could be proud of!”
The Kennedys were a habitually corrupt, cynical and woman-abusing dynasty, so full of “commitment to moral progress” that they used their money, popularity and power in Massachusetts to cover-up Ted Kennedy’s drunken manslaughter of a young, star-struck woman. JFK talked a good game about civil rights, but he tolerated an FBI director who was out to destroy Martin Luther King, and made minimal progress in his alleged plans to address discrimination until his assassination opened the door, by making Lyndon Johnson President.
Imagine—a media flack for Joe Biden extolling the importance of “youth and energy.” An advocate for the phony Party of the People using WalMart as an insult. The “Party of Women” moving on from using Bill Clinton as a champion to being misty-eyed about Jack Kennedy, who was only prevented from being the first impeached and convicted President because the Secret Service saw its job as facilitating his misconduct.
On a macro level, the essay reeks of panic, except that the stench of bias and hate overcomes it. Attacking a politician’s spouse with such venom is unfair, mean, and indefensible. Then there’s hilarity like this line: “Of course, neither Melania Trump nor Casey DeSantis could ever embody the class and effortless elegance of Michelle Obama or Dr. Jill Biden.” I hate to do this, but Baker opened the door: whatever one might say about Joe’s caregiver, “elegance” would not be a useful adjective. Here’s the Jill Biden Couch Collection, for example:
I have studied Jack Kennedy’s character and Presidency for decades. He played the symbolic leadership side of the office as well as Reagan or Obama, and that is an important part of the job, but JFK only avoided starting World War III by moral luck, and his “Round Table” was substantially responsible for Vietnam. He was, on balance, a poor President. No one should cite him as a model for our future leaders.
Ethics Alarms 
Second wave feminists would be escorting TDB editor out to the woodshed for some good old fashion reeducation.
Fourth wave feminists are too busy ignoring the current blatant discrimination against women inherent in the trans-movement to notice. Isn’t that special.
Setting aside the sexist (There! I wrote it) double standard by which the fashionableness of the attire of First Ladies and prospective First Ladies is judged, I’ve never found hair and clothing to be particularly indicative of anyone’s qualification to be the First Lady. It’s smacks of partisan pettiness. Which, of course, it is. But I digress…
When it comes to the Kennedys, the Democratic Party has, for decades, practiced the Liberty Valance Strategy: “When Legend becomes fact, print the Legend.” (Incidentally, I saw the film for the first time about a month ago)
The Legend is that the Kennedys were the perfect, sophisticated, glamorous, all-American family that ushered in a new era of grace and elegance to the political scene, championed racial equality and justice and pushed the United States into a position of greatness by inspiring the Space Race.
Kennedy was the original Man from Hope. The Democrats have never gotten over his early death and all the plans they had for him. The hagiographies that have been produced for the past 60 years have been bolstered by the news media, the entertainment industry and by every schoolteacher from 1st grade on up, especially by those who were young during the so-called Camelot Years and spent their young adulthood in the tumultuous late ’60s and depressing early ’70s.
James Dean only did three films and they’re all considered classics because he died early. If he’d lived, he may have done nothing else. Or he may have done increasingly lackluster movies and ended up forgotten. But he died. Now he’s immortal.
Jack Kennedy did the same thing. His three years in office are considered the pinnacle of American greatness. If he’d lived, he may have ended in scandal. He may have gotten caught up in the quagmire of Vietnam and ended up as loathed as LBJ. But he didn’t. He died and he’s immortal.
Second image in the Jill montage is a shoddy Photoshop hackjob, but why someone even bothered to fake it is odd, as the original isn’t much better.
Elegance!
WallPhone wrote, “Second image in the Jill montage is a shoddy Photoshop hackjob”
Yup, that’s one of the worst amature Photoshop hackjobs I think I’ve ever seen, they didn’t even try to hide the in-your-face errors.
The Daily Beast editor received a bit of Twitter Karma:
https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2023/06/06/tweep-shares-pic-of-woman-who-called-casey-desantis-walmart-melania-and-omg-lol-the-nicknames/
Probably not ethical, but it’s certainly entertaining.
Among the Kennedy boys, let’s not forget Joe Kennedy, Jr., the original heir apparent who was killed in a tragic accident involving the explosives laden ostensibly remote-controlled bomber he was piloting and was supposed to bail out of, that was instead blown uo with him still in it over the Channel.
When I was a young man ( and had never been kissed) I was enthralled with the ‘Camelot’ version of the Kennedy regime. When I was the target in Vietnam my naivete dissipated. His administration, dare say all administrations, are replete with immoral persons making immoral decisions that lead to immoral policy.