Eh, by today’s standards, he was conservative, at least. And I’m no fan of JFK either, especially regarding his womanizing (which even extended to people who were confirmed national security risks), his screwing up the Bay of Pigs, not to mention his not ensuring that Cuba remained free during the Cuban Missile Crisis, among other stuff. At least he actually TRIED to fight off Communism (heck, even backed up Joe McCarthy during the Red Scare, and most Democrats during that time tried to sabotage his career. If JFK was willing to aid Joe McCarthy and give him a shot at stopping Communism, I’m pretty sure he definitely would have gone against McGovern), which is still commendable especially when his brothers didn’t even bother to try fighting Communism, and in the case of Ted, actually AIDED the Soviets and requested their involvement in interfering with the presidential elections.
Besides, I’m pretty doubtful that JFK would have backed Roe v. Wade, let alone Hillary Clinton and Obama, even with all of his faults. Let me point out that Martin Sheen was arguably even MORE of a leftist than JFK ever was, certainly far more open about being left-wing, yet he absolutely refused to back Barack Obama during the 2008 and possibly the 2012 elections, and the reason why he broke ranks with the Democrats during that time is precisely BECAUSE Obama supported abortion (as Martin Sheen was Catholic, maybe not the world’s best Catholic, but still Catholic, and one part of Catholic Doctrine is that they NEVER support at the very least abortion). If even the likes of Martin Sheen refused to back Barack Obama due to his support of abortion, it’s pretty clear JFK would not support it either. Now, Ted Kennedy, that’s a different story altogether.
And there’s still some Democrat politicians who actually do sincerely adhere to pro-life measures (I can even name one particular Democrat of that stripe: Randall Terry).
This has been debated endlessly. I would not and could not call JFK “Conservative” by much of any standard, certainly not one with those principles. He was a rank opportunist. He and his brother Bobby partly rode Joe McCarthy’s coattails - opportunism. McCarthy was quite popular in the early 1950s before the Deep State and political establishment went to work on destroying him. McCarthy was mega-popular amongst Irish Catholic Democrats in Massachusetts and Joe Kennedy knew that and was using him to try to depose the liberal elitist Sen. Lodge and install his son as Senator. Again, pure opportunism.
In the 1950s, most of the Irish Catholic community was socially Conservative and it was a loser not to be if you were trying to appeal to them. JFK (opportunistically) ran to Lodge’s right in 1952 and managed to defeat the incumbent. Sadly, he would lead a whole group of Americans down the primrose path to social leftism and carried on by his brothers (and helped in no small part by the leftist overthrow in the church, Vatican II). No, indeed calling JFK “Conservative” is erroneous (and saying that he was by 2018 standards isn’t really a fair and legitimate comparison, because you assume he would remain static in his viewpoints if magically moved 6 decades later - he was already a part of and leading the leftward, big government-centered movement of the party). Ronald Reagan called him out as a left-winger at the time.
I disagree vehemently that JFK would have not backed all the coming leftist issues embraced by the Democrats. How many Democrats stood up strongly against Roe for the long term ? Teddy did for about 5 minutes before caving. Too much pressure from an ever-increasing left-wing and radicalized base. Only a rare few individuals, like PA Governor Bob Casey, Sr., stood opposed to infanticide, and he was marginalized in the party by 1992, not even 20 whole years after Roe.
Let’s face it, JFK was a libertine, and any initiatives that would make his lifestyle choices more acceptable by legislation, he would’ve embraced.