Did Sinatra really shift toward the GOP after JFK snubbed him or something? He was a Wallace in ‘48 commie at one point.
Well, Frank was raised a Dem. His mother was, IIRC, a precinct Captain for the Dem machine in Hoboken. I don’t know at what point (if any) when he became a Republican. The JFK snub was hurtful to him, obviously (but the Kennedys used and then discarded “The Rat Pack” — more odiously ordering Sammy Davis, Jr. not to marry May Britt ahead of the ‘60 general election. Sammy knew the canonization of the Kennedys and the Dems was bull$hit, one reason he was so easily able to endorse Nixon in ‘72, although was ill-prepared to deal with the hysteria his endorsement caused in the Black community). If you remember, the excuse was made that it “looked bad” for JFK hanging out with Frank (read: Mafia) and he chose to go with vacationing with the respectable Republican household of Bing Crosby and his brand-spanking-new-hot-wife and kids.
As far as I know, I think Frank didn’t endorse anyone until Reagan (at least for President), and I do remember a split between him and one of his daughters publicly in ‘92 when he endorsed Papa Bush and she endorsed the creep from Arkansas. If Frank saw what was in the WH today, it would make him sick.