Posted on 08/29/2009 2:01:07 PM PDT by kristinn
Two kinds of people reacted to news of Ted Kennedy’s death last week. The first — not all liberals, either — spoke of Kennedy’s hard work in the United States Senate, his dream of universal healthcare, his commitment to working people, civil rights and equality.
This “most imperfect man,” wrote analyst William Bradley, was also a powerful advocate for progressive principles. Barack Obama predictably (though accurately) observed that “for America, he was a defender of a dream.” In another variation on the visionary theme, Joe Biden said of his old friend, “He was never small.”
The other kind of reaction to Kennedy’s death could be summed up in one word: “Chappaquiddick.”
Not “vision” or “health-care reform,” not “peacemaking” or even “Camelot.” Just the controversial 40-year-old event, the ugliest single moment from the late senator’s 77 years on Earth, nearly 47 of them in public service. The small souls who spend their days hanging out in discussion forums at Free Republic, one of the U.S ultra-right’s more popular online homes, greeted news of Kennedy’s death characteristically, flinging around words like “traitor,” “coward,” “disgrace”— and, yes, references to the 1969 event. Chappaquiddick minds in a narrow, ungenerous world.
But the Chappaquiddick faction is not limited to either the United States or the senior senator from Massachusetts. It’s a state of mind, a summation of everything that is small and cribbed and contemptible — not unlike the sour (and embarrassing) one-line statement of perfunctory condolence on Wednesday from our own prime minister.
Chappaquiddick-type people possess a meanness of spirit that goes beyond simple politics. They’re responsible for a creeping diminution of vision and values. In Canada, which used to appreciate largeness of soul, they even have a government platform, thanks to Stephen Harper and company.
Consider the dramatic case of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, picked up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan at 15, or child-soldier age. When Harper’s government announced last week it would appeal — again — a ruling that it demand the Canadian-born Khadr’s repatriation, lawyer Dennis Edney said he wasn’t surprised. “We are used to this mean-spirited approach.”
But this government’s disgraceful stand on Khadr — the only Western detainee still in Guantanamo — is just part of it. The limited worldview, the impulse toward whatever is most ungenerous, is how it operates.
SNIP
A large spirit = supports total government.
BS. Utter BS. There is no meanness of spirit in fact our spirits are distressed that a callous drunken murderer can be held up as a virtuous man by the left.
To any rational mind, “Chappaquiddick-types” should mean people who run other people into a pond and leave them to die because they matter little when self-preservation is at stake.
If this idiot thinks we who would hold those types accountable are “mean,” well then I’ll wear it proudly.
“What a maroon.”
Heavens to Betsy.
Yup, thats me. And proud of it!
Commie Janice Kennedy wrote: “It’s time to say, “Enough.”
I agree with her. That’s exactly what the “mean Conservatives” are doing about her beloved American CommuFascist brothers and sisters in crime.
The venom-dripping article about the Harper Government is appalling. Only die-hard liberals know what’s better for the world, their world that is.
Lol. I guess it is worse to mention that the man was a murderer than to be an actual murderer.
How about this. Is this “mean-spirited?”
“Re: Obama’s Advisor explains the importance of making “Lists” of Rich Whiteys
We need lists of all the mother****ing luxury cars, jewry, guns, houses , art work,,, and precous metals all these ritch white mother****ers is squirrlen away and trying to hide from the IRS...........This will come in handy for the next several elections and the more progressive form of goverment we is gonna get.
Economic justice demands it
http://www.newblackpanther.com/
http://www.acorn.org/
I’m sure if say Newt Gingrich had driven a girl into a lake and left her there to die and did not report anything to police until the next morning. I’m sure leftist would be OK with that say. Right!
LOL
The Kennedy Kids Pray To The Lord For ObamaCare (Video) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2327588/posts
Dear God, Please let us keep our government jobs and all the money and privleges that go with them.
That's what Janice Kennedy wrote about in the column I referenced in #77.
That's back when we still bought newspapers, (take that Janice!).
A 250 + word opinion piece about how horrified she was to see otherwise nice, and reasonable people put up lawn signs for the Conservatives. She would never be able to look at "them" the same way again.
My take? Good! Don't look at me Janice. I certainly won't have any need to look at you, read what you write, or care what you think.
The “largeness of soul” of our leftist “friends” is very selective.
“Just the controversial 40-year-old event, the ugliest single moment from the late senator’s 77 years on Earth, nearly 47 of them in public service.”
Oh, and of course, NONE would ever mention Nixon and Watergate in the same sentence, now would they?
Except it isn’t the same, since Nixon was forced to resign from public office, and he, uh, you know, didn’t actually KILL anyone...
The first — not all liberals, either — spoke of Kennedy’s hard work vile trashing of people in the United States Senate, his dream of universal controlling access to healthcare, his commitment to working people, using tax money to buy votes , civil rights and equality. expanding his family's power and destroying constitutional rights.
Sorry. I am rather enamored of truth. If that makes me a "Chappaquiddick-types with narrow ungenerous mind" in their eyes then I am ok with that.
Does that mean we are all going to drown after some POS senator drives us off a bridge?
Please don't tempt us.
The Left's last resort is always to play the "mean spirited card". It's hypocritical to be sure, but it's also lazy and intellectually dishonest.
If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today
It floats.
The way our body is built, we'd be surprised if it didn't. The sheet of flat steel that goes underneath every Volkswagen keeps out water, as well as dirt and salt and other nasty things that can eat away at the underside of a car. So it's watertight at the bottom. And everybody knows it's easier to shut the door on a Volkswagen after you've rolled down the window a little.
That proves it's practically airtight on top. If it was a boat, we could call it the Water Bug. But it's not a boat, it's a car.
And, like Mary Jo Kopechne, it's only 99 and 44/100 percent pure. So it won't stay afloat forever. Just long enough. Poor Teddy. If he'd been smart enough to buy a Volkswagen, he never would have gotten into hot water.
Ms Kennedy,
I was amused to read your editorial, “Getting mean and distinctly ugly,” and find it a cliché’-ridden paper-thin analysis of the posts you’ve read on Free Republic. In the fact-starved world in which you operate I’m sure such vulgar reminders of Kennedy’s life history makes it difficult for you to keep your mind on your liberal playbook.
Rest assured, you have a lot of friends in the media who will pretend Kennedy’s life was chock-full of huge accomplishments that have improved the human condition. However, I’d be amused to see you explain a few things.
First, since Kennedy’s was such a “friend” to American blacks, who were his most reliable voting demographic, I’d like you to explain to me how all these efforts to help the African-American community have actually benefitted the people. When Kennedy was elected to the US senate American blacks voted about 60/40, Democrat/Republican. But that changed about the time old Teddy was elected, with American blacks voting for the Democrat in every national election since. When Kennedy was elected about one in four black kids was born into a home without their father. Today, it’s about three out of every four. Through the years since his election per-capita violent crime, alcoholism, drug use, suicide, and illiteracy have all more than tripled in the black population.
So, besides killing an innocent, albeit inconvenient girl friend, introducing the country to “waitress sandwiches,” and offering to assist the Soviet Union in their effort to defeat Ronald Reagan’s presidency, what were the true, “positive” outcomes of Kennedy’s tenure in the Senate?
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