JFK was (d)evolving from the time he won elective office as a “Conservative” Democrat, especially his victory over left-wing Establishment RINO Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. There are few examples where high Dem party officials over time failed to support the ever-increasing left-wing agenda (except perhaps for the flaky Henry Wallace, who went all over the map from TR Prog Republican to liberal Democrat to Communist Soviet stooge and back to centrist Republican. Al Smith was another, but that might’ve been due to the fact that FDR stole his thunder).
Surely if you transported the JFK of 1960 to 2017 America, he might be horrified at the state of the Dems (or maybe not), but it’s difficult to see how he would not have moved with the party after 1963 (although had he lived, it would’ve altered the course of events. He would not have been canonized and would’ve gradually become more and more unpopular once the sex escapades and Vietnam policy and any other expansive domestic policies came to light).
All true. Had he lived, he never would have had same rep.