“It’s amazing the confusion about JFK. The guy was a Leftist in training. He began as so many early, equivocal Leftists do - using common sense like lowered taxes, opposed abortion, supported gun rights, and believed in a strong military. But that was only because those things were convenient and could get him elected.”
JFK was never a leftist in any way.
Despite the popularity of socialism and communism in the Ivy League Universities when JFK attended and in England during his youth JFK was never attracted to leftist groups or ideology. Unlike a great many of his contemporaries, JFK never was taken in by the leftists.
JFK also opposed the leftists in the Democratic Party. He was close friends with Senator Joe McCarthy and agreed with McCarthy’s anti-communist positions. Joe McCarthy was invited many times to the Kennedy home and was a frequent visitor. JFK’s sisters dated Joe McCarthy and RFK worked for him.
JFK often clashed with the leftists and progressives in the Democrat Party in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.
JFK was strongly opposed by the liberal wing of the Democrat Party. Stevenson, Humphrey, Eleanor Roosevelt and most other liberals strongly opposed Kennedy.
JFK was pro business and strongly anti-communist.
His tax cut was the first major tax cut in decades and was often cited as an example of supply side economics before its time.
JFK was a lifetime member of the NRA and strongly pro Second Amendment.
Kennedy’s personal life has been criticized but his policies were very conservative.
Nevertheless, we never saw the end result of the equivocal, vacillating, double-minded JFK. The JFK that couldn't figure out what to do about Khrushchev, Castro, and Cuba. The Kennedy that vacillated even while he got us into the Vietnam War without a winning strategy or goal. His only anchor was a belief in government because he was raised to believe in government, like his brothers.
There are other Democrats who didn't start out so clearly Leftist. Teddy Kennedy for example. It took time for him to ramp up, but he turned one the most destructive federal officials ever.
The prospect of a Kennedy dynasty if JFK and RFK had survived is a truly freighting scenario in retrospect. I believe Teddy Kennedy showed us where JFK & RFK were headed.
What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label “Liberal?”…[I]f by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.” — John F. Kennedy, September 14, 1960
https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/JFK-Speeches/Liberal-Party-Nomination-NYC_19600914.aspx
JFK's voting record in Congress regarding proposed federal government activity:
- supported unconstitutional civil rights,
- supported unconstitutional labor rights,
- supported unconstitutional federal aid to education,
- supported unconstitutional public housing,
- supported foreign aid,
- supported unconstitutional minimum-wage increases,
- supported unconstitutional extensions of unemployment insurance,
- supported unconstitutional Social Security expansion
https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Fast-Facts/Voting-Record-and-Stands-on-Issues.aspx
After his election JFK tried but failed to get medicare passed. Government interference with healthcare has long been known as the gateway to socialism.
His moral disasters didn't end with his endless adulteries and sexual dalliances. There is strong evidence of JFK and RFK's involvement with the rackets and the murder of Marilyn Monroe.
No, JFK was a preview of coming attractions of the likes of Clinton who many say also had "conservative" policies, but was in fact another equivocal leftist socialist.