[Destro]

What did JFK do that is so anti-conservative by modern standards? DId he not cut taxes and confront communists? I ask from ignorance because of age-it was before my time.

[Howlin]

If he ran today, he'd be smeared by the press and the Dems as a conservative.

[KC_Conspirator]

What did JFK do that is so anti-conservative by modern standards? DId he not cut taxes and confront communists?

Kennedy did have conservative streak in him, yet this part is all but ignored by today's liberals because they would like to claim the mythical JFK mantle, but not admit they have nothing in common with him.

[Dazedcat]

The thing that always struck me about Kennedy is how he stood up to Corporate interests. His adminstrations' stance against US Steel is very well documented.

Imagine, a sitting President who didn't roll over for big money interests and campaign cash? Truly an era long gone.

[Bernard Marx]

What did JFK do that is so anti-conservative by modern standards? DId he not cut taxes and confront communists? I ask from ignorance because of age-it was before my time.

He created the New Frontier agenda. Virtually every alphabet government program we hate today was inspired by the New Frontier. It was FDR's New Deal squared.

JFK died before its completion -- actually, before it even really got underway -- but sadly LBJ finished it for him. Ironically, Kennedy was such a putz in dealing with Congress the program likely wouldn't have come to fruition if he hadn't been assassinated. Johnson was one of the most effective Congressional leaders of all time and he knew where all the bones were buried. He bullied and threatened and arm-twisted Congress until he got his way.

It's true that JFK was very different than today's crop of anti-American Democrats, including his brother Ted. He believed in a strong national defense although he gullibly let Castro assume power in Cuba and really blew it at the Bay of Pigs. He was thoroughly outbluffed by Khrushchev in the Cuban Missile Crisis, giving up our missile capability in Turkey in a situation that should have never been allowed to happen.

Worst of all IMO he introduced "government by academics," and brought in Harvard eggheads to many major positions. Sadly their influence remains.

[norton]

Kennedy was in fact closer to today's pubbies than to anything found on the left.
I have my own reasons for disliking (!) him but the real crunch in my mind was the absolute total media and party campaign to make him appear to have been other than he was.
That campaign continues to this day and you'll see lots of it on this anniversary.

From the moment of his death the party became overtly anti-american. The protesters worked on both parties but were accepted by the dems, they trashed their own last FDR liberal in order to make an icon of JFK, and they have never shown the slightest sign of wanting back into the mainstream. For that reason alone I've always considered his death to have been a coup within the party, one that Johnson might have been aware of but not responsible for.

Its only gotten worse since that time; FDR was a socialist and nearly a dictator but he had war as an excuse. JFK helped to create a war for the same excuse although less of a socialist. Johnson was junked by his own people and since then its been pretty much a lock-step parade of dangerous minds.

[wtc911]

If JFK were a 42 yr old Senator running for the WH and adhering to his political positions from 1960, he would have to run as a Republican. That's how far to the left this country has shifted in 40 years.