It was common sense back then.
It is worship of THE STATE. YOU ARE A SERF! YOU MUST SERVE THE STATE!
He wasn't a chickenhawk and he was pretty good on economics. But he was a drug addicted pervert who almost blew up the world. He was way worse than Clinton. I don't ask what the country can do for me. I ask what the country can do TO me! JFK was a piece of dirt.
“Ask not what your country can do for you,” he said. “Ask what you can do for your country.”
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Your disdain for Kennedy is duly noted. While being no Kennedy fan myself I do believe that he was a better President by a mile than Johnson, Carter, Clinton and Obama. At the minimum he had the right idea on taxes.
And I cannot pass up the opportunity to also note that the famous Kennedy line that is quoted above was and is total crap. Common sense it is not. Milton Friedman agrees. Any Rand agrees. And you and I as well. The government needs to protect its citizens and otherwise just stay out of the way.
I’ve always believed that the country and the government are two different things. Church groups ministering to their communities are doing something for their country (on a local level), not for their government. A businessman creating jobs is helping his country, and except for generating tax revenues, is not doing it for the government.