This week, we will commemorate 50 years since the assassination of President Kennedy. I choose not to use the term "anniversary" when it comes to tragedy. Earlier this year we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A scant 5 years later Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose "I Have a Dream" speech given that day remains one of the most moving speeches ever, was assassinated. Later that year, a third assassin's bullet robbed us of Robert Kennedy, brother to the late President.
But for those 3 bullets, what would the world look like today? I watched the movie "Thirteen Days," and I saw the extraordinary lengths that Kennedy went to to avoid war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Would the Gulf of Tonkin Incident have occurred the following August? If it had, how would the response have been different? While it is true that President Johnson kept Robert McNamara on as Defense Secretary, Kennedy asserted his prerogative as Commander-in-Chief over his military advisers when it came to Cuba.
President Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and Medicare. What might they have looked like under JFK? If there is no escalation in Vietnam, Richard Nixon cannot run on his secret plan to end it (a plan he kept secret for another four years apparently, so he could run on it again). Would Nixon have had better success in his second attempt against a Kennedy than he did the first time? Perhaps without the millstone of Vietnam hanging around his neck, LBJ would have been running against Nixon in 1968. In any event, it would not have been Humphrey.
With Dr. King speaking out forcefully for economic justice, would labor have built up a strong enough force to withstand Reagan's assault? Would we have achieved universal healthcare in the early 1970's under a Democratic President? The deal Ted Kennedy almost reached with Nixon was far to the left of today's Obamacare.
What would the Supreme Court look like if there had never been a Nixon nominee? Would "Borked" be a word? If these progressive stalwarts were still around would George H. W. Bush have captured the 1980 GOP nomination? If so, you could toss out implementation of supply-side (AKA voodoo) economics. It was Bush, after all, who coined the "voodoo" phrase.
Without Nixon, there is no Ford. Without Ford, Dick Cheney is never White House Chief of Staff. Do I need to mention where that might lead? I'm not referring to September 11, because neither party gets the Middle East right.
The Right may think that we are better off having implemented the policies or Nixon and Reagan, but they also try to claim the mantle of King. They often say that King would be a Republican today. The basis of this claim is a line from that 50 year old "I have a Dream" speech. Republicans claim that Democrats are the ones always playing the race card, while they truly judge people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
REALLY???!!! Last year, during the Republican primaries, Rick Santorum lamented giving our tax dollars to Blah people, and Newt Gingrich wanted to go to the NAACP and tell them that they should want paychecks instead of food stamps. Oh, and if Republicans truly do not judge people by the color of their skin, then why would people who hold conventional views have to suppress a gag reflex upon seeing an interracial couple with biracial kids? Just last week!
What might Richard Cohen have written but for 3 bullets?