¡She believes in an America!

“I believe in an America…” jkleschinsky | Fri, Jul 27, 2012 2:13 PM EST In response to Sen. Brown cherry picking a quote for his new, albeit confused ad “Let America Be America.” I thought I’d give everyone a bit more context from then Senator Kennedy’s speech on October 31st 1960. I tried to edit it down into something more digestible, but also added a link to the full text at the end who want to read it in its entirety. The point is, America is America when we work together, care for one another, and invest in our Country. Something our current junior Senator has failed to do time and time again. (( snip quotation ))

2012 - 1960 = ???? (( fold here )) Not a hard problem, that one. Or at least ’twould not have been before the Grade Inflation Plague™ hit, sometime in ’68. Really there are two quite distinct sequellæ to ‘Camelot’: to burn figurative candles to St. Jack of Brookline in the spirit of November 1963 through August 1968 [*] is quite a different thing, it seems to the present keyboard, than to be a latecomer to the cult, a devotee, that is, who has been tainted, probably unconsciously, by Secretary MacNamara, and President Nixon, and Moynihanian Neglect™, and Indowhatsis, and so on, by all those petty differences between Oughtabe and Is that mostly do not seem to matter much taken separately but add up relentlessly all the same. That probably are adding up to "President Romney" behind our backs even as we of the geezer community reminisce. (( Betcha "Recommended by christopher, kloechner, methuenprogressive, somervilletom, dave-from-hvad" does a pretty good job of unmasking geezers. Moreover, I take it to be "no accident" that the Big Three have not found this one ready for prime time. I’ve got a snapshot somewhere that makes plain that their editorial excellencies can no more personally remember President Kennedy than they can Queen Anne and King Assurbanipal. )) Even a political Spring Chikin ought to have noticed, however, that there is a whight-wing JFK icon floatin’ around nowadays as well as the prog ditto revered above. The true Holy Grail, whightvolks assure was not anything like "a government of men devoted solely to the public interests," it was--to put it my way rather than the Republicanine Way--"a government of taxcutters devoted solely to the care and feedin’ of jobcreators." Though in fact ‘solely’ won’t do, for our now economic whightists profess to admire King Arthur’s (real) anticommunism as well as his (more like ‘alleged’) Chicagonomic fiscal soundness. On the terminology front, Paddy McTammany wishes that good guys would think twice before using the verb "to invest" in such a sentence as "America is America when we work together, care for one another, and invest in our Country." I apologize to Mr. Poster if in fact he *did* think twice, but there are plenty of othervolks who do not. To them I say, "¡The United States of America is not a hedge fund, gentlemen!" Moreover, King Arthur is nowhere reliably recorded as having exhorted the Table Round, "¡Ask not, my fellow Camelotions, what your country can invest in you, ask what you can invest in Our Country!" I am pretty sure, though not absolutely, that when His Majesty decided that Greater Camelot needed more schools, or roads, or bridges, or Palaces of Public Tubavision, or any other such all-around goodies, he managed to make his meaning clear without any mention of either ‘investment’ or ‘infrastructure’. ¡Those, those were the days! "And that in [word], and not in [deed] alone." Happy days ___ [*] There is no point in insisting on petty details of personal ideochronology, but it may be explained that I consider The Great Good Time -- which overlaps with everybody but Uncle Sam’s Age of Emergency -- to have commenced with the Roosevelt inauguration, 4 March 1933, and terminated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago during the week of 29 August 1968.  "¡Alas, poor Hubert!" Why, ¡it really looked for quite a long time as if we might become a civilised country! Instead of which, the genuine "permanent high plateau" came to a sudden end, and down we tumbled to ______. (Fill in the blank to suit yourselves.)