Kennedys
Joe Kennedy III gave the Democratic response to the State of the Union the other night, and out of it came when I saw as the first real messaging from the Democrats going into the 2018 midterm season. “We choose both.” It’s a nice rebuttal to the false choices that are being made that in order to be for something, we have to sacrifice something else. Mitch McConnell’s choice between CHIP or DACA is still fresh in my mind. I’m not sure how it would play out as a singular phrase, as “Yes We Can” did very well, but it’s a nice change of pace to have them believe in anything.
That said, I can’t think of a worse person to deliver that message (especially when talking about taking on the top 1%) than a Kennedy. I don’t know much about Joe Kennedy III as a singular person, and I have no reason to believe he’s not a fine, upstanding, white liberal man, but clearly the strategy was to try and invoke some Kennedy nostalgia. It’s a cheap trick. One that’s been played over and over by now and I don’t know how effective that’ll be in fighting Trump, the cheapest trick of all.
(I now look forward to the usual onslaught of Kennedy defenders.)
