Whereas John and Robert Kennedy possessed formidable oratorical skills and relished political campaigning like their maternal grandfather, Honey Fitz, Ted Kennedy was more like his other grandfather PJ. Ted also had excellent oratorical skills, but he was much more comfortable dealing with others on a one-to-one basis than making lofty and inspiring speeches. Young Ted was schooled in the art of shaking hands and never forgetting a face, but he was also taught to remember he had a duty to help those less fortunate than himself.
It wasn’t until after he lost the 1980 Democratic Presidential nomination to President Jimmy Carter that Ted Kennedy’s considerable talents as an able politician and true public servant became apparent. Ted recruited and hired the best and brightest people for his legislative staff, and they wanted to be with him because he had a reputation for working with his political opponents to get things done. The list of Ted’s former staff members who serve in government reads like a Who’s Who of public servants, with nary a whiff of scandal touching any of them.
But the real mark of Ted Kennedy as a man and as a true public servant was his common touch and willingness to help those in need. Most of the 70,000 people who stood in line for hours last week to say goodbye to him at the John F Kennedy Memorial Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were just ordinary people whose lives Ted had touched and enriched during his public life.
While I was opposed to more of Ted Kennedy’s political positions than I ever favoured, much like John McCain I have always regarded him as one of the most able politicians and admirable men ever elected to political office in America. But more than that, Ted Kennedy was also one of the most honourable and giving persons I have ever known. He had his faults and he made his share of mistakes, but haven’t we all?
I think the most important legacy for the Kennedy family was the type of life that was led by the only son of Joe who was soundly defeated the one time he ran for the top office. Ted Kennedy accepted this defeat with grace and dignity, and went on to have a decidedly positive impact on the lives of millions of Americans. During the course of his 47 years as a legislator, heintroduced 2,500 bills and saw more than 550 of them enacted into law.
Nor was he content to just get his name on a law and then move on to new legislation. He was always open to revisiting laws he had already passed and revising or improving them, because he believed that lasting progress only comes in half steps. He spent his life fighting for universal healthcare, and although he didn’t accomplish this goal, he was able to make some headway with his programme for pregnant women and new mothers that now covers 8.7 million working class women, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which now covers more than seven million children.
As for the Kennedy family legacy, the fact that virtually all of Joe Kennedy’s 30 grandchildren are currently involved in some form of public service work is both a reflection of the example Ted set as the Kennedy family’s patriarch, and the values he helped instil in those grandchildren. Moreover, that Ted Kennedy’s funeral attracted the kind of media attention that only attends those who have served as President is a testament to Ted’s life of service to those less fortunate than him.
Here’s a short verse I wrote in tribute to him: “The Kennedy children numbered one less than ten/Their parents instilled a duty to serve in them./But of all of their children who ans-wered this call,/Ted’s service to others was the greatest of all.”
Charles Laffiteau is a lifelong US Republican from Dallas, Texas who is currently pursuing a PhD in International Relations at DCU with a focus on environmental policy
