Edward Kennedy: The Legacy Of A Conviction Politician.
Edward Kennedy
The legacy of a conviction politician.
A common myth about politics is that centrists rule the day. The truth is that moderates typically cut their deals on ground taken by conviction politicians of the left or right who have already changed the terms of public debate. Edward "Ted" Kennedy, who died Tuesday of brain cancer at age 77, was a conviction politician who achieved more than most modern Democratic Presidents.
Like most Democrats who came of age during the mid-20th century, Kennedy believed in the power of the state as the main engine of social justice. Born of a rich and famous family, he believed in high tax rates that also burdened the not-yet-rich. We think recent decades have shown the limitations of that philosophy of government, but there's no denying that Kennedy advanced his cause by dint of his passion and relentlessness.
Kennedy tried but failed in his own run for the White House, in no small part because of his personal failings, especially the favored legal treatment he received despite waiting hours to report the accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick in 1969. Instead, he made his mark during his 47 years in the Senate, often with unusual alliances. Most young people who know him for his liberalism might be surprised to learn that he championed both airline and trucking deregulation in the 1970s. Those reforms reduced costs across the economy, and they wouldn't have passed Congress without the Massachusetts Democrat. Less admirable was his rant on the Senate floor against Robert Bork in 1987, an act of partisan demagoguery from which the judicial confirmation process has never recovered.
The cause of his life, as Kennedy himself described it, was national health care. And while he died with that cause newly in doubt in Washington, over the years he advanced it shrewdly by degrees, often by luring Republicans into compromises on Kennedy's terms.
In Massachusetts, he won over former Governor Mitt Romney on "universal" coverage that is proving to be enormously expensive, and in Congress he joined with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch into passing the Schip program to subsidize health insurance for children. He worked with President George W. Bush on education reform, but his price was throwing over even modest school choice. Within weeks of the bill's signing and its huge increase in federal funding, the Democrat was already denouncing Republicans for not spending more.
Kennedy was a great and effective champion of the political left, and his Senate career is a lesson for politicians of all stripes who want to make history, as opposed to sliding in history's wake.
The legacy of a conviction politician.
A common myth about politics is that centrists rule the day. The truth is that moderates typically cut their deals on ground taken by conviction politicians of the left or right who have already changed the terms of public debate. Edward "Ted" Kennedy, who died Tuesday of brain cancer at age 77, was a conviction politician who achieved more than most modern Democratic Presidents.
Like most Democrats who came of age during the mid-20th century, Kennedy believed in the power of the state as the main engine of social justice. Born of a rich and famous family, he believed in high tax rates that also burdened the not-yet-rich. We think recent decades have shown the limitations of that philosophy of government, but there's no denying that Kennedy advanced his cause by dint of his passion and relentlessness.
Kennedy tried but failed in his own run for the White House, in no small part because of his personal failings, especially the favored legal treatment he received despite waiting hours to report the accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick in 1969. Instead, he made his mark during his 47 years in the Senate, often with unusual alliances. Most young people who know him for his liberalism might be surprised to learn that he championed both airline and trucking deregulation in the 1970s. Those reforms reduced costs across the economy, and they wouldn't have passed Congress without the Massachusetts Democrat. Less admirable was his rant on the Senate floor against Robert Bork in 1987, an act of partisan demagoguery from which the judicial confirmation process has never recovered.
The cause of his life, as Kennedy himself described it, was national health care. And while he died with that cause newly in doubt in Washington, over the years he advanced it shrewdly by degrees, often by luring Republicans into compromises on Kennedy's terms.
In Massachusetts, he won over former Governor Mitt Romney on "universal" coverage that is proving to be enormously expensive, and in Congress he joined with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch into passing the Schip program to subsidize health insurance for children. He worked with President George W. Bush on education reform, but his price was throwing over even modest school choice. Within weeks of the bill's signing and its huge increase in federal funding, the Democrat was already denouncing Republicans for not spending more.
Kennedy was a great and effective champion of the political left, and his Senate career is a lesson for politicians of all stripes who want to make history, as opposed to sliding in history's wake.
Labels: Fitting tribute, Passing away
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 9:18 AM
1 Comments:
I was sad to hear of his death. My condolences and prayers go out to his family.
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