American State of the Union: A Festival of Lies

[BainsBane]

30. far from convincing

You provide someone's opinion with no concrete policies. If he had lived he would have done something, but he didn't. He reduced taxes on the rich. He was an avid cold warrior. Shall we conclude that the only presidents you find acceptable are those born into the 1%? I find the hero worship tedious and your assessment odd. Obama clearly expresses those same concerns, only he doesn't have the political power to do much about it because of the House. Obama's personal experiences give him a far better understanding of poverty than JFK could have ever imagined. That someone cares about something is not policy.

Additionally, Presidents are a product of their time. All these people wishing FDR were President now have no concept of what compelled FDR to act: namely huge amounts of popular pressure through a variety of popular movements. People here expect the president to do everything and have no understanding of the historical circumstances that gave rise to their presidencies. Your choice was Obama or McCain or Romney. Perhaps you would have preferred the other two. Neither JFK nor FDR were alive then, and no one like them was either because it is a different time. What it seems people really want is to go back to the 1960s when they were young. That won't be happening, ever.

The idea that JFK wasn't a product of corporate capitalism is absurd. He was an American president. They all are. This is the United States of America. If you want that to change, focus on public financing of elections because that is the ONLY way any government will not be beholden to moneyed interests. There are no political messiahs. That is not the nature of politics.

The review I found of the Gibson book asserts that the author does not prove his conclusions. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/27551476?uid=3739736&uid=2129&uid=2134&uid=377725661&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=377725651&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21103326406371
I'm going to assume he is not a trained historian, or he would not engage in the imaginary musings of what the world might have been if JFK had not been killed.