Yes, it was a big deal that an American president was murdered.
But, 50 years out, do we still have to persist in the mythology that surrounds this event?
The Left (who might have a hard time accepting JFK as a Democrat these days) has even tried to re-write history to claim that the right wing element in Dallas was responsible for JFK's death (although an avowed Communist killed him), but, of more annoyance to me are the people who try to say ridiculous stuff like:
- "America lost its 'innocence' that day." We were only 18 years removed from the end of WW2, and 10 from Korea. Had the brushes with Hitler and the action in Korea not erased our innocence by 1963?
- "It changed the course of events." Exactly how? I wish the people who say this (who usually want to act like JFK's death led directly to the Civil Rights movement) would explain. Seems the three biggest things to happen in the 60's were the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and the Moon Landing. I'd posit that ALL of these had their die cast before November 1963, and LBJ was being forced by politics (not JFK's death) to carry through on all of them.
- "He was such a great president." His legacy is helped by his death, since he never had to actually fight for anything, or serve as a lame duck. In all honesty, his term was just too short. You really need to judge him and LBJ together, and when we go there, I thing we find it's a little more average.
That's all.
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