You know, I am not a particular Kennedy apologist or an awed fan – I was 12 when he was murdered – but I have discussed Kennedy with historians. For his incredibly short tenure, he was a very important president.
Many put him in the second tier, below the big three and surrounded by Truman and Eisenhower. Kennedy moved our soul. Changed our thinking about service and governance. And won big in the greatest nuclear crisis of the Cold War.
I once found myself driving, smoking a cigar, taking notes, and talking on the phone at the same time. I only became completely aware of this when I had to shift, and realized something had to give.
Allowing a non-lawyer to be on the Supreme Court strikes me as a very American thing, in a good way. Another is that the speaker of the house doesn’t have to be a member of congress.
I don’t think there is prejudice against atheists the same way there is prejudice against fat people. I don’t think people hate or contemn atheists; I think people feel sorry for atheists.
The odd thing is that Trump’s hand movements don’t seem to coordinate with the topic at hand. Most pols manage to make their hand movements correspond with the message, so a slash will accompany emphasis, etc.
So, when this kind of thing happens to other people, we need to put them in a different category from us. We don’t want to resemble them, and the fact that we might is too terrifying to deal with. So, they have to be monsters.
