Nation celebrates Kennedy's legacy of liberalism
Ron Walters/NNPA Columnist
Issue date: 9/6/09 Section: Politics
The problem here, as someone who studies government, is that I cannot think of a civilization or country that achieved greatness in the long run where most of the people hated their government. They usually ended up in a civil war until one faction overthrew the other forcibly.
And although the American system of politics uses elections to affect a change in government when one faction is large enough to do so, what happens if radical dissidents view the electoral system as an insufficient tool for change? They start strapping on weapons to intimidate change as they are doing now at town hall meetings.
Many conservatives would argue that President Ronald Reagan did a great deal for the country. Actually he accomplished very little to move the country forward, his legacy was to reverse social progress. His party felt that people should take care of themselves and government should take care of their money and fight wars against those whom they consider enemies abroad. By contrast, the generosity of the spirit, common of Kennedy, allowed government to care for the least well off in society and include them in a modern notion of a progressive democracy. His liberalism was mostly right about the big issues of our day.
The current health care debate is a massive referendum on the Dr. King/Kennedy legacy and whether the current temper of the American spirit contains the substantive values that will allow the country to move forward again. People are correct that perhaps the death of Ted Kennedy is the end of an era, but it raises the monumental question of where are we headed. For President Obama, who has inherited the Kennedy mantle of leadership, "liberalism" is a historically accurate destination.
Dr. Ron Walters is Professor Emeritus of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland College Park. One of his latest books is: Freedom Is Not Enough: Black Voters, Black Candidates and American Presidential Politics (Rowman and Littlefield Press).
And although the American system of politics uses elections to affect a change in government when one faction is large enough to do so, what happens if radical dissidents view the electoral system as an insufficient tool for change? They start strapping on weapons to intimidate change as they are doing now at town hall meetings.
Many conservatives would argue that President Ronald Reagan did a great deal for the country. Actually he accomplished very little to move the country forward, his legacy was to reverse social progress. His party felt that people should take care of themselves and government should take care of their money and fight wars against those whom they consider enemies abroad. By contrast, the generosity of the spirit, common of Kennedy, allowed government to care for the least well off in society and include them in a modern notion of a progressive democracy. His liberalism was mostly right about the big issues of our day.
The current health care debate is a massive referendum on the Dr. King/Kennedy legacy and whether the current temper of the American spirit contains the substantive values that will allow the country to move forward again. People are correct that perhaps the death of Ted Kennedy is the end of an era, but it raises the monumental question of where are we headed. For President Obama, who has inherited the Kennedy mantle of leadership, "liberalism" is a historically accurate destination.
Dr. Ron Walters is Professor Emeritus of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland College Park. One of his latest books is: Freedom Is Not Enough: Black Voters, Black Candidates and American Presidential Politics (Rowman and Littlefield Press).
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