And the Kennedy women?

November 22, 2008

Politicians are very small transparent people. I have witnessed it over the last nine months - how frightened and threatened men are of Senator Clinton and to what degree they will go to deny it. The proobamedia is one thing, her colleagues another and the Kennedys another altogether. The loyalists to her husband running the other way when it was time to back a woman. Cowards in broad daylight giggling in the back rooms and heartily clapping barry - someone they don't know - on the back simply because he's an alternative to a pantsuit.

Ted Kennedy - your legacy may be set in American Politics but you have left me with a bitter taste. A bitter taste from a family I had always looked on as tolerant. A family my large Irish Catholic family had revered. I see now it was all a mirage. And it's very, very sad.

Sadder still were the few Kennedy's backing Senator Clinton who never stood forward and said so. Why? What impact does it have on the Kennedy legacy that some stood silent and did not let their dissent be seen because it was a conflict of interest within their own family? And what of the ones who did not encourage them to do so even though they were on barry's side?

Women in the Kennedy family have stood silent and let the most powerful politician, who just happens to be a woman, be trashed. One cannot hold them responsible for the decades of abuse - justified or not - heaped on Senator Clinton, but they have stood silent while the Kennedy name was used to promote barry. Plenty of them sticking up and saying how proud their father, uncle or whatever relation would be. Plenty doing their part to get barry elected. Plenty so happy about the resurrected pride and popularity that they have come forward to get their 15 minutes of name-related fame.

Do they all believe in their hearts and souls that barry is more qualified? That if he weren't a black man he would be president? That if it didn't make a nice tidy package for the Kennedy legacy, he'd still be The One?

And in regards to themselves - are they delusional enough to believe they have gotten to where they are because of their own intrinsic worth? That their family name had nothing to do with it? That they weren't given the benefit of the doubt because of it and have not been attacked in the media because of it?

And Senator Clinton's name? How has that impacted her political career? How scandalous would a female Kennedy have to be before the media went after her? Would a Clinton have survived Chappaquiddick? Any politician save a Kennedy?

How enlightening would it have been for one Kennedy woman to step forward, especially one obviously pro-barry - Caroline Kennedy even - to say that the misogyny and sexism is way out of control and should be no more tolerated than barry's own race baiting.

It is what I now associate with the Kennedy Legacy: silence.

Even if the Kennedy women hate Senator Clinton, even if they think barry is the second coming of Jesus or JFK or RFK - they have stood silent while a female politician of considerable political worth was attacked on everything from cleavage to thick ankles. They of the nasal Boston accent stood silent while Sen Clinton was attacked because of her Chicago cackle. They of the Democratic party stood silent while their fellow Democrat was attacked--through no fault of her own--because of men's irrelevance, impotence and castration anxiety.

Most disappointing (and most heinous) they have stood silent while Chelsea's mother was attacked on a fundamentally feminine level.

They have made their stops on Morning Joe talking about Catholicism in America and never once said, you know, Love They Neighbor includes Senator Clinton. Maria Shriver, First Lady of California and most visible female supporter of barry has said nothing about the misogyny and obvious sexism. Caroline Kennedy became head of the VP search and said nothing when her uncle said Senator Clinton was not noble or leader enough to become vice president. And yet, Senator Clinton took the initiative to shake Senator Kennedy's hand after he had endorsed barry.

What is Ms Shriver conveying to all the young girls of California? Of America? Of the world? How is she inspiring the young girls of any anything who aspire to be president one day? How is her silence reassuring young black girls that they have as much of a chance of becoming president as their little brothers? And that if they were to try their hair, makeup, body size, voice and clothing wouldn't matter?

Will any of the Kennedy women develop a conscience once Senator Clinton is working for barry? Will that be enough for them to become women first and Kennedys--who have never been discriminated against nor will they ever--second?

They have all seen what has been happening and none have said a word or raised an objection.

Nothing anymore exists to make me feel proud of the Kennedy legacy.

Same with Oprah - the supposed champion of women everywhere. It was the premise behind her academy: that women leaders will effect change in the world, that they are the ones who will bring peace and that they just need education and an opportunity to do so. Empty words it seems. Who could effect more change in the world RIGHT NOW while those young girls are still aspiring? Who could bring that dream to reality? To prove to them that it really and truly is attainable? Can they really believe what Oprah says? Can anyone?

It seems the tolerance JFK spoke of referred only to black male Americans. That it had nothing to do with their wives, mothers, sisters, nieces, grandmothers, neighbors, coworkers and rare bosses. Would Senator Clinton had been treated differently had she been a Kennedy? A black women?

Although the odds are against it, I hope I live long enough to hear someone admit that Sen Clinton she should have won. (Did win.) That barry cheated with the full knowledge and cooperation of the DNC, the Kennedys and proobamedia. That the daily attack on Senator Clinton and her supporters was a sanctioned, malicious, planned assault carried out with the knowledge and assistance of barry's camp, which included the Kennedys, DNC and proobamedia.

Something that has still not been made right even as barry mimes "Team of Rivals". If you knew barry at all, you would know he is assembling a team of political expedience. He is selecting people he can easily cut away and throw under the bus. Go through each one yourselves and check them off. Find one who doesn't fit affirmative action, Chicago payback and/or political expedience.

When you find one let me know.

What would our forefathers and forebears think? Would they believe barry's engineered election was one step closer to a More Perfect Union? Would they be proud of how barry race baited?

I think Abraham Lincoln would be sickened by the repeated references to him, his words and his accomplishments by someone who has accomplished absolutely nothing. Someone who stood silent even as he professed unity while his opponent - a woman no less - was destroyed in the media so that he could win. Thomas Jefferson would be chuckling at the hypocrisy of it all. And Martha Washington would sit quietly and cry having known in her heart that it was going to take more than 232 years to make things right.