Kennedy, for his part, had been far more conservative than what he’d been sold as. He had a conservative voting record as a Congressman and Senator. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, and FDR were often at loggerheads, especially over foreign policy. FDR had appointed him as Ambassador to the Court of St. James (Great Britain) partly to get him out of the country and out of the public consciousness.

To boot, Joseph McCarthy had been a frequent guest at The Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port and Papa Joe had wanted one of his daughters to marry McCarthy. Brother Robert had served on McCarthy’s subcommittee and McCarthy was his daughter’s godfather, a meaningful honor in Catholicism.

Many of the targets of McCarthy’s investigations were people who had been ushered into the government during the FDR administration. FDR’s widow, Eleanor, did not like JFK’s voting record and the Kennedys’ association with McCarthy with his tarnishing of FDR’s legacy. She tried to prevent his nomination by the very liberal Liberal Party of New York. The Liberal Party often provided the margin of victory for mostly Democratic nominees and without it, Kennedy might not have taken New York, at that time the largest electoral prize in the country. But the LP nominated him and he went on to victory.

By 1962, I went to New York University, one of the most radical schools in the country and found that it was fashionable to be liberal. But there was a new fly in that ointment.

Barry Goldwater was in his ascendancy to the 1964 Republican presidential nomination. William F. Buckley and his National Review were beginning to make conservatism acceptable in intellectual circles.

Kennedy had great respect and admiration for Barry Goldwater and was looking forward to the 1964 campaign. They had been frequent lunch partners in the Senate. He called Goldwater a man of decency and character. He had no such illusions about Lyndon B. Johnson. The Kennedys despised him.

John F. Kennedy was a man of principle and Lyndon Johnson’s main principle was power—his own. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963 completely changed the dynamics of the 1964 campaign. What would have been a contest of principles became one of merciless mudslinging by Democrats driven by Lyndon Johnson. It was typified by the infamous TV commercial of a countdown focusing on a little girl picking daisies that ended in a nuclear explosion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDTBnsqxZ3k.

It was appalling and a complete fabrication but it was fine for Lyndon Johnson’s ethics as history has shown. Goldwater saw it, and immediately telephoned Johnson at the White House and told him that if he ran it again, he would sue him. Johnson capitulated and it was never shown again but Johnson never relented on the stump.

National political campaigns would never be the same. The Democrats tried to smear Richard Nixon in 1968 and Jimmy Carter and his Democrats tried to do it to Ronald Reagan in 1980 calling him a fascist and a Nazi as they have nearly every Republican nominee since 2000. Bill Clinton’s campaigns were cleaner without the cheap-shots but since 2000, it has gotten worse and worse with the past three campaigns the worst but with something different added.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton characterized Trump supporters as deplorables. It was the first time in memory that a candidate actually smeared the opponent’s supporters. The function of campaigns had been to persuade others to support your candidate not vilify them.

This vilification was always among the rank and file but it never came from the top. Pres. J. R. Biden has now called Trump supporters garbage adding to the insults. Barack H. Obama has become unhinged in his rhetoric. He always tried to project an image of a thoughtful intellectual.

Many Trump supporters have also descended to that level which is standard operating procedure but I know of not once when Trump has done so. Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, J. D. Vance, has even called for civility.

After one of Barack’s primary victories Michelle Obama said that, for the first time, she felt proud of America. Most people cut her slack for it, including Bill O’Reilly. I didn’t. It seemed to me that it was a well thought out deliberate statement and reflective of her inner beliefs. She had never felt proud of America before. That should tell you something.

Not one prominent Democrat has denounced the mud-slinging. I submit that it is because they approve of it.

Just like progressives, socialists, national socialists, fascists and soviet socialists, Democrats believe that anything is acceptable to achieve their goal of government as God. Anything!

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On November 2, 2024, the Town Criers made an appearance in the historic district of St. Augustine, Florida. The Town Criers have been engaging the public on the streets of St. Augustine for over 13 years.

The purpose of the encounter with the public was to gauge the people’s response to the candidacy of Donald Trump for President. According to the Town Criers, you need two things to find success promoting an idea on St. George Street. First, you need a sample crowd and, second, you need something that interests the audience. Pleasant weather helps too. Apparently the Town Criers had all three. The Town Criers, with their support of Trump, were met with enthusiastic excitement in spite of an underlying anxiety about the election process and rumors of potential violence.

Access a video of this event by clicking on the picture above.

Chose wisely, America. The world is depending on us to preserve Liberty,

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On October 19, 2024, the Town Criers made an appearance on St. George Street with Donald J. Trump. The Town Criers of St. Augustine. Florida have been engaging the public in the “Historic District” since 2011.

The Town Criers have discovered that the national audience, who visit the oldest city in the North American Continent, functions as a middle-class focus group. The focus group has made predicting Presidential Elections possible with a 100% accuracy since 2012.