January 20, 1961 Kennedy Inaugural Address 50 years later

• ptown_trojans_1

  

  50 years ago today Kennedy gave what some call one of the best inaugural address.
  There are so many quotes from this speech.
  Passing the torch to a new generation of Americans,
  We will pay any price, bear any burden,
  Let us never negotiate out of fear, but never fear to negotiate.
  Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
  
  But, my favorite is: In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it.
  
  Amazing to think at the height of the Cold War you can pick out the delicate balance the world hung on. The speech focuses on cooperation with the Soviets, but also needing to fight for freedom all over any place.
  It is idealistic, yet calls for the continuation of the fight against Communism.
  
  A great speech, one of the great ones, 50 years ago today.
  
  [video=youtube;BLmiOEk59n8][/video]
  
  Transcript:
  http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=91&page=transcript
• believer

  

  JFK had charisma and a great stage presence without a doubt.
  
  This speech wouldn't fly in today's political climate.
  
  For example, his now famous line, "Ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your country" would be changed by Democratic Party speech writers to, "Ask what your country can do for you - not what you can do for your country."
  
  Kennedy also said in that speech, "...the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God." Today that would be changed to "...the belief that the rights of man come from the generosity of the state, not from the hand of God."
  
  And this, "Let the word go forth.....that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans." This would now say, "Let the word go forth.....that the debt has been passed to a new generation of Americans."
• jmog

  What's funny is that JFK, a democrat, stood for everything most conservatives do today and hardly anything that liberals do.
• jhay78

  

  jmog;645089 wrote:What's funny is that JFK, a democrat, stood for everything most conservatives do today and hardly anything that liberals do.

  
  Just what I was thinking. How different does today's Democrat party look than the one of JFK's era?
• BoatShoes

  believer;645041 wrote:JFK had charisma and a great stage presence without a doubt.
  
  This speech wouldn't fly in today's political climate.
  
  For example, his now famous line, "Ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your country" would be changed by Democratic Party speech writers to, "Ask what your country can do for you - not what you can do for your country."

  
  I don't see why you'd be a big fan of the President cajoling you to ask what you can do for your country. Seems socialist/Marxist/Spawn of Evil, etc. Should be spending time minding your own affairs.
• BoatShoes

  jmog;645089 wrote:What's funny is that JFK, a democrat, stood for everything most conservatives do today and hardly anything that liberals do.

  
  I mean I don't know where you come up with this.
  
  He thought at top individual tax rate of 65% was justified and a top corporate tax rate of 47% all higher than rates any Congressional democrats see as desirable. He also wanted to eliminate the deferral of tax that is inherent in our international tax regime; something the Chamber of Commerce is vehemently opposed to. His "New Frontier" domestic agenda would be accosted by republicans. He got rid of tight monetary and fiscal policies and ran the first non-war, non-recession deficit. He damn near went to war with the U.S. steel industry and used his administration's power to prevent the steel industry from raising prices despite it being projected that the steel industry's raising of the price would have resulted in a net gain for U.S. GDP.
  
  He expanded unemployment benefits, increased aid to cities and states for public housing and public transportation, increased the federal role in education, increased income earned by farmers, increased medical care for the elderly and he signed a bill trying to prevent water pollution. He first introduced a bill that would go on to be medicare but it wasn't passed.
  
  His goal going in was to eradicate poverty; something Republicans find to be fruitless.
  
  A significant amount of anti-poverty legislation was passed by Congress, including increases in social security benefits and in the minimum wage, several housing bills, and aid to economically distressed areas. A few antirecession public works packages, together with a number of measures designed to assist farmers, were introduced. Major expansions and improvements were made in Social Security (including retirement at 62 for men), hospital construction, library services, family farm assistance and reclamation. Food stamps for low-income Americans were reintroduced, food distribution to the poor was increased, and there was an expansion in school milk and school lunch distribution. The most comprehensive farm legislation since 1938 was carried out, with expansions in rural electrification, soil conservation, crop insurance, farm credit, and marketing orders. He increased the amount of workers in all of his federal agencies through his own executive power. He reduced the rates on FHA loans drastically and liberalized the federal lending for housing (the drum beat that conservatives lead for what caused our current financial crisis).
  
  All told, in such a short time, he expanded the role of the federal government more in such a short time than at any point since the thirties and the New Deal (which is supposed to be the beginning of our demise). Despite all of that, GDP grew at an average rate of 5.5% from 1961-1966 with inflation remaining at a steady 1% which has not been repeated since.
  
  If Kennedy had served a full time or hell, two terms...America might well have been the world that Republicans hide under their covers at night in fear of.
  
  In truth, President Kennedy was a blue blooded progressive but also a reasonable one who understood that a strong capitalistic system with strong safety nets was preferable. He epitomized the position that the Federal government has a powerful and useful role and that if done wisely it can assist the virtues of capitalism and a free-market system. The idea that modern conservatives try to "claim" him when he is the antithesis to all of their widely pronounced philosophical positions is ludicrous. It really amazes me. Because he supported cutting tax rates from 20-90% to 14-67% he's Sean Hannity or something when no modern democrat would ever propose a rate structure of 14-67%. BHO desired 39.6 for the top rate and he was maligned as the manchurian candidate spawn of Karl Marx with a secret desire to undermine American exceptionalism so that he may grow spiritually closer to his dead father....
• Footwedge

  JFK was just another "slimy Catholic" and covert liberal....wanting civil rights for everyone..... and all.
  
  Quote from John Fitz Kennedy............
  
  **if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
• BoatShoes

  jhay78;645323 wrote:Just what I was thinking. How different does today's Democrat party look than the one of JFK's era?

  
  I know it's much more conservative isn't it? To think, Ted Kennedy once rejected compromising with Richard Nixon on a national healthcare bill that was impressively more progressive/liberal/on the road to death by socialism than Obamacare...
• believer

  

  Got a little man crush on JFK eh BS?
• BoatShoes

  believer;645773 wrote:Got a little man crush on JFK eh BS?

  
  Admit it, you just like referring to me as "BS"
• HitsRus

  

  "Citizens of the world.
  Ask not what America can do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
  
  
  

  I don't see why you'd be a big fan of the President cajoling you to ask what you can do for your country. Seems socialist/Marxist/Spawn of Evil, etc. Should be spending time minding your own affairs.

  Fail.
  Citizens donating time and money to make their country better....what a novel idea! ....Nothing here about the state taking over for what the individual should do for his neighbor.
• BoatShoes

  HitsRus;646400 wrote:"Citizens of the world.
  Ask not what America can do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
  
  
  Fail.
  Citizens donating time and money to make their country better....what a novel idea! ....Nothing here about the state taking over for what the individual should do for his neighbor.

  So you're suggesting that an individual citizen sacrificing their labor, time, money or resources to improve things for the People collectively is a good thing. Since in our Constitutional republic grounded in representative democracy, "the State" is equivalent to the People or at the very least the People's agent, if indeed there are things that an individual "should" do for his neighbor, as you suggest; the People partaking in this activity does not transfer this obligation from individuals to some strange entity but rather codifies such obligations at a more meta-level. It is a tautology to say that the state is replacing the a person when the person is embodied in the People. Of course there are very legitimate practical and pragmatic concerns but on a fundamental level a person helping out his neighbor and a person helping out his neighbor through his elected agents as a member of The People/The State the end result is the same.
• HitsRus

  

  tautology?...hardly. there is a huge difference between State assistance/facilitation and the state taking. Volunteer and mandate. What is given freely, and what is taken by "law."
  
  
  
  Frankly Boatshoes, I'm surprised you didn't comment on the second part of the "ask not" part of the address. It is so often left out when people talk about Kennedy and his inaugural address, but together with the first part, brilliantly and succintly lays out what was JFK's hopes in both domestic and foreign affairs. A call for volunteerism and individual responsibility...a call for cooperation with other nations for the betterment and freedom of all.