Horowitz: JFK at 100

Tuesday, May 09, 2017
Rob Horowitz, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Rob Horowitz

As we mark the 100th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s birth, we miss his patriotic, optimistic and public spirited vision of the big things we Americans can accomplish together.

Former President Obama in his remarks on Sunday evening upon accepting the Profile in Courage Award at the Kennedy library, captured President Kennedy’s inspirational and lasting impact on a then new generation of Americans.  “I was lucky to be born into that new frontier, a new world, and a new generation of Americans. My life in many ways would not have been possible without the vision that John F. Kennedy etched into the character and hearts of America. To those of us of a certain age, the Kennedys symbolized a set of values and attitudes about civic life that made it such an attractive calling. The idea that politics in fact could be a noble and worthwhile pursuit. The notion that our problems, while significant, are never insurmountable.”

When Kennedy said in his inaugural address: “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country”, he really meant it and backed it up with concrete specifics. Kennedy founded and launched the Peace Corps sending idealistic and committed young Americans to advance Democracy and provide real on the ground assistance to people in the world’s emerging nations. He also energized our Space Program committing the nation to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960’s—a goal that was realized when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969. 

This call to action, summoning all of us to work together to solve our nation’s challenges, can sadly not be found in the Trump lexicon. ‘Making America Great Again’ in President Trump’s limited and crabbed vision seems to be mainly about the wonderful things that he can do for us with his “outsized talents and skills”—not what we can all do together. And Trump spends far more of his time appealing to our fears than our hopes, practicing the politics of division-not unity. To expand and enrich his outlook, President Trump would be well-advised to learn from President Kennedy.

President Kennedy expertly used the bully pulpit to truly be the President of all the people, repeatedly reminding the nation of what unites us. Kennedy remarked, “For I can assure you that we love our country, not for what it was, though it has always been great -- not for what it is, though of this we are deeply proud -- but for what it someday can, and, through the efforts of us all, someday will be.” He inspired many Americans to turn their idealism into action for the public good by appealing in the words of President Lincoln at Gettysburg to the ‘better angels of our nature.” That is his lasting legacy and a significant contribution to the nation he served and loved.  It is a legacy that our 45th President could greatly benefit from, if he would take some of its lessons to heart. I for one am not holding my breath.

 

 Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.