Robert F. Kennedy was born on this date (November 20) in 1925.
His career in public service lasted less than 20 years, and included no significant legislative or policy accomplishments, but he was a compelling and complicated figure whose commitment to social justice remains relevant today.
Kennedy’s greatest strength as a political luminary was his willingness to evolve, to incorporate new information and new experiences into his positions, and to seek the best, most useful ideas from across the political spectrum. He would be derided as a flip-flopper today, and even in his day, his willingness to learn from experience set him apart.
He is remembered primarily for his opposition to the war in Vietnam. But the Bobby Kennedy that campaigned for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination as a champion of civil rights and as an opponent of the war was far different from the Bobby Kennedy that served as an investigator for Red-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1953.
As John F. Kennedy’s campaign manager in 1952 and again in 1960, Robert Kennedy gained a reputation as overly ambitious and cold-hearted. “More rude than ruthless,” according to biographer Larry Tye. But ‘ruthless’ was the label that stuck.
But any description of Robert Kennedy can only be viewed as a snapshot in time. While he never lost his family-inspired win-at-all-costs competitiveness, his experience in government propelled him from ideology to idealism.
As a Senate subcommittee investigator, U.S. Attorney General, and U.S. Senator, Kennedy was exposed to the dark underside of the American Dream. He saw first-hand the corrupting influence of organized crime, the unconstrained evil of bigotry and racial discrimination, and the heart-breaking impact of poverty. He was confronted by the terrifying specter of nuclear war and endured a nearly unfathomable loss with the assassination of his brother.
These experiences transformed him, not just politically, but as a person. He became less rigid in his beliefs, more open to doubts. His allowed his innate empathy and compassion, which had been hidden by a hard shell, to emerge. He dampened his natural competitiveness with a calming strain of fatalism.
His evolution was fitful, and at times, uncertain, and his journey was interrupted by an assassin’s bullet, but his commitment to justice never wavered. His policy ideas defied easy description and taken together they met no liberal-conservative definition. He was pragmatic and idealistic at the same time. He eschewed conventional suggestions in his relentless search for solutions that would work. He never thought he had all the answers, he was always willing to consider new information, to learn and to grow.
His words continue to resonate.
“When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies.”
“We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of all. We must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on the misfortune of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled nor enriched by hatred or revenge.”
(Remarks by Robert F. Kennedy, delivered at the Cleveland City Club, April 5,1968, on the day following the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
For a detailed account of the career of Robert F. Kennnedy, see Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon, by Larry Tye, Random House, New York, 2016.
November 20, 2018