Co-worker rattling my chain today.....

[mac56]

Started out by assuring me that he's not in love with *, though he voted for him twice(!). But then he opined that "if JFK were alive today, he'd be a Republican...he'd be kicking Teddy's ass for him."

I was kind of aghast. Can't think of a single thing JFK ever said or did that would compare to the Repugs of today (possible exception: the Bay of Pigs).

My only reply was that "conservative" doesn't mean what it did back then, and that I thought Barry Goldwater would be disgusted with the Republican Party as it currently stands.

Any reply for this guy? Or is he, as I suspect, just rattling my chain?

[NMDemDist2]

1. hell, Nixon would be considered a Liberal by today's standards n/t

[flyingfysh]

5. very true, amazingly

Nixon created the EPA. Bush is trying to destroy it.

[NewJeffCT]

19. Didn't Nixon also start OSHA?

I could be mistaken, though.

He supposedly also supported the idea of universal health care and started a national push to find a cure for cancer... only a decade later, Reagan basically ignored the burgeoning AIDS crisis.

[WCGreen]

2. Perhaps it was because JFK spearheaded a huge tax cut for the

wealthy....

But their top marginal income was being taxed at 90% and he lowered it to around 70%....

[Cassandra]

10. While actually closing many loopholes...

so that the total amount of taxes collected went up.

[Cobalt-60]

13. 90% is a little stiff

But JFK would have not have tolerated these fascists.
This is something the pukes developed under Reagan that might best be called grave robbing.
They smear the image of the greatest men of the past, claiming they would swing into line behind the current puke fuhrer if they only could.
If your co worker weren't brain damaged to start with he wouldn't utter such a sentence.
He was no doubt fed the poison from outside.

[NewJeffCT]

20. I think the tax reduction was because...

Most of the debt related to the Depression and WW2 had been paid off by that time. So, the higher taxes were not needed any longer.

I could be mistaken, however.

[salin]

3. he's rattling your chain.

Remind him that he made Bobby (at least as liberal as Ted) to be Attorney General; Ask him how JFK's support for the civil rights movement compares to the GOP moves to restrict voting rights? And ask him *what* makes him think that Kennedy would ever have supported running a 'surplus' budget into massive budget deficits as is the legacy of today's GOP.

[lapfog_1]

4. There is a GREAT speech that JFK delivered

on being "liberal". Either Tom Hartman or Malloy has played it on their programs... it's just great.

I'm hope you can find the audio of it somewhere online and listen to it... then play it for your co-worker.

that will shut him up forever in thinking that JFK is more "conservative" than Ted or anyone else. The Democratic party should WISH to be that liberal today.


edit: found a transcript... read it!

http://www.liberalparty.org/JFKLPAcceptance.html

[ellisonz]

6. Tell him that you love him dearly and that you do not think he is loving himself by supporting *.

Kablamo.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Tell him the daughter of William Miller,

Goldwater's running mate in 1964, has stated publicly again and again that Barry and her father would be Democrats in this day and age, and would condemn what Bush is doing. (The daughter would be Stephanie, who can be heard on the radio or online at www.stephaniemiller.com)

[SalmonChantedEvening]

8. Must be nice to have superpowers....

Knowing what JFK would be doing re his brother.

It'd be in stark contrast to what Dumbya's brothers have done.

Imagine JFK helping to fix the election of Ted like Jeb did for bunnypants. Or Ted having Filipino hookers at his hotel room and embarrass his brother, or Bobby be at the center of an S&L scandal like Neil.

Maybe Caroline could've gotten herself kicked out of, let's say, Peru for antics in a hotel (hmm do I sense a pattern here with hotels?)

Yes it's fun to assign the ugliness of the Bush family to the Kennedys, because we can't defend their actions, so let's all imagine someone else is too blame.

Gee, can I try too? YAY!

I'd guess that JFK would be a guiding, supportive voice, helping to steer Ted and his plans for legislation towards the common good and not to the benefit of the already prosperous, a lesson which Ted would learn and use wisely.


Kinda like things are.

:shrug:

[muntrv]

9. Tell him that JFK would be a liberal Democrat today.

[lapfog_1]

11. Tell him to read this...

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But 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."
JFK - 1960

[Cassandra]

12. JFK inherited the Bay of Pigs plan...

from Eisenhower.

[1932]

14. Give him this book to read:

John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics by Richard Parker
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/104-5996039-4491934?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=galbraith+richard+parker&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

And you should read it too.

[BlueManDude]

15. Their Poster Boy Abe Lincoln would have nothing to do with today's GOP

the Party of Lincoln is now the Party of the Confederate flag.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

17. you got that right.

Not the party of Lincoln, Ike, or others. Even Nixon would be kicked out of the GOP for being too liberal. (The EPA - are you nuts? Social Security? Getouttahere. SALT 1 and 2? You a commie lover? How DARE you negotiate with your enemy?)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

16. that's not sugar in his coffee. LSD came in powder form, too.

Maybe it is MDMA, or Ex.

[annabanana]

18. Ask him What's the color of the sky in his world?

and if they dance the rhumba in rhinestone rickshaws...

[Skittles]

21. the fact that he brings up Teddy

tells me he is one of the easily brain-washed - let it go, he is not worth it

[CrazyOrangeCat]

22. Hang in there!

You are working with a real genius . . .

:dunce:

[bahrbearian]

23. Jesus is a Progressive.

[trotsky]

24. What morans like about Kennedy is his lowering of the top tax rate.

Of course they neglect to mention (or maybe don't even know) that he lowered it from ~90% down to ~70%. How many of them would like to go back to the days of a 70% tax rate on the top bracket? Throw that one back at him.