REDWAVE
Urban Jungle Dweller
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2001
- Posts
- 6,013
RFK & the Sixties
Watched the made-for-TV movie "RFK" last night. It had its good points and bad points, but what struck me the most about it was how badly American politics has degenerated since then. There's no major political figure even remotely resembling RFK around today. Liberalism has all but disappeared. We have two right-wing parties: one center-right, and one far right. (I'll leave it to you to figure out which is which!) The idealism and hopefulness of the '60's has been thoroughly beaten down.
The movie ends with RFK suddenly being gunned down just after winning the California primary. There is no doubt in my mind they had him killed. (Again, I'll let you figure out who "they" are.) He had just scored the biggest political victory of his career, and was well on the way to obtaining the Democratic nomination. He was immensely popular, and there's no doubt he would have wiped the floor with Tricky Dick. (Even the hapless Hubert Humphrey, with all the baggage of Vietnam and the 1968 Democratic National Convention, almost beat Nixon.) The only way they could stop him from becoming President was-- to have him murdered.
In fact, if you think about it, the whole mess we're in today can be traced back to four key political assassinations in the 1960's. JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and finally Bobby. JFK was killed just when he was thinking of pulling out of Vietnam, and establishing friendlier relations with Castro. I don't want to get into the whole "grassy knoll" debate, but there's a ton of evidence which indicates Lee Harvey Oswald was (as he said himself) just a patsy, and very powerful forces were behind Kennedy's assassination. Malcolm X was killed by a Nation of Islam member, but the FBI was stirring them up behind the scenes-- that's been well documented. The U.S. government was responsible for Malcolm's murder. King was killed just after he came out against the war in Vietnam. There's no way drifter and loser James Earl Ray could have pulled that off alone. And the timing of RFK's death is so suspicious there's no way in hell it was just the crazed act of a "lone gunman." No-- these were all political assassinations, carried out by very powerful persons, as part of a deliberate program to crush the left in this country, and maintain the dominance of finance capital.
Need I even say that this nation would today be very different, much more egalitarian and much less militaristic, if Bobby Kennedy had been elected President in 1968, instead of the despicable Nixon? That we would all be a lot better off today if it were not for these four key political assassinations, which short-circuited the political process and betrayed the hopes and dreams of an entire generation?
Those who are old enough to actually remember the 1960's are especially invited to contribute to this thread, although youngsters who only know the '60's through the accounts of others are also welcome.
One day, and soon (I promise!), they will not be able to kill enough people to stop the needed changes from happening.
Watched the made-for-TV movie "RFK" last night. It had its good points and bad points, but what struck me the most about it was how badly American politics has degenerated since then. There's no major political figure even remotely resembling RFK around today. Liberalism has all but disappeared. We have two right-wing parties: one center-right, and one far right. (I'll leave it to you to figure out which is which!) The idealism and hopefulness of the '60's has been thoroughly beaten down.
The movie ends with RFK suddenly being gunned down just after winning the California primary. There is no doubt in my mind they had him killed. (Again, I'll let you figure out who "they" are.) He had just scored the biggest political victory of his career, and was well on the way to obtaining the Democratic nomination. He was immensely popular, and there's no doubt he would have wiped the floor with Tricky Dick. (Even the hapless Hubert Humphrey, with all the baggage of Vietnam and the 1968 Democratic National Convention, almost beat Nixon.) The only way they could stop him from becoming President was-- to have him murdered.
In fact, if you think about it, the whole mess we're in today can be traced back to four key political assassinations in the 1960's. JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and finally Bobby. JFK was killed just when he was thinking of pulling out of Vietnam, and establishing friendlier relations with Castro. I don't want to get into the whole "grassy knoll" debate, but there's a ton of evidence which indicates Lee Harvey Oswald was (as he said himself) just a patsy, and very powerful forces were behind Kennedy's assassination. Malcolm X was killed by a Nation of Islam member, but the FBI was stirring them up behind the scenes-- that's been well documented. The U.S. government was responsible for Malcolm's murder. King was killed just after he came out against the war in Vietnam. There's no way drifter and loser James Earl Ray could have pulled that off alone. And the timing of RFK's death is so suspicious there's no way in hell it was just the crazed act of a "lone gunman." No-- these were all political assassinations, carried out by very powerful persons, as part of a deliberate program to crush the left in this country, and maintain the dominance of finance capital.
Need I even say that this nation would today be very different, much more egalitarian and much less militaristic, if Bobby Kennedy had been elected President in 1968, instead of the despicable Nixon? That we would all be a lot better off today if it were not for these four key political assassinations, which short-circuited the political process and betrayed the hopes and dreams of an entire generation?
Those who are old enough to actually remember the 1960's are especially invited to contribute to this thread, although youngsters who only know the '60's through the accounts of others are also welcome.
One day, and soon (I promise!), they will not be able to kill enough people to stop the needed changes from happening.
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