No family symbolizes the Democratic Party’s brightest days and darkest hours more than the Kennedy clan.
No city stands more as a reminder of that than the City of Angels, where Democrats nominated John F. Kennedy for the presidency in 1960 and where New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was killed during his pursuit of the White House in 1968.
And no Kennedy embodies the party’s memories of its past and aspirations for its future more than Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, the last survivor of Camelot, who speaks to the party’s national convention Tuesday night.
Although a Kennedy has not run for president since Sen. Edward Kennedy’s ill-fated effort in 1980, the family remains a powerful talisman and political tonic for Democrats.
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Unlike many of the other figures at this convention, who come to sell a policy, party position or to praise the ticket of Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman, the Kennedys come to remind the party of its ideals and polish the promise of its future.
During this convention, five Kennedys will speak from the podium–three on Tuesday alone.
But, arguably, the most eagerly awaited is Schlossberg. While many delegates have watched her grow up from the little girl with a Dutch boy bob in the White House in 1961 to the radiant bride of museum interior designer Edwin Schlossberg in 1986, few have ever heard her speak.
At 42, an attorney, author, constitutional scholar and mother of three, she long has followed the style of her late mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, maintaining a very private life, rarely giving interviews or appearing in the public eye.
Thus, the choice of Schlossberg to introduce her uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, signals a rare occasion and one that promises to deliver eight of the most poignant and memorable convention minutes.
Over the last 40 years there have been few national conventions where Democrats didn’t cheer a Kennedy victory, commiserate with a setback or mourn a lost member of America’s most celebrated political family.
This convention will be no exception.
Schlossberg is expected to pay tribute to her slain father, President John F. Kennedy, and to invoke the memory of his namesake, her brother John Jr., who died in a plane crash just over a year ago. John F. Kennedy Jr. made many Democratic hearts beat faster when he addressed the 1988 convention, raising hopes he might be poised for a political career of his own.
Schlossberg’s decision to appear at the convention, despite her natural reticence, underscores one of the reasons the Kennedy family still possesses a near-magical mystique for Democrats, said Edna O’Neill Mattson, vice-chair of the Rhode Island Democratic Party and a convention delegate.
“When she speaks, that is giving, giving from the heart, because she is really not `political,’ but she is a true believer in what the Democratic Party is all about,” said Mattson, a former Massachusetts resident who has worked for every Kennedy campaign since John F. Kennedy ran for Congress in 1946.
“She’s doing it out of dedication, not duty,” said Mattson, 64, standing in the midst of her delegation. “The Kennedy family to me reflects the heart of the Democratic Party. They have given more, in terms of public service and with the lives of the president and the senator, than any other family in American history,” she said, referring to President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
James Walsh, an Illinois delegate from Lombard, agreed. “So much of the stuff we are grateful for today, as a party, like landing a man on the moon or the Peace Corps, so many of those things began with John Kennedy,” he said.
Across the convention floor, Lauren Werman, a delegate from Massachusetts, looked forward to Schlossberg’s speech. “To me, it’s a wonderful thing because she’s a woman and she never really participated before. I think she’s a big draw and we need that,” she said. “Kennedys bring excitement. They have a certain political charisma because they go way back and they have such a rich history, a bright history and a sad history.”
The happier chapters of that history still glow for many Democrats. “For guys like me, Jack Kennedy was the guy who inspired us to go into politics,” said Michael Dukakis, a political scientist at Boston’s Northeastern University and the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988.
Despite their wealth, the Kennedy family’s tradition of public service continues to energize the party, he said. “There is a strong core of belief and they all have it. This strong core of belief is in our responsibility to our fellow citizens, lifting up the poor and the weak and all of those who are not sharing in our prosperity. That is a consistent theme in that family.”
Moreover, the Kennedy years remain some of the most shining in the party’s collective memory.
“Up until Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy was the lone bright spot among Democratic presidents, really, since the 1940s,” said Allan Lichtman, chairman of the history department at American University in Washington.
“Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter were not held in particularly high esteem and were not really models for the Democrats to cite. Democrats would rather forget Johnson’s role in the Vietnam War and Carter’s politics of malaise,” he said.
In addition, Lichtman said: “The Kennedys have been important keepers of the liberal flame. First, you had Bobby Kennedy and his 1968 campaign. And, all these years, you’ve had Ted Kennedy as a liberal voice in the U.S. Senate and an important shaper of Democratic politics from health-care reform to civil rights.”
But as the party has moved to the political center, the Senate’s leading liberal remains respected but has lost some of his luster.
Now, another generation of Kennedys is moving toward the political spotlight, a continuing source of national fascination.
“If you ask people today who the great American presidents are, they cite John F. Kennedy, right up there with Lincoln, even though it’s hard to see the real achievements of his presidency,” said Fred Greenstein, a political scientist and director of the program in leadership studies at Princeton University.
“So, in a way his presidency is kind of a Rorschach test. The same thing with Robert F. Kennedy. People imagine what might have been, so hopes and aspirations are poured into their memories. Those then carry over into later generations who, at a minimum, seem to be celebrities, and there may be great hopes for them.”
Certainly, there are for Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island. Kennedy, who spoke briefly to the convention on Monday, has risen swiftly up the party ranks since he was sworn in at 27 as the youngest member of Congress in 1995.
The low-key, boyish-looking son of Edward Kennedy, he is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, where he has broken records for fundraising for his fellow Democrats. Should his efforts result in the party picking up the six seats it needs to wrest control of the House from the Republicans, Patrick Kennedy will emerge as a major party hero.
His cousin, Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, also appears on a fast track.
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“It’s extraordinary that Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was one of those mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick, even though she’s only a lieutenant governor,” said Lichtman. “That’s a measure of how powerful the Kennedy legacy still is.”
Townsend, 49, who was slated for a brief speaking role at the convention Tuesday, is expected to make a strong run in Maryland’s gubernatorial race in 2002.
Also addressing the convention Tuesday will be her brother, attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who will speak about the environment. Some hope he may eventually run for office.
The Kennedy name, however glittery, is no guarantee of success. Edward Kennedy learned that in 1980, when he unsuccessfully tried to take the nomination away from President Carter.
More recently, Joseph Patrick Kennedy II, the eldest son of Robert F. Kennedy, toyed with a run for Massachusetts governor, but, amid a flurry of family problems, including a bitter divorce, decided to forego it.
Nonetheless, there is a sense among some, at this convention and elsewhere, that the Kennedys may be poised for a renaissance in terms of American politics.
“It’s interesting that 40 years ago, when John Kennedy and the Kennedy family represented the present of the Democratic Party, they were at the pinnacle of power. Subsequently, really, what the Kennedys have meant is the past of the Democratic Party, fond reminiscences of John or Robert Kennedy,” said Paul Watanabe, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
“I guess, in some ways, now the Kennedys can again represent the future of the Democratic Party, with individuals in particular, such as Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and young Patrick Kennedy, and, of course, somebody who captures all of that in some ways, is Caroline Kennedy, who spans the whole period of time,” he said.