The death of former first lady Rosalynn Carter this week paired with the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22 reminds some when kinder, gentler political folks were among us.
Comparing the early 1960s and the early 1980s with today’s brutal partisan attacks can be something to discuss among yourselves around the Thanksgiving table. Or not if you’re among the growing hosts who have declared political talk verboten during holiday get-togethers.
Quite a few have taken that “off-limits” pledge because of familial splits over former President Donald Trump versus everybody else. Many don’t remember a Kennedy or President Jimmy Carter promising to dispose of political enemies once in the Oval Office, as the likely Republican presidential nominee has pledged if sent back to the White House next year.
Even Richard Nixon didn’t go that far. He was close with his “enemies list,” but not in the same league as our MAGA president.
Neither JFK nor Carter and his engaging first lady, Rosalynn, kept an official tally of those who done them wrong. Plenty did.
Not that they hid their dislike for several fellow pols. For Kennedy there was more animosity directed toward him.
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Aging Baby Boomers remember well where they were on Nov. 22, 1963 when our 35th president was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas. It is something indelibly linked to their youth.
The same may not be said of Mrs. Carter’s death on Nov. 19 at age 96. Although the Carters have been greeted with affection by Americans since they graciously left the White House in January 1981. President Carter, 99, survives his wife.
Despite his “malaise speech” of 1979, the Carters’ legacies were polished over the years through their global humanitarian works during their post-president years. They left the White House graciously after defeat at the hands of Ronald Reagan. Carter didn’t try to overturn the election or whine about it being stolen.
They continue as a reminder of how this country used to react when things went wrong. When elected officials and office seekers acted with some inkling of good manners. When senators didn’t challenge people to cage-match fights.
The same is felt of our martyred president. Kennedy was in the open-topped Lincoln with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Gov. John Connally, and Connally’s wife, Nellie, when he was fatally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. Connally, who eventually switched parties, ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination in 1980.
Prior to the state’s Republican primary on March 18, 1980, Connally traveled to Waukegan for a primary stop in an attempt to gather party support. It was a crowded state primary that year and besides the Texan and Ronald Reagan, included two Illinois congressmen, the county’s Philip Crane and John Anderson of Rockford.
Connally was welcomed to the Sheridan Road home of then-state Sen. John Conolly. Conolly died in 1988; Connally in 1993.
Also visiting the city before the March primary was Mrs. Carter, who boosted her husband’s renomination bid against U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., youngest brother of the slain JFK. Kennedy was an aggressive opponent for a sitting president.
Yet Carter was the favorite of Lake County’s Democratic Party regulars in the primary. His re-election team made sure the first lady came to the county seat to defend her husband’s record after four years in office. Also coming to Waukegan before the primary was Carter’s running mate, Vice President Walter Mondale.
Lake County and Illinois went overwhelmingly for the Carter-Mondale team, despite the Georgian’s low polling numbers nationwide. Statewide, Carter won 65% of the popular vote and the lion’s share of Illinois delegates to the party’s nominating convention, which would be held in the summer in New York City. Kennedy garnered 30% of the primary vote.
Kennedy’s primary campaign — the last presidential attempt by a member of the extended Kennedy clan until Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s current campaign — continued through the convention until it was certain Carter would again be the party’s nominee in 1980. The primary challenge was one of the many reasons Carter lost the general election to Ronald Reagan. The Iran hostage crisis, energy costs, stagflation and high interest rates hastened his political demise.
The Kennedy challenge to Carter was the last time a major candidate ran against an incumbent Democrat president in the primaries, although there is time before November 2024. Which is another topic which may be debated before or after Thanksgiving dinner.
If it’s allowed.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.?[email protected].
X @sellenews