One of the sharpest political columnists and media commentators, in my judgment, is Joe Concha. Unlike many political analysts who monopolize the airwaves, Concha is well-versed in America’s political history, can think outside the box, and doesn’t rely on talking points or cue cards.
And unlike the dour, doom and gloom commentators, Concha possesses a sense of humor. He’s naturally funny and has a keen sense of the absurd.
Concha’s new book Progressive Worse: Why Today’s Democrats Ain’t Your Daddy’s Donkeys, confirms my impressions of him. The work is a treasure trove of observations and anecdotes on the nation’s body politic.
Concha’s thesis: “Over the past few decades, Democrats have swung so far left that they have little in common with past generations of progressives.”
Yes, the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy has become the party of leftist lightweights — Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Congresswoman AOC, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Pete Buttigieg, to name a few.
A recent Rasmussen poll reveals the mindset of today’s radical Democrats: “Fifty-seven percent of Democratic voters agree [the Constitution] ‘is a document rooted in racism’ and 64% think the Constitution ‘is a sexist document that gives men advantages over women.’ Nearly half (49%) of Democrats believed the Constitution ‘should be mostly or completely rewritten.’”
These beliefs, among others, help explain why Democrats in recent years have been expelling longtime party heroes.
First Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, founders of the Democratic Party, were booted out because they owned slaves. Then the name of Woodrow Wilson was stripped from institutions because, as New York Times columnist Bret Stephens pointed out, “he sinned against the more recent commandments of progressive dogma.”
I will not be surprised if the next one to be excised from the party rolls will be John F. Kennedy — the hero for many in my generation. (I’m 71.)
Concha contends that JFK, one of the most popular presidents in the history of polling, is the original MAGA president.
And I agree.
As a young congressman from Boston in the post- World War II era, Kennedy’s congressional voting record reflected the anti-communist, socially-conservative views of his blue-collar street-smart constituents.
Believing that the U.N. was a paper tiger, Kennedy publicly complained: “We should never have yielded to Russia and allowed the U.N. charter to embody the principle that a single veto by one of the big powers can stop actions by the United Nations.”
In a speech he gave in 1950 at Notre Dame University, Kennedy cautioned the graduates about “the absorbing hands of the great Leviathan,” and warned against the “ever expanding power of the federal government.” He even made a lucid statement on the Catholic principle of subsidiarity when he said that “control over local affairs is the essence of liberty.”
JFK also opposed affirmative action. On one occasion he said: “I don’t think quotas are a good idea.” He added, “We are too mixed to begin to divide ourselves on the basis of race or color.”
Unlike Biden and Harris, JFK argued for tax cuts. “It is a paradoxical truth” he said, “that taxes are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the sound way to raise revenue in the long run is to cut tax rates now.”
The cut in the marginal personal income tax rates from 91% to 70%, that were implemented shortly after Kennedy’s death by a Democratic controlled Congress, were hugely successful. By 1965, “the federal deficit began to shrink. Annual GDP growth went from just 2.6% to 6.6%. Unemployment dipped from 6.7% in 1961 to 3.8% in 1966.”
When JFK was struck down by an assassin’s bullet on November 22, 1963, Concha notes, he “was just getting started with the original American first agenda — low taxes to grow the U.S. economy, an expanded and stronger military, opposition to racial quotas...”
If views similar to Kennedy’s were to be voiced by a Democrat today, the party would cancel that person in a heartbeat.
Joe Concha gets it right; the Democrats are no longer the party of my parents and relatives — Catholic union workers — but a party of privileged Ivy Leaguers, Davos elites, antisemites, and people with purple hair.
George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the author of "The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact," and "Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy." Read George J. Marlin's Reports — More Here.
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