Biden and Kennedy: History does not repeat itself

Biden and Kennedy: History does not repeat itself 

When JFK was inaugurated, the changes that would animate the 1960s had already begun. The book 1959, The Year Everything Changed provides the details of the rise of the Beat Generation, with Jack Kerouac and the tunes of Miles Davis. In 1960, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee was formed. Lenny Bruce was needling the Church (whose cultural extremism was starting to wain).  These figures would lead the Boomers, but were not Boomers themselves. We owe them a debt for waking the nation up from conformity. 

The anti-Catholicism from the right was waning, but was replaced by a new version from the left. In 1961, the birth control pill had been introduced, but was Griswold v. Connecticut had not yet been handed down, nor Humanae Vitae penned by Ottaviani for St. Paul VI. Only Catholics cared about abortion - it was not until the late 1970s when the opponents of desegregation co-opted the issue, which is the beating heart of Trumpism and MAGA. 

The Church has co-opted the term religious liberty, and the GOP has co-opted the Church. When the bishops talk religious liberty they really mean religious power over both the faithful and in society. No thank you. 

Obama struck a nerve on birth control. Biden needs to do the surgery. Until and unless Joe Biden takes on this issue head on, Trumpism will simply find a new figurehead. Biden brought Obama back to support for marriage equality (although by that time, it was inevitable). The Church needs sounder legal advice on both issues and Biden, as a Catholic, is just the person to give it, privately first and then publicly. 

Reports are that some in Catholic pro-life circles were involved in the Insurrection. Their investigation and prosecution will help with that. The involvement of Russia in promoting Trumpism will also be revealed. Biden, like Kennedy, may just note this in his inaugural. That is where he and JFK will be similar. 

Francis is no St. Paul VI or Ottoviani. The royal we is simply not in his vocabulary and we are better for it. With Biden and Francis, the Church may have the kind of renewal that St. John XXIII sought.

The JFK v. Nixon counterfactual is interesting. Would Nixon have become the Watergate president without his loss? In not responding to Dr. King, he certainly laid the groundwork for MAGA, but his economic liberalism may have continued Ike's economic policies. It was JFK who started cutting the taxes on the wealthy, with LBJ putting them into law in 1965. Without this, unions would not have been broken. Likewise, without Goldwater, we may not have had Reagan. 

Biden will raise the call for the wealthy to pay more in taxes. He has the votes to carry this out, which could be used to force more basic compromise. Tax policy has been quietly moving this way. Look for Biden to get us over the line.