Monday
May082006
Patrick Kennedy a victim of addiction
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 3:00AM
By Ellen Ratner
This was a great week for the Kennedy haters. All of those who despised JFK for his courageous stand on civil rights and nuclear disarmament, RFK for his anti-war politics and Teddy Kennedy for being America's greatest living liberal enjoyed the spectacle of his son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) again gripped by symptoms of substance addiction, a disease that has probably afflicted someone from every family in our country.
No decent human being experiences this kind of schadenfreude when the victim of alcoholism or substance abuse is one of their own children, a best friend, or their Uncle Max or Aunt Hattie. But when a Kennedy reveals the illness, some people are just plain cruel. All this week, the talk-radio airwaves were filled with callers haranguing Patrick Kennedy, a six-term (and effective) congressman, with lectures on "personal responsibility" or "how he had it coming" or "didn't he learn his lesson the last time?"
Why the delight by so many twisted minds? What's really happening here is that Patrick Kennedy, a man who has the courage to admit his mistakes and face up to his problems (were that President Bush was as candid about the bloody Iraq War and the staff he appointed to wage it), is a convenient surrogate for a certain type of right-winger who is simply too weak, politically and mentally, to attack the real objects of his or her rage – Patrick's more successful father Teddy, and his no-longer-living uncles, JFK and RFK.
The liberal legacy of Patrick's family speaks for itself. Despite the recent conservative turn in American politics, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy remain virtual martyrs in our history. As for Ted Kennedy, despite having to wrestle with tragedy and his own personal demons, he remains the embodiment of liberal America – and is hated by those right-wingers who won't be satisfied until the last liberal voice is extinguished from the American scene.
And Teddy Kennedy's voice is one that stings the right-wing soul. While most conservatives were cheerleading President Bush and his Iraq disaster, Teddy Kennedy, almost alone, was decrying the war and its all around tragic consequences. It was Kennedy who kept returning to the subject of Bush's derangement of our historic European alliances abroad while he abrogated the Constitution at home, especially concerning the things that used to separate America from the rest of the world – civil rights, human rights and the rule of law.
The right wing doesn't like to hear that "signing statements" are now the equal of the Bill of Rights or that NSA wiretapping was somehow the equivalent to securing our ports and borders, which Bush, despite hyping his invented "war on terror," refuses to do because some corporate interest might be offended.
If the right wing has one consistent, long-term project, it's trying to force Kennedys out of American life. They've tried ballots, smears, lawsuits, Kennedy personal weaknesses, tragedy and bad luck, whatever it might take. But the Kennedys prevail. And that annoys the right-wingers more than anything.
Now comes Patrick Kennedy, a politically talented and very personable young man. Patrick has had a longstanding problem managing addictive substances – no secret there, for he has been open and candid about his personal issues. And despite knowing all that there is to know about these matters, his constituents have returned him to office six times. (For some odd reason, the right-wing morality machine only goes into hyper-drive with Democrats – when Republicans Duke Cunningham pled guilty to taking outright bribes, or Tom DeLay was indicted and forced to resign the House leadership for alleged ethical improprieties, the talk show call-in lines from conservatives were strangely silent.)
Indeed, if Patrick Kennedy's last name had been Jones or Wilson, he'd be on Oprah or touted as role model for coming clean and seeking help in the face of addiction. But his last name is Kennedy and he's the son of perhaps the most hated Kennedy of them all – Teddy – so everything that the lip-frothing right can't lay at the feet of the senior senator from Massachusetts now gets express-mailed to his son.
It's an odd twist – instead of suffering for the sins of his father Patrick Kennedy suffers for his father's great virtues. And when the day arrives – may it not arrive for long years – when Patrick Kennedy will lay his own burdens down, he will be revealed as a man of great virtue himself.
But in the crazy world of today's politics, all that makes him is a target of the crazies.
This was a great week for the Kennedy haters. All of those who despised JFK for his courageous stand on civil rights and nuclear disarmament, RFK for his anti-war politics and Teddy Kennedy for being America's greatest living liberal enjoyed the spectacle of his son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) again gripped by symptoms of substance addiction, a disease that has probably afflicted someone from every family in our country.
No decent human being experiences this kind of schadenfreude when the victim of alcoholism or substance abuse is one of their own children, a best friend, or their Uncle Max or Aunt Hattie. But when a Kennedy reveals the illness, some people are just plain cruel. All this week, the talk-radio airwaves were filled with callers haranguing Patrick Kennedy, a six-term (and effective) congressman, with lectures on "personal responsibility" or "how he had it coming" or "didn't he learn his lesson the last time?"
Why the delight by so many twisted minds? What's really happening here is that Patrick Kennedy, a man who has the courage to admit his mistakes and face up to his problems (were that President Bush was as candid about the bloody Iraq War and the staff he appointed to wage it), is a convenient surrogate for a certain type of right-winger who is simply too weak, politically and mentally, to attack the real objects of his or her rage – Patrick's more successful father Teddy, and his no-longer-living uncles, JFK and RFK.
The liberal legacy of Patrick's family speaks for itself. Despite the recent conservative turn in American politics, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy remain virtual martyrs in our history. As for Ted Kennedy, despite having to wrestle with tragedy and his own personal demons, he remains the embodiment of liberal America – and is hated by those right-wingers who won't be satisfied until the last liberal voice is extinguished from the American scene.
And Teddy Kennedy's voice is one that stings the right-wing soul. While most conservatives were cheerleading President Bush and his Iraq disaster, Teddy Kennedy, almost alone, was decrying the war and its all around tragic consequences. It was Kennedy who kept returning to the subject of Bush's derangement of our historic European alliances abroad while he abrogated the Constitution at home, especially concerning the things that used to separate America from the rest of the world – civil rights, human rights and the rule of law.
The right wing doesn't like to hear that "signing statements" are now the equal of the Bill of Rights or that NSA wiretapping was somehow the equivalent to securing our ports and borders, which Bush, despite hyping his invented "war on terror," refuses to do because some corporate interest might be offended.
If the right wing has one consistent, long-term project, it's trying to force Kennedys out of American life. They've tried ballots, smears, lawsuits, Kennedy personal weaknesses, tragedy and bad luck, whatever it might take. But the Kennedys prevail. And that annoys the right-wingers more than anything.
Now comes Patrick Kennedy, a politically talented and very personable young man. Patrick has had a longstanding problem managing addictive substances – no secret there, for he has been open and candid about his personal issues. And despite knowing all that there is to know about these matters, his constituents have returned him to office six times. (For some odd reason, the right-wing morality machine only goes into hyper-drive with Democrats – when Republicans Duke Cunningham pled guilty to taking outright bribes, or Tom DeLay was indicted and forced to resign the House leadership for alleged ethical improprieties, the talk show call-in lines from conservatives were strangely silent.)
Indeed, if Patrick Kennedy's last name had been Jones or Wilson, he'd be on Oprah or touted as role model for coming clean and seeking help in the face of addiction. But his last name is Kennedy and he's the son of perhaps the most hated Kennedy of them all – Teddy – so everything that the lip-frothing right can't lay at the feet of the senior senator from Massachusetts now gets express-mailed to his son.
It's an odd twist – instead of suffering for the sins of his father Patrick Kennedy suffers for his father's great virtues. And when the day arrives – may it not arrive for long years – when Patrick Kennedy will lay his own burdens down, he will be revealed as a man of great virtue himself.
But in the crazy world of today's politics, all that makes him is a target of the crazies.
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