Our Great Sound-Bite Orator

Words and Ideas. I love words and I love ideas. I try to avoid politics in Dislocations, but I am unable to entirely, especially when it comes to a good wisecrack. The fact of the matter is, politics is where words and ideas coincide in our lives with the most frequency.

I get frustrated with the folks for whom politics is all and in fact they are either so issue oriented that they eschew ideas or are so blinded by their ideological convictions they mistake their belief systems for ideas and are compelled to ignore how to achieve practical applications in terms of issues. Then there are the people who ignore politics altogether and in turn, ignore wide swatches of ideas and clusters of great words.

We live in a Sound-Bite political world. Reflections, perspectives, in-depth analysis are not encouraged. The news cycle is so accelerated that formulating an informed opinion seems like indulgence. Words are used to bluster and little credence is given to or interested generated in, ideas. But, as politicians go, Senator Edward Kennedy was the best at overcoming the contrary influences of the Sound-Bite and words and ideas. He was one of the best at formulating ideas into words to make an effective Sound-Bite without short-changing either the words or the ideas.

I’m going to miss Senator Kennedy. I agreed with him politically, I’m pretty much a die hard liberal. Psychologically, it’s hard for me to go against that Kennedy name. When I was in Grammar School, there was a picture of John F. Kennedy in nearly every classroom. It wasn’t until High School that I realized he was only a martyr, not a Saint. He had not been officially canonized. I like to say my political philosophy comes mainly from two sources, the Sermon on the Mount and the songs of Woody Guthrie. I admire the New Deal and FDR and the strain of progressive politics that goes back to Al Smith which articulates and implements ways the government must be responsive to social needs and the less fortunate. Obviously, Senator Kennedy carried on that tradition. He held the torch when that tradition was under attack, kept the light burning during some of the darkest times of our country. With so much still left undone, his absence is all too apparent as is the sad fact no one with even a fraction of his stature seems ready or able to step into his shoes. The reports surrounding coverage of his funeral surprisingly show that he did a lot of individual good deeds for his constituents, away from media glare. That is what a politician, an office holder is supposed to—work towards effective legislation, walk the fine of line of compromise to get laws passed and use the office to positively affect individual lives. Tens of thousands waited on line to pay their respects, stood in the rain to watch the funeral motorcade pass. I can’t think of any New Jersey Senator during my voting life time—about 30 years or so and I have voted in every election—that I would do that for—stand outside in the rain just to pay respect? Forget about it. I wouldn’t stand outside on a nice day. Some Jersey Politicians I like, but I can’t think of one I admire or feel particularly proud of, much less feel inspired by. I can’t think of one who is beloved. I can’t think of any other senator who is beloved by the citizens of his or her state. Kennedy was beloved by the people who put him into office and reelected him for nearly five decades. Think of how rare that is.

But it’s not because of him being so beloved or my concurrence with his politics that I will miss him. What I’ll miss the most is Kennedy’s combination of words and ideas. I’ll miss his great Sound-Bites. The booming voice, that Boston accent, that ability to deliver a thoughtful, clever zinger. I appreciate a well written and well delivered speech. The best in the United States is without question, Abraham Lincoln, whose speeches are among the greatest works of 19th century literature. Barack Obama has given some great speeches—he’s an accomplished writer and I could name several other contemporary examples of exceptional rhetoric. Except of his appearance at the 2008 Democratic Convention, I’m pretty certain I’ve never heard an entire speech by Ted. But, I do recall several quotes, or in the parlance of our times, Sound-Bites, and I believe that was where his greatness as an orator lay. He could encapsulate the issue and the ideas on which he justified his stance on an issue in a few, insightful, news-ready sentences.

I’ve tried to find a few quotes that support my proposition. Of course, the ones against Bush are memorable:

“Make no mistake about it! There is an organized movement against organized labor and it's called the Bush Administration."

“The Republicans are looking after the financial interests of the wealthiest individuals in this country.”

Right on! Kennedy gained attention in the first decade of this new century by voting against the Iraq war, a brave position at the time, one that received much ridicule, but he sure sounds right today and the opposition—the sheer fed-up-ness with the lies that led to the war and the poor planning of the early stages—propelled Obama into office and the Bush Administration into historical disgrace.

“There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud.”

“The war in Iraq itself has not made America safer and has not made the world safer.”

Simple, to the point. Calls a spade a spade. Fraud! Safer! Sound bite orator extraordinaire.

Look at this exhortation: “The President’s handling of the war has been a toxic mix of ignorance, arrogance, and stubborn ideology. No amount of Presidential rhetoric or preposterous campaign spin can conceal the truth about the steady downward spiral in our national security since President Bush made the decision to go to war in Iraq.”

What great use of adjectives—not just any rhetoric—Presidential Rhetoric. The clear implication is that the President is using his office to conceal lies. Preposterous Campaign Spin. Preposterous. What great word choice.

Kennedy spouted these quotable, compelling Sound-Bites during the immediate post-9-11 era, when any voice of dissatisfaction with the Bush Administration was considered by many as tantamount to treason. That time was a low point for our country. Kennedy was often the lone voice in the wilderness, but because he was a Kennedy, because he had the stature, because he was undeniably a master of putting ideas into words and words into Sound-Bites, he could not be dismissed or ignored. A few years later, it was his guidance that our nation turned to and that guidance came in his endorsement of Obama, a watershed tie breaking moment.

His speech at last year’s convention, was short, in the pep rally preaching to the choir category. It was also made within the context of his very public Brain Cancer diagnosis. He left his hospital bed to make the speech. But look at how his words emphasize the ideas he led his life promoting.

“I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals, and to elect Barack Obama president of the United States. As I look ahead, I am strengthened by family and friendship. So many of you have been with me in the happiest days and the hardest days. Together we have known success and seen setbacks, victory and defeat. But we have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world. And I pledge to you -- I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate when we begin the great test.”

After eight years of the Bush Administration, Kennedy calls us to “restore” the “future” of our country—optimistic and always looking forward, that has always epitomized our country. Then he turns to himself, using his celebrity and his publicized illness and pledges to be there to see it happen in spite of his disease. That paragraph I excerpted, read it out loud. It’s the perfect sound-bite and because it indirectly references the brain cancer, it has to be carried by the news. Perfect sound-bite. But, he turns our sympathy for his suffering into identification so that we too, pledge to be there in January. An uncommon ability and one that he pulled off with ease.

They weren’t all about Bush, and not all in recent years. Flag burning—one of the most meaningless controversies stirred up periodically by right-wing politicians trying to set up false tests of patriotism. Look at this quote, short, succinct and cutting to the core of the issue—free speech.


“If we set the precedent of limiting the First Amendment, in order to protect the sensibilities of those who are offended by flag burning, what will we say the next time someone is offended by some other minority view, or by some other person’s exercise of the freedom the Constitution is supposed to protect?”

In the late 90s, the Republicans—a few years before the supreme court republicans decided that counting votes in Florida was un-American—impeached President Clinton. No stranger to sex scandals himself, Kennedy had the right Sound-Bite: "Republicans in the House of Representatives, in their partisan vendetta against the President, have wielded the impeachment power in precisely the way the framers rejected recklessly and without regard for the Constitution or the will of the American people."

What prompted me to blog this was Kennedy’s famous Bork blurb. “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is — and is often the only — protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy… President Reagan is still our president. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.”

It was the last couple of years of the Reagan Administration and this guy Bork was bad news. Reagan started his presidential campaign by going to Philadelphia, Mississippi, where civil rights workers had been murdered in the 60s and espousing his support for State Rights. Bork was a legal theory guy that saw the Segregation laws as constitutional, narrowly defined—and by narrowly defining them dismissed them—the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendment and opposed the Brown V. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling. Let’s remember, during the last year of Bush I’s administration, basically the last year of Reagan’s 12 years of mis-rule—California erupted in race riots.

The New York Times ran this long piece about the Kennedy Bork speech, trying to cast it as the inception to animosity between Republicans and Democrats. What baloney. Some pundits pointed out that Bork never supported the police state Kennedy suggested, but Kennedy knew, as did the American people, that turning back to segregation, that justifying Jim Crow, that appealing to the strains of racism in our past could result in throwing out all the freedom achieved for society. The voice in the Wilderness, Kennedy gave us hope by basically calling a spade a spade, accusing Reagan of trying to “impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court.” Reactionary vision.. He said that in the 80s. Somebody had to. And, somebody had to put it into a Sound-Bite form for everyone to understand. Thank you, Senator Kennedy, for your words. Thank you, Senator Kennedy, for your ideas. Rest in Peace.