Ah, but the Kennedys were fabulously wealthy. Their father, Joe, amassed a huge fortune, mostly through real estate (though seeded with some, uh, seedy ventures in the '10s and '20s). And, unlike that of many of the prominent philanthropic businessmen of the 19th and early 20th centuries, most of that money was passed on to his children, rather than going towards charity. Then again, being devout Irish Catholics, Joe grandfathered 30 children, so that money got spread out pretty quickly.

In addition, Joe was somewhat obsessed with getting into politics. His own aspirations to high office were torn asunder when he sprouted a defeatist attitude early in World War II, when he was ambassador to Britain. He then started grooming his eldest son Joe, Jr., who was killed in (odd) action late in WWII. Then he started grooming his next oldest, John. I imagine that obsession got passed to the other two sons, too. However, only a few of the grandchildren are politicians, and currently only one. Might have something to do with those few being the few that knew their fathers past age 10.

Many of the Kennedys are activists, some political, some social, but I doubt we'll see many more Kennedy politicians.


That would be an incorrect presumption. Many of the Democrats elected into Congressional office in 2006, when they regained majorities, have serious problems with the idea, and they are a big part of what is holding it back. The Democratic party of the last thirty years has been one of the most disjoint parties ever to be in existence. It's nearly the equal of a European-style coalition party. If we were to go by pure party numbers, Democrats could pass anything they wanted to right now. (Or could, before Ted Kennedy passed away.) But it's just not that unified here.


Yep. The same thing that fails to work right in every large collection of people: the squeaky wheel gets the grease.


There's no way you could know this, but, FYI, the accepted adjective is "Democratic". (In reality, the name of the party is the "Democratic Party", and "Democrat" as a noun is a backformation already, albeit an accepted one.) In recent years, Republicans have started using the word "Democrat" as a diminutive adjective — kind of a pseudo-subtle epithet.