The End of the Kennedys

With the sudden decision by Rep. Patrick Kennedy not to seek reelection, Maria Shriver is now the Kennedy closest to governmental power.  Think about that.  The Kennedy legacy rests on the shoulders of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

If you go back a year, the descent of Kennedy power is staggering.  Hugely influential in Obama’s push for the presidency, Caroline Kennedy crashed and burned as a Senate candidate in New York.  Then Ted Kennedy died, and his legacy meant so much to Massachusetts that the people elected a flame throwing Republican to the Kennedy family Senate seat.  Now Patrick Kennedy, the last elected Kennedy and with personal troubles like so many of them, is leaving the scene.

As far as I know, there are no 20-something Kennedys out there on the political horizon either (though the name will be good for a revival for decades).

And so a dynasty ends.  These things happen.  We do not care about the Adams family anymore.  Not really the Roosevelts either.  The Morgans, the Rockefellers, who are they?  And we are only scared of the Bushes at this point.

This should be irrelevant.  I hate the tabloid fascination with the Kennedys.  I welcome the break.  Let Patrick Kennedy work out his own life on his own terms.

But beyond all the “America’s royalty” crap, the Kennedys have stood for a certain sort of politics, certainly a certain Democratic reliability in the Northeast.  And having a figurehead, just one Kennedy, was important for all the other politicians up there.

Photo by twelvelemons