Redemption

The Kennedys’ story is one of redemption. The legend that hovered for decades over American politics wasn’t due solely to the tragedies that so often hit this patrician family, haunted by a cruel passion for power. It was just as much due to a strange mystique of redemption. There wasn’t, in the 40’s and 50’s, a clan more cynical or more relentless in its pursuit of glory: a brutal and deceitful father, an extremely wealthy and shady character, branded because of his acquaintances in the mob and his indulgence of Hitler, and ambitious and frivolous sons, who hid behind the glamour of the East Coast, with an innate talent for maneuverability and calculation. Soon, however, once this avid thirst for glory was quenched, an unparalleled ability surfaced to personify the American Dream and to demonstrate enthusiasm for progressive ideals. Thus, through action and words, John and Robert were able to make the public forget their dark sides and enter the circle of American heroes. Ted, the youngest, promoted on the sole basis of his name, who gave way to panic in Chappaquiddick and was the unhappy heir who lost against Jimmy Carter in the race for the Democratic investiture in 1980, became – through sheer work and personal convictions acquired late in life – a wise legislator and the conscience of the Democratic Party. The last of the Kennedys was, after all, the first senator to support Barack Obama against another ambitious and glamorous clan, the Clintons. Redemption.

This is what leaders of democracy are made of: ambiguity and human weakness.

Only dictatorships pretend to be pure. Free regimes are based on imperfection.