News Journal: How to renew our Kennedy-era optimism about the future

Just after the recent election, I spent a day up in Boston as a guest lecturer at a class held at the Institute of Politics, part of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
We talked about the election results, their demographic implications, and what is likely to happen in the next Congress. The mood in the room was pretty dark. I contrasted the 36 percent turnout – the lowest in a U.S. midterm election since we were in a war in 1942 – with my experience in the recent Ukraine election, where more than 50 percent of the voters turned out, in some cases risking their lives to do so. We talked about all the reasons the turnout was so low – gridlock in Congress, an unpopular president, only 27 percent of the country feeling it is moving in the right direction. It was a stimulating discussion with some very smart young people, but it was clear they were not overly optimistic about the future.
I had been invited to come to the school by Valerie Biden Owens, a longtime friend who is a resident fellow there this fall. I was surprised and delighted when she told me she had arranged for me to spend the night in the dorm suite John F. Kennedy had lived in when he was a Harvard undergraduate.
The suite was furnished just as it was when Kennedy shared it with Torbert H. McDonald, who went on to become a member of Congress. There was a small living room with a fireplace, a bathroom and a bedroom with two single beds and one bureau, which they must have shared. There were dings and scratches on every piece of furniture, and I couldn’t help thinking about who had put them there.
What was new in the room was on the walls and bookshelves. There were lots of photographs of JFK when he was a student, and the shelves were full of books about his life and presidency, as well as the three books he wrote, including “Profiles in Courage.” There was a small bust of him on the fireplace mantle.
Being in that room brought back a rush of memories and emotions from a long time ago. I cast my first vote in 1960, and the first check mark I made on that paper ballot was for John F. Kennedy for president. It was a moment in time I will never forget. As a practicing Roman Catholic, it was an emotional lift that one of our guys could finally win the presidency. But I was even more excited to vote for someone who inspired us, who galvanized so many Americans to become more involved in making the country a better place.
In the years since, we have learned a lot about John Kennedy, not all of it positive. But nothing we have learned changes the effect his candidacy and presidency had on so many of us 54 years ago. People with extraordinary qualifications left their jobs and joined the new administration. The Peace Corps was established and was an immediate success because so many young people wanted to answer JFK’s inaugural address call to “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
It was JFK who inspired me when, as a young employee at DuPont, I got involved in Delaware politics. I wanted to make a difference.
My look-back-in-time glasses aren’t blind to the fact that politics was rough and tumble back then. Of course the parties traded negative ads, but I think most people in 1960 were voting for a candidate, not against another one. There was complete gridlock on civil rights in Congress, but on most issues, Republicans and Democrats fought it out to an eventual compromise. This was the Senate I went to work in a few years later, where friendships across the aisle were the norm and where the most respected members were those who knew how to work together for the good of the country.
Things change. There is no reason to believe gridlock is inevitable or permanent. With all of our problems, good things are still happening in this country. I left my Harvard dorm room the next morning with a renewed sense that the kind of optimism my generation felt back in 1960 is far more characteristic of Americans than today’s pessimism. I have great confidence that our young people will work for positive changes and that this country’s future is limitless.
Ted Kaufman is a former U.S. senator from Delaware.

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