The Speech JFK never had the opportunity to give on 11/22/63 [View all]

[Jrose]

'A lesson from 1963:
JFK’s warning on political power has never been more relevant

President John F. Kennedy was killed before he could deliver a speech in 1963, saying the nation does not need fanatics or the faint-hearted.
The greatest words never uttered by an American president may have come from John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated just hours before he was scheduled to deliver a speech in Austin, Texas.
Kennedy never made it out of Dallas.

Missing from most memorials is the speech Kennedy, 46, would have given that day had he not been cut down in the prime of his life and presidency.

Like many of Kennedy’s speeches — his “Ask not” inaugural address, the Cuban Missile Crisis speech, his address on civil rights — this one stands the test of time, and is as relevant today as it was on the day he didn’t deliver it. Kennedy in 1963 was already gearing up for reelection. He was aware that a feud among party leaders in Texas could hurt his chances of carrying the state in 1964, and one of his goals in traveling to the Lone Star State that week was to bring Democrats together. Kennedy had made the rounds in San Antonio, Houston, Fort Worth and Dallas. Next on his schedule was a stop in Austin, the state capital, for a speech to the Texas Democratic State Committee.

“For this country is moving and it must not stop,” Kennedy was planning to say, according to a transcript of the speech. “It cannot stop. For this is a time for courage and a time for challenge. Neither conformity nor complacency will do. Neither the fanatics nor the faint hearted are needed. And our duty as a party is not to our party alone, but to the nation, and, indeed, to all mankind. Our duty is not merely the preservation of political power but the preservation of peace and freedom.”

Kennedy’s words were a prescient and sobering message, especially in the weeks since the election this month when we’ve seen nothing but political power on display.

Instead of being grateful for the promise of a peaceful transition he never allowed to happen, President-elect Donald Trump is testing the limits of his reacquired power and Republican compliance with a list of bizarre cabinet appointments. A Republican majority in the new Senate will make confirmations easier for Trump’s picks. But the incoming administration, according to a report, has already warned GOP senators that those who don’t fall in line behind his nominees will face primary challenges funded by his new best friend, world’s richest man Elon Musk. Trump has even advocated for bypassing the traditional Senate confirmation process, relying instead on recess appointments, which would allow his nominees to be seated — without confirmation — when the Senate is in recess.

This is what Kennedy would have warned against had he lived just a few more hours, the “fanatics” like Trump and the “faint hearted” conservatives who do his destructive bidding.

(Excerpt from article by Leonard Greene, The New York Daily News, 11/24/2024)