Was John Kennedy a conservative?

[The Chill Moderate Republican]

I would say he is a conservative. He's too conservative it makes moderate democrats look like mainstream democrats.

[The Self]

Of course not. John F. Kennedy was a technocrat, same as most other Presidents.

[Antonio the Sixth]

No.

[Mr. Smith]

Nope, any mainstream Democrat these days is to the right of Nixon, been that way since '88.

Ike the Liberal is more credible, and even that is rather tenuous.

[Sumner 1868]

Well, no, he never had an ideology. That said the Soviets sure thought he was one. In fact, because of his red-baiting as a Senator and through his presidential campaign, there was genuine belief that JFK was some kind of Goldwaterite militarist who was gearing up for a first strike against Moscow - especially after Bay of Pigs. Those who ask "how would a different President in 1962 have handled the Cuban crisis?" should instead ask if there would have been one at all.

[MarkD]

I would say that the only "conservative" thing about Kennedy was that he was cautious. He clearly had a liberal ideology, but given that he only barely beat Nixon, he had a tendency to be a tad bit afraid of the political consequences of going too far to the left.

[RFayette]

Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) is a conservative, yes.

Oh...the other John?  Lmao, no.

[The Govanah Jake]

He would still be a liberal as he was back then for the most part and probably also be a democrat now.

[Goldwater]

Nope, any mainstream Democrat these days is to the right of Nixon, been that way since '88.

...Seriously? You're better than this.

[RINO Tom]

I'll only go back to FDR since arguing about what happened pre-New Deal is pointless with some folks here: no Republican President since then was a "liberal," and no Democrat was a "conservative," or they wouldn't have been nominated by their parties.  Period.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I would call him generally a conservative as a Congressman, and a liberal as President, with the Senate years as a transition period.

[MarkD]

Kennedy was an opportunist like Trump. Since this was the heyday of the New Deal coalition, he ran as a liberal Democrat but governed more to the center than previous administrations. Eisenhower gave us more liberal SCOTUS judges than Kennedy.

Lol. What a comparison.
Eisenhower appointed five SCOTUS Justices, two of whom turned out to be liberals -- and Eisenhower clearly thought those two appointments were the worst mistakes of his presidency. Kennedy appointed two SCOTUS Justices, one of whom was a liberal -- Goldberg -- and the other one Kennedy thought would be a liberal -- White.
So 40% of Eisenhower's appointees were liberal -- which was much more than he intended -- and 50% of Kennedy's appointees were liberal -- which also was not his intention either; Kennedy intended 100% of his appointees to be liberal.

(Source that Kennedy thought Byron White would be a consistent liberal: Hugo Black: A Biography, by Roger K. Newman.)

(Speaking of which, Hugo Black was a liberal, but he was nowhere near as much of a judicial activist as Douglas, Warren, Brennan, and Goldberg. Indeed, even Byron White went to the left of Hugo Black on some very conspicuous occasions, with Black's interpretation of the Constitution usually being more accurate than White's.)

[Kingpoleon]

Was? He died?!?!?

[Young Conservative]

Obviously a conservative. "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." sounds nothing like the modern Democratic party or modern liberalism. He preached personal responsibility, liberty, and a strong national defense. That is what conservatism stands for

[Antonio the Sixth]

God this thread is dumb.

Obviously a conservative. "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." sounds nothing like the modern Democratic party or modern liberalism. He preached personal responsibility, liberty, and a strong national defense. That is what conservatism stands for

Riiiiiiiiight...

[This is Eharding, guys]

https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/Press-Conferences/News-Conference-30.aspx

'nuff said

[Illiniwek]

I would say that the only "conservative" thing about Kennedy was that he was cautious. He clearly had a liberal ideology, but given that he only barely beat Nixon, he had a tendency to be a tad bit afraid of the political consequences of going too far to the left.

[Yank2133]

No.

Kennedy was a typical 1960's liberal. Hell, The New Frontier was blasted by conservatives for being big government and wasteful spending.

[Technocracy Timmy]

He was no conservative.

[GGover]

He was a reluctant liberal, a left-leaning opportunist.

I think the modern leader most similar to JFK is probably Macron.

[Young Conservative]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Qg_4zqpDI

JFK was more conservative than liberal.

[GGover]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Qg_4zqpDI

JFK was more conservative than liberal.

With titles like The Inconvenient Truth About the Democratic Party, War on Boys, and Build the Wall PragerU seems more like Molyneux with fancy graphics than an unbiased source.

When asking if a past president was a liberal or a conservative, it's not reasonable to compare them to modern liberals and conservatives. We have to look at their policies relative to the time in which they lived. Liberalism is always growing and building on it's past victories, so a liberal from 50 years ago will be nothing like a liberal today.

Andrew Jackson is really a perfect example of this. He was a liberal (universal manhood suffrage) and a proponent of big government (squashing nullies in S. Carolina and destroying the bank), but today's big government liberals hate him and conservatives love him.

I don't think JFK was very liberal, I just wrote this post because I think PragerU's argument is very flawed.

[anthonyjg]

No, he wasn't, but the political spectrum isn't a linear left-right axis so the question itself isn't specific enough.

[Blair]

Okay sh**tty memes aside (I do feel very guilty for posting that) it would be unfair to call JFK a conservative. When he ran for congress in '46 it was as a pretty mainstream New Deal Democrat, with a focus on housing/healthcare/jobs- it's worth noting that he voted against the anti-union Taft-Harley bill, and there's countless other occasions where he took a pretty standard liberal democrat line. He spend most of his time in the Senate either in hospital, or running for President, but there was nothing as a Senator that made him stand out as a conservative.

I've never been one to say that his foreign policy was conservative; or even extremely hawkish. Setting up the red-phone hotline, ratifying the test ban treaty, and the Alliance for Progress were all relatively un-conservative.

As President he was prepared to use the powers of the Presidency to a much greater extent than Eisenhower in pushing his agenda- I can't remember the specifics but Bobby Kennedy as AG made threats during the Steel crisis that certainly wouldn't be supported by conservatives. Sending troops into the South twice, going on TV after the Birmingham riots to call for a new Civil Rights Act. Sure he was never on the Humphrey wing of the party; but he was still relatively liberal.

Being President for three years meant that he never actually had enough time to fully flesh out his domestic policies, and also the nature of the era meant that he never had any reason to (I mean just compare JFK's 1960 campaign for President, with Bobby's in 1968 to see how much democrat politics changed) So whilst JFK was relatively anti-abortion, and favoured tax cuts in 1960, it's still reasonable to say that if he lived he would have ended up as a standard Democrat much like Bobby and Ted had become.

[Sumner 1868]

Why would anybody want to be associated with JFK anyway? He was a mediocre president and a terrible human being.