Since our project soon coming to accumulation, I have started to look more carefully at the heart of the subject of the project. I see the Legendary American History Course as a study of how the Americans see their legendary figures. Since we have a page limit between 50 and 80 and I’m sure my partners will also have their plethora of information to contribute, I’ll focus primarily on the topics dealing with the people’s view on Kennedy.
I have about seventeen pages from a book that gives a brief overview of Kennedy’s religion: Catholicism. It discusses the social conditions of his candidacy especially when the Irish Catholic immigrants have begun to rise in social status and gaining seats of power. It also briefly describes the “kind” of Catholic that Kennedy was. The last part is interesting because it compares the ’60s to the ’20s, the last time a Catholic ran for President. From all this information, we can discuss the various changes in views of America and even today. For example, Kennedy crossed all barriers of his Irish immigrant roots, save for the religious barrier, including: education, wealth, and power. Does this imply that this is all America cares for and that religion has taken a secondary priority in their view? Also, though America is a secular state, there are still hints of Christianity rooted in it. One example is the “under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance; a short but obvious tie to a religion. Does this imply that the Americans will only “accept” Christian Presidents? Do you think that one day we will slowly move towards Jewish, Atheists or even Muslim Presidents?
I also have 5 pages I would like to share about the Cuban Missile Crises. It briefly talks of Kennedy’s approval rating rising after the Crises along with polls and numbers about the Crises. We see the exaggeration of the crises along with the numbers to prove it. But we must acknowledge that the polls can be flawed and bias. We can discuss the legitimacy of the polls along with any reason why a person would want to skew the data. Another question to ask is: if there is any situation like this and what they hold in common? Is the unity of the American people positively correlated with how we view the President? As Laura pointed out in one of her posts, Kennedy’s approval rating rose after Bay of Pigs, an American failure. Also, after the 9/11 attacks, George W Bush’s ratings also went up. This brings up an interesting question of whether the legendary figures promote the unity of a nation or if it is the opposite that is true.
Works Cited
Burns, James. John Kennedy A Political Profile. New York: Harcourt,Brace &Company, 236-252. Print.
Simkin, John. “Cuban Missile Crises.” n. pag. Spartacus Educational. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDcubanmissile.htm>.