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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > People and Politics > Irish America needs a new first family and not the Kennedys - Camelot dream long since lost as next generation screws it up

People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Irish America needs a new first family and not the Kennedys - Camelot dream long since lost as next generation screws it up

Posted on Sunday, July 15, 2012 at 08:18 AM

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Irish America needs a new first family. The Kennedys have become downright creepy.

For generations we were willing to bask in the reflected glow of Camelot and all that, but that afterglow has long vanished.

Now we have a bunch of malcontents, neer do wells, druggies, drunks and downright losers.

Still, we shine the light and hope that it will reflect back on us. No more says I.

Kerry Kennedy is the last straw. Apart from her broken marriage to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, she had rarely been in the headlines. She was a committed human rights worker and a dedicated mother.

Now she’s just another Kennedy problem child (at 52), arrested and allegedly under the influence after a crash in Westchester, New York, where she drove off.

I just don’t get it. There are lots of families born into privilege who end up doing the right things.

The Bushes are one such family. George W. sobered up and became president. Jeb Bush continues to speak eloquently on issues such as immigration. Their kids seem exemplary.

The Kennedys, on the other hand, are unable to handle their wealth and status. I won’t even go into the family’s litany of accidents, overdoses, etc. It makes depressing reading.

Apart from young Joe Kennedy in Massachusetts, who is running for a congressional seat and seems to have his priorities right, there is very little good to say about individual Kennedys, unfortunately.

Which is why Irish America needs to leave that particular fantasy of another Kennedy dynasty down the road firmly aside.

We need to start looking for new leaders. The Bidens are an example of an upstanding, all American group intensely proud of their Irish heritage for instance.

The sooner we put the Kennedys in the rear view mirror the better.

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irishpjk | Jul 15, 2012, 08:27 PM EDT

wtf Thank you Patrick you are one of the very few writers to address the real problem with the Kennedys; themselves. As you can see from the comments people still find excuses for them, you will also see that their hatred for George Bush is as blind as or as stupid as their love of the Kennedys. Back when JFK ran for office I was taken in by him and his party I loved both, but I could just look the other way for so long.

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Ianous | Jul 15, 2012, 07:29 PM EDT

Soon as the family started mixing with non-irish blood they went downhill.

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seanaci | Jul 15, 2012, 06:59 PM EDT

There's something pathetic about the citizens of any republic - Ireland or the USA - "needing" a first family. Anyone who feels the need of being a subject can move to somewhere that has a monarch. As for the Bush family - their fortune is based in part on profits from "dealing with the enemy" as the Guardian reported in 2004. "George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany. The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism. His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz." At least the Kennedy money came from bootlegging and politics - good ol' American traditions.

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Moirann16 | Jul 15, 2012, 06:57 PM EDT

Really?? You say that Dubya did right by his country? That would be a negative. Rather, the most important thing to realize from the Kennedys and other Irish is the wholly insidious effect of alcoholism. Once we stop mandating that it be part of the national psyche, the better off we will all be.

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Deidra47 | Jul 15, 2012, 06:11 PM EDT

Jeb Bush's kids have problems....the daughter is an addict and has been in and out of treatment/even stole a prescription pad from a doc so she could get her prescription drugs for abuse/son has had problems with the lae for being a peeping tom. George W may have sobered up but it doesn't appear he went to any kind of rehab to get to the source of why he drank and popped pills too and that makes you a dry drunk/because of his addictions he really didn't servee honorably in the service by missing his weekends and disappearing during those days he was to report to duty. His girls were def. party girls but they did clean up well. So lets not give the impression every thing is wonderful with the Bush famuly.

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mcbreen | Jul 15, 2012, 05:57 PM EDT

If this GOP rag would have reported GW Bushs AWOL during Vietnam, or Neil Bush's 50 million-dollar debacle with Silverado bank, then it would be harder to make the case that you make. When you have real power, the right-wing tabloids remain silent as to your faults.

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mcbreen | Jul 15, 2012, 05:53 PM EDT

This sleaze-bag publication showed it's stripes when a few months ago it even tried to make the case that Newt Gingerich was somehow Irish.

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milton dunn | Jul 15, 2012, 05:18 PM EDT

thgis is a family that is dirty all the way from joe his wife and befor

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Nicopernicus | Jul 15, 2012, 04:46 PM EDT

The writer got exactly what he was after. People who responded with a stuck CAPS lock got the worst of it.

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Fearbruscar | Jul 15, 2012, 04:40 PM EDT

Early on, I learned not to argue with an idiot.

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christilcaugh | Jul 15, 2012, 04:39 PM EDT

Sadly, people in power seldom think beyond their own wants. We did not know much from that first Kennedy generation because the press mostly stayed quiet. Power simply corrupts.

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alisaann | Jul 15, 2012, 04:24 PM EDT

the BUSH FAMILY has done MORE to HURT this country, then to HELP it....they got us into wars, we had NO business in....lied about things...their wars were ALL ABOUT MONEY & OIL....the GOP don't care about the POOR...they want to TAKE things away from people....bush got osama's family out of the country on 911, when ALL flights were grounded. alisa

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irishamrep | Jul 15, 2012, 04:14 PM EDT

@c3lt1cl4dy you are absolutely right about that! And as far as heros or first families it's the quiet gentle heroes I admire. I assure you! God bless you and rest your soules Superentendant McCrossen and Captain James Reynolds!

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alisaann | Jul 15, 2012, 04:12 PM EDT

forget it....IRISH AMERICA will NEVER stop LOVNING the kennedys, no matter many feel they should be forgotten....they will ALWAYS be america's ROYALTY....the kennedys may have their personal problems, BUT they've done ALOT OF GOOD for people as well. alisa

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c3lt1cl4dy | Jul 15, 2012, 03:46 PM EDT

In the Bible we see curses lasting 4 generations. Curses are real, unfortunately. I believe the Kennedy's need to reflect on their faith and and request a healing of the family tree from a priest who knows what he is doing. I have seen families healed in this way. We all need to put more faith in God, not in Hollywood, fame or fortune.

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