This past Sunday would have been Bobby Kennedy's 80th birthday.
That milestone and the events of the past few days got me thinking about how far the Democratic Party has fallen since his death 37 years ago.
This week's events commemorating Kennedy's life showed again how liberals embrace their hero's legacy to justify almost every progressive program under the sun. A few speakers at Wednesday night's event even waxed eloquently about how RFK brought people together just before launching into tired partisan attacks.
I must have overlooked the chapters in Kennedy's life where he reduced himself to mere partisanship. I always believed he was more interested in bringing hope to the hopeless than gaining a cheap advantage for the Democratic Party.
Don't misread me here.
The thought of Bobby Kennedy as a Republican then or now is an absurd notion. But no more absurd than those who believe his life's lessons can be boiled down to a narrow partisan agenda.
The last two years of Bobby's existence were consumed by the prospect of bringing light to the darkest corners of our world. Whether in America or South Africa, Bobby Kennedy always questioned initial assumptions and never stopped asking "Why not?"
In fact, RFK rarely backed away from any challenge. He was a liberal, but he was also a tough-as-nails politician who never feared political death.
Now I look at those who followed in his path as Democratic leaders and have to shake my head in shame.
At a time when the Democratic Party needs a candidate like the one Michael Douglas portrayed at the end of "The American President," they are stuck with a nominee who voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it.
When the Democrats needed a protégée of RFK, they got a man who voted for the Patriot Act, Leave No Child Behind, the war in Iraq, and Bush trade agreements before abandoning all of those positions in the heat of a presidential campaign.
In 2000, eight years of peace and prosperity brought the Democrats a candidate who ran away from environmental protections and gun control because political strategists feared Al Gore's positions on those issues would cost them West Virginia and Tennessee.
He lost them anyway.
And this week, Congressman Jack Murtha provided Democrats all the cover they would ever need to give Americans a real choice over America's future in Iraq. But just as quickly, the Republicans sent the Party of Kennedy home for Thanksgiving recess with tails tucked between their legs.
Forced to finally take a stand on Iraq, the Congressional Democratic Caucus lost their nerve and voted instead to maintain George Bush's status quo.
Activists can curse the President, they can hate Congress and they can vilify the right-wing media all they want, but until the Democratic Party comes up with a strong alternative to George Bush's America, Democrats will remain impotent.
This comes from a writer who still supports the Iraq war but believes there is always a better way.
To my fellow RFK admirers, go back and study Kennedy's life again. Try to approach that story by questioning your initial assumptions about his legacy. Maybe you will find, as I did, that it has much more to do with political courage than an ideological agenda.
Democrats need a dose of Kennedy's courage now more than ever. So does the country Bobby Kennedy gave his life trying to save.
