10/14/13

Was JFK a Conservative and Jewish?

Was JFK a Jew? Was he a conservative?

No JFK was not Jewish. He was Catholic.

No historians have long professed that JFK was not a political conservative. He was a liberal.

Though JFK was not a Jew, in a new book, Ira Stoll provides us with some new pro-Jewish credentials for JFK, summarized by him in a JTA article.

Stoll's controversial revisionist thesis in this new book is that JFK was a political conservative because he was anti-communist and pro-business. The publisher contends:
As Ira Stoll convincingly argues, by the standards of both his time and our own, John F. Kennedy was a conservative. His two great causes were anticommunism and economic growth. His tax cuts, which spurred one of the greatest economic booms in our history, were fiercely opposed by his more liberal advisers. He fought against unions. He pushed for free trade and a strong dollar. And above all, he pushed for a military buildup and an aggressive anticommunism around the world. Indeed, JFK had more in common with Ronald Reagan than with LBJ.

Not every Republican is a true heir to Kennedy, but hardly any Democrats deserve that mantle. JFK, Conservative is sure to appeal to conservative readers — and will force liberals to reconsider one of their icons.
We leave it to the professional historians to judge the validity of this sure-to-sell-books-thesis.

Hat tip to Barak for bringing this to my attention.

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