Among all the mini-dramas within the still-growing Democratic field, the 2020 primaries will also be a test of whether, after 60 years, after the fraying of the Kennedy family dynasty, and after the emergence of the #MeToo movement, the character of a Kennedyesque charismatic loner still stirs the Democratic imagination and excites the passions of the electorate. It’s a question that goes beyond just the horse-race odds of O’Rourke and Buttigieg, and to the core of the party’s ability to win the White House.
One would assume that, if the Kennedy political recipe was losing its flavor in 1981, when Wills conjured the term “the Kennedy imprisonment,” it must surely be rancid by now. But even if some of the outward trappings of the Kennedy image—the high fashion, the self-satisfied smile—have fallen out of vogue, the Kennedy approach to politics and, especially, to winning a presidential election as a Democrat, are as relevant in 2020 as they were in 1960. Far from being an anachronism, JFK’s evangelistic style of leadership is still the Democrats’ most potent weapon. His is not just a proven route to the White House, but has been, for more than a half century, literally the only route for a Democrat to win the White House.
This is an imprisonment the Democrats might choose to end at their peril.
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