If I seem to have a strong opinion about this family, remember that I grew up as a Republican in Massachusetts. Being a Republican in Massachusetts is pain, because not only does your side usually lose, it often ends up losing to these people — this family of scoundrels that, unlike the Clintons, really does have a body count. I am pleased to report that, in recent years, the thrall has faded. After Ted died, Mass Dems started allowing themselves to admit that it was quite a bad thing that he had killed a woman. In the 2020 Senate primary, Senator Ed Markey dared to point out that his opponent, RFK Jr.’s nephew Joe Kennedy III, was an entitled brat who believed his family’s name and money should get him a Senate seat, and that argument carried the day. But that wasn’t how it worked when I was a kid.

One silver lining of the RFK Jr. presidential campaign is that it’s giving Democrats all over the country some personal experience with hating a Kennedy. Maybe having to watch Kennedy run for president against all the things they hold dear, from vaccines to Ukraine, is what it will finally take to drive the Kennedy mystique headfirst into a tree. It wouldn’t be the family’s first casualty,2 or the last.

[Footnote 2 is hilarious. In fact, I had trouble figuring out which passages to use as an excerpt, finally settling for the conclusion, which is fun but perhaps the least detailed passage on the awfulness of the Kennedys. Josh doesn’t neglect JFK either, who was one of the most overrated presidents in American history, although I do credit him with the space program. The most pertinent part of the essay pertains to RFK Jr’s attempt to mainstream himself, but the real lesson from this is one our founders knew too well: dynasties are just *bad.* The Adamses proved that, in their own way. — Ed]