"Each Kennedy contributes 'a ripple of hope' to the legacy... some large, some small, many skirting troubled waters, but all contributing to a current that tries to beat endlessly at oppression and prejudice."
The prose of a Washington Post feature writer or a Kennedy hagiographer? Yes.
With Sen. Ted Kennedy's ongoing struggle with brain cancer sidelining him from the Senate and Eunice Kennedy Shriver's recent death, "The Faces of a 'Royal' Generation Fade Into History," the Washington Post announced in a front page headline for the August 12 edition. What followed was a 42-paragraph front-pager that amounts to gushy Kennedy hagiography, in part because it was penned by a Kennedy hagiographer.
While the Kennedy family had successfully "market[ed] themselves as a middle-class fantasy of American royalty" in order to rise to political prominence, it was ultimately for the greater common good, as Vince Bzdek explained towards the close of his story:
In the final analysis, the royal-family scrapbooks and Camelot nostalgia may not be the most lasting legacy. A suggestion of what the Kennedys might be most remembered for comes from Bobby, in his best-known speech about the power of one person to effect change. Each Kennedy contributes "a ripple of hope" to the legacy, as he put it, some large, some small, many skirting troubled waters, but all contributing to a current that tries to beat endlessly at oppression and prejudice.
Perhaps that's not too surprising coming from Bzdek, author of "The Kennedy Legacy: Jack, Bobby and Ted and a Family Dream Fulfilled" (published April 2009). Unfortunately for readers, the Post did not disclose that fact to readers.
Bzdek's love for liberal politicians isn't confined to the Kennedys. The Post news editor and features writer also penned "Woman of the House: The Rise of Nancy Pelosi."
