The Kennedy family, were Irish Americans with Money but still Irish Catholics.Joe Kennedy graduated from Harvard, sent his sons to prep schools and Harvard, and was the U.S. Ambassador to England in the
years leading up to World War II. However when he attended Harvard, Joe was not allowed into the most prestigious WASP fraternity—same for jack.

Getting his son elected president of the U.S. was perhaps his way of kicking the exclusive club door in.

I resent anyone associating Irish Catholics with Wasps, especially when they (the wasps) have spent the last 900 years oppressing the Irish.

I never associated Irish Catholics with Wasps as I made it very clear that denomination was irrelevant; that was once true of an elite aristocratic class of New England society, but it's no longer defined by such provisional boundaries. F. Scott Fitzgerald was an Irishman after all, and he personified the term. The Kennedy's by all accounts, fit that lifestyle to a tee - real estate barons, wall street speculators deeply entrenched in American politics (as you noted, Joe Kennedy was an Ambassador to the UK) and they were enjoying the privilege and hierarchy of white affluence and class structure, political influence, etc. I'm not suggesting there aren't degrees of prejudice or a microcosmic power structure within that institution but the Kennedy's were certainly entrenched in that lifestyle chiefly found on the eastern seaboard; the family money and inheritance, social clubs, ivy league universities, international yachting excursions, seasonal homes in Cape Cod, West Palm Beach, etc. The notion that credentials come with lineage, and lineage—that is, proper birth—automatically brings connections to the right institutions certainly rings true but I can't think of any other president in American history that better exemplifies that culture than Jack. The Kennedy's might not have qualified by lineage but they certainly adhered to the principles in that they established their caste which was, very much closed off to all not born within. It was all about inbred affluence and connections through hegemony. Let's call him a convert... Jimmy Carter was white Anglo-Saxon AND Protestant but far from Wasp. It's become a deficient acronym when applied literally.

Kingston is the King of Wikipedia and Google searches, dont even try and test him AC

Last edited by Bop (2015-08-03 13:54:08)

I have suddenly been struck with a strong sense of Déjà vu.

Have we all had this debate before ?   About a year ago ?

Service was definitely better.