Opinion|Ken Pittman: Kennedy’s Rebuttal Full of Irony

To watch President of the United States Donald J. Trump deliver the 2018 State of the Union speech last night, meant a lot of different things to a lot of people.

The left-leaning Democrats in the audience had expressions as though they were listening to Adolf Hitler lay out the 1939 Nazi agenda. The more moderate Democrats would agree to some scattered things, stand to clap and then quickly feel the leering and scorned looks of their fellow Democrats for having the audacity to agree with anything said by 'satan'. Once they realized what they were doing, they sat as fast as the regional musical chairs champion.

Republicans in the audience predictably cheered to every other syllable offered by the spectacle called Trump.

I really won't offer my own opinion in this article but instead wanted to have a little fun with the response by the Democratic Party in the rebuttal speech offered by Massachusetts Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III, who offered his thoughts in front of a user friendly audience live on national tv from the Diman Regional Vocational High School in Fall River.

No, I won't lead with the many fairly obvious observations of the now infamous whitish muck on the corners of his mouth which distracted everyone watching. That is getting a lot of mileage elsewhere. I want to speak to some of the substantive remarks he made.

His response was dark, pessimistic and chock full of irony in so many ways.

The setting:

In the infinite wisdom of the Democratic Party, they placed a Kennedy in front of cars in a city named Fall River. An observation made by my friend, the brilliant Rob Eno.

Of course, Joe's dad had a horrible mishap when he crashed a Jeep on one of his renowned raucous summer bashes on Nantucket, which left a young lady named Pamela Burkley, paralyzed for the rest of her life.

Then there's Joe K 3.0's uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy's summer of 1969 crash in Chappaquiddick's channel on Martha's Vineyard, which caused the fatality of Mary Jo Kopechne.

The points:

Joe 3.0 also said something else which reminded me of Ted Kennedy. If only Ted had the same sentiment that the dashing and drooling representative said. When speaking of the president's policy to send home illegal immigrants, Kennedy said, "The  richest nation 'shouldn't leave anyone behind." 

Well, what about  Uncle Teddy? He was one of the richest men in the richest nation who did leave someone behind..to drown.He climbed out of his undocumented U-boat to save his own life, letting Mary Jo fend for herself in the cold dark water. He made 22 phone calls before calling emergency services eight hours later. Not exactly the ultimate team player Joe K 3.0 speaks of.

Also, when lecturing America about leaving behind Hispanic, desperate people, who leaps to mind faster than his even more famous great uncle, President John F. Kennedy? He abandoned more than 1,500 pro-Democracy, pro-American Cubans of Brigade 2506 after promising air support in their counter-revolutionary attack on the Soviet-backed Castro regime when they attacked at the Bay of Pigs.

Without Kennedy's repeated promise of U.S. military air support, their success was short-lived when they were overwhelmed by reinforcements for Castro's surprised forces.

They were tortured, executed and those who survived the rounds of executions died off in miserable conditions in Cuba's prisons.

My last observation gets me to laugh a bit; The Democrats have declared that they are all-in, fully vested in supporting women in the incredibly powerful momentum of the #metoo movement over the past months. They rightfully agree that women deserve equal pay, equal respect, should not have to suffer the male sexual harassment long overlooked in our society etc..

So one has to sit in awe that the same party that "feels your pain", put forth Joseph P. Kennedy III,  the, bar none, greatest example of the so-called privileged white male to give the Trump State of The Union rebuttal speech while 62 women also who serve in the House of Representatives as this pseudo monarch and in same the Democratic Party, were glossed over, in the choice to speak for the liberal's greatest political party.

Ken Pittman is a weekend host on WBS and his opinions are solely his own.