Rose-Colored

Ross Douthat: The Cult of JFK

From biography to secret tapes, the Kennedys always manage to stay in the news. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat jumps off another such opportunity, Stephen King’s new Kennedy assassination novel 11/22/63, to challenge the popular narrative of JFK’s presidential legacy. King’s novel, like Americans’ rose-colored memory, depends on false premises few historians accept, like that JFK was a great president in the making. “In reality, the kindest interpretation of Kennedy’s presidency is that he was a mediocrity whose death left his final grade as ‘incomplete.’” Douthat argues that this revisionist retrospective still affects how Americans interpret modern politics. “We confuse charisma with competence, rhetoric with results, celebrity with genuine achievement.”