Rhetoric Matters

As someone born at the very end of the baby boom, the other Kennedys are a distant childhood memory for me, living largely in the realm of image and nostalgia. Not so, Ted Kennedy. Ever a part of my generation’s political consciousness, this Kennedy’s passing seems more authentic, more real and meaningful than the tragic assassinations in Dallas and Los Angeles.

I was particularly struck, this morning, listening to C-SPAN radio and the highly polarized reactions to Kennedy’s passing–from the deeply moved citizens who valued Kennedy’s persistence on their behalf in the areas of civil rights, education, the elderly, the disabled, and on and on, to the equally moved citizens lamenting Kennedy’s betrayal of his faith because of his support of abortion rights or angry because Kennedy so embodied liberal causes and progressive politics.

Missing somewhat from the memory coverage is a full appreciation of Kennedy’s rhetorical acumen and his rhetorical failures. Quoted ad nauseum are Kennedy’s powerful words in his 1980 convention speech: “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.” I would like to see a bit more coverage of Kennedy’s other rhetorical masterpieces–his powerful speech on the Senate floor that set the entire tenor of the effort to defeat Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court, his fantastic speech at the 1988 Democratic convention (”Where was George?”), his journey into the lion’s den at Falwell’s Liberty University to discuss “Truth and Toleration in America.”

And the failures–especially the Roger Mudd interview. Some cable news folks are discussing these rhetorical moments, but the mainstream coverage seems stuck in 1980 and then its retread in 2008.

Of course, this raises the rather interesting question about how oratory and rhetoric figure in the collective memorializing of public figures, particularly political ones. Admittedly, I’m an NBC viewer, so my sense of how Kennedy’s oratory is used in the memorializing coverage is limited by the choices NBC has made. On NPR, Nina Totenberg featured considerable coverage of Kennedy’s Bork speech, so the source may seriously affect the choices made. But more than anything, it’s intriguing to study how the first drafts of memory in the wake of such a public death as Ted Kennedy’s employ oratory and public rhetorical performances.