It’s a shame we didn’t get to see another Kennedy White House, but we can always visualize what one might have looked like.
By the time Robert Kennedy began running for president in 1968, he was a visionary. He was someone everyday citizens could trust would get the job done if elected to the most powerful office in the country.
In history, there’s always a what-if, and the 1960s were full of them. With the deaths of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., the American people were relying on Bobby Kennedy to get them to a new decade, one that wasn’t full of destruction. Instead, he was also assassinated, along with the world’s hopes and dreams that died with him on June 6, 1968.
Bobby had a ton of potential and probably would’ve made a great president if he had lived past 1968. Landmark changes with civil rights, gun control, health care and education would take centre stage during his presidency. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see another Kennedy White House, but we can always visualize what one might have looked like.
Civil Rights, Feminism and the LGBTQ+ Community Would Be a Top Priority
When looking at Bobby’s life in public service, one of his top priorities was how much he valued people who were different. This is especially so in his 1968 campaign. Despite being lax on civil rights for the majority of his brother’s presidency, Bobby became an avid supporter after he was able to take a step back from the federal level of government.
Certain politicians at the time only saw civil rights as an issue if they were trying to get votes from the black population. Most seemed ungenuine and rarely expressed their desire to help. Bobby changed everyone’s perception of him with the Bedford-Stuyvesant program and his trip to the Mississippi Delta.
During his three years as the junior senator from New York, he did everything he could to ensure regular families in even the poorest areas had a decent place to live. During the 1960s, the neighbourhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, in Brooklyn, New York, had become Brooklyn’s most populous community with the second-largest concentration of Black Americans in the country. The Bedford-Stuyvesant program was a way to combine the public and private sectors, creating new jobs while restoring buildings in the area. This program was the first of its kind and has since constructed or rehabilitated hundreds of thousands of homes.
Bobby’s trip to the Mississippi Delta was one that most politicians wouldn’t have taken. He was apart of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Labor and Poverty that was hosting a series of hearings in 1967. Marian Wright, an NAACP lawyer, came to testify on behalf of Head Start. She talked about how poverty plagued the South and invited the senators to see it for themselves.
Bobby was aware there were areas within the U.S. that experienced severe poverty, but to understand it better, he had to go. Instead of sticking to the scheduled stops at various program headquarters, Bobby wanted to see what the people of Mississippi were dealing with. After meeting with malnourished children, mothers doing everything they could to help their babies and fathers out of work for months at a time, he knew something needed to change.
Bobby was stunned by what he saw. He now understood this poverty as an extension of the Civil Rights Movement. People should not be experiencing this hunger in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. How could anyone be against starving children? Also, by bringing the press with him to Mississippi, it showed the American people there was poverty in the United States.
His commitment to Indigenous Peoples was unmatched by many other white politicians at the time. As a senator, he studied the conditions of many of the reserves across the country. Bobby could see the injustices and knew how to bring them to the attention of other politicians. Housing, health care, education, and no steady jobs on reserves were huge issues that were going unnoticed. Bobby helped shine a light on how poorly the government continuously treats its Indigenous population.
The second wave of feminism began in the latter half of the 1960s, and the early 1970s was when women started to reject ideals projected on them throughout their existence. This movement led to more and more women joining the workforce fighting for equal wages. President Kennedy had been a supporter of women’s rights, passing the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which abolished wage disparity based on sex.
John also banned sex bias in federal service after an investigation was completed by Bobby. This investigation determined that the opinion issued by Attorney General Homer S. Cummings in 1934 gave agency chiefs the right to limit applications to any federal position to one sex only. Bobby concluded that President Kennedy could overturn the opinion and ban sex bias during the hiring and promotion process. Since Bobby sided in the way that he did, worked closely with the president on several matters, and trusted the women in his life on political issues, it’s safe to say he would be for women’s rights.
Being a strict Catholic, it is unclear if Bobby would be an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. To give some perspective, one of JFK’s closest friends, Kirk LeMoyne ‘Lem’ Billings, was a gay man. Lem lived in the White House part-time throughout the Kennedy presidency. From the few encounters with gay men at that time, Bobby was usually reserved. Like most matters, he would have come around to the idea, especially once the Gay Liberation movement gained some momentum.
The Vietnam War Would Have Ended Sooner
President Kennedy increased troops in Vietnam from 900 to 16,000 at the beginning of his presidency. Bobby turned against the war while campaigning in 1968. It took him a while to go against his deceased brother and the current Johnson administration, but when he did, he was ferociously against it.
In 1967, he came up with a three-point plan to end the war in Vietnam. The steps included suspending all air raids of North Vietnam and the withdrawal of American and North Vietnamese troops from South Vietnam. This plan was eventually rejected by Secretary of State Dean Rusk, but Bobby continued to push for it throughout his presidential campaign.
It’s safe to say international relations would also be calmer. As the attorney general and as a senator, Bobby took several trips abroad to expand the United State’s outreach and improve foreign affairs. These include Europe, Canada, Asia, South America, and apartheid-era South Africa. He managed to repair some crucial international relationships. This trend would’ve continued as president when more worldly travels took place.
Watergate Would Not Have Happened
When most look back on the 1970s, they think about Watergate. The burglary at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarter occurred in 1972 and stayed relevant throughout Nixon’s presidency until his resignation in 1974. It stained any positivity that came from the Nixon presidency while also giving him the crook image he became infamous for.
Watergate would not have happened if Bobby was president, considering he was apart of the Democratic Party. Although he frequently used wiretaps on significant figures as attorney general, he would not stoop that low to try to get re-elected. After JFK’s death, Bobby was known for his moral compass and his warmheartedness to those in need.
Even today, Watergate is still a heavily discussed topic in popular culture. In a way, it made a mockery of the presidency for the first time in American history. The only positive thing to come from Watergate is that the legal system did, in fact, work, and Nixon resigned before the impeachment proceedings could take place.
Other Possible Differences
The Supreme Court Would Look a Lot Different Than It Does Today
From 1969 to 1976, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford confirmed five conservative Supreme Court Justices. During the 1970s, respect towards the Supreme Court was at an all-time low due to the Abe Fortas scandal. Nixon saw this decline as an opportunity to restore the Court by appointing more conservative justices.
If Bobby had become president in 1969, he could’ve ensured the bench was much more forward-thinking and a lot more inclusive. Reproductive rights, stricter gun laws and gender equality may have advanced with a more liberal Supreme Court.
The Democratic Party Would Not Need Rebuilding
The Democratic Party was in shambles after Bobby’s death. Although Hubert Humphrey became the Democratic nominee in 1968, Nixon’s win was the final breaking point. Excluding Jimmy Carter’s single term as President of the United States, the American people chose to have a republican president for 20 years, between 1969 and 1993.
Even today, the Democratic Party is a mixture of socialists and moderate politicians that wouldn’t be in the same party in a different country. It’s bizarre that the same political party can contain president-elect Joe Biden and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If the Democrats continue to be unsure of who they’re fighting for, the Democratic Party will never be the same.
Gun Control Would Be Extremely Important
Bobby was a huge advocate for gun control. Serving as a senator, he co-sponsored a bill in 1965 to put federal restrictions on mail-order guns. With his brother’s assassination and eventually Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, he had seen what guns in the wrong hands could do. The bill wanted to keep firearms away from “people who have no business with guns or rifles,” which meant the mail-order sale of guns from the young, those with criminal records, and the mentally ill.
In support of the bill, Bobby said, ”For too long we dealt with these deadly weapons as if they were harmless toys. Yet their very presence, the ease of their acquisition and the familiarity of their appearance have led to thousands of deaths each year. With the passage of this bill, we will begin to meet our responsibilities. It would save hundreds of thousands of lives in this country and spare thousands of families…grief and heartache…”
The Gun Control Act of 1968 eventually passed after Bobby’s death, but it’s safe to say more legislation would’ve been put in place if Bobby had become president.
Each of these assumptions could’ve happened with another Kennedy White House. Most presidents try to make major policy changes in their second term as president, so who knows what Bobby’s strategy for the presidency would’ve been. Given his nature and the pressure he had from several groups of people, it wouldn’t be surprising if he had an aggressive first term as president.
