The Kennedy Menace

[Paul Rigby]

The Kennedy Menace

Conflict in US party politics, over the last decade, has centered on the ambitious Kennedy organization. Nurtured by an independent fortune and utilizing charismatic figures, the Kennedy machine has repeatedly threatened the political hegemony of established business groups. It successfully challenged the power of these groups first inside the Democratic Party and then secured a run for the presidency. Since the political process is the medium through which business controls the government, the Kennedy organization was able to challenge established business control of the White House, that vital command post for regulating the national and international economies. The group’s who benefited from Nixon’s leadership are in no mood to put up with another threat from the Kennedy machine.

Editors of NACLA, “Stop McGovern,” Latin America & Empire Report, October 1972, reprinted within Steve Weissman (Ed.) Big Brother and the Holding Company: The World Behind Watergate (Palo Alto, California: Ramparts Press, 1974), 160