(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Senator Robert Kennedy's Tour Of Rural Nebraska [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-20 Kennedy’s third campaign foray into Nebraska began on April 20, 1968, in the small town of Scottsbluff in northwest Nebraska. Two busloads of national press reporters accompanied the New York Senator on his flight from Denver. A huge throng of five thousand people greeted him at the airport, and another four thousand people crowded alongside the highway when the Kennedy motorcade traveled four miles from the airport to Scottsbluff High School. A capacity crowd of one thousand one hundred people greeted Kennedy there at ten o’clock that Saturday morning. Enthusiasm was so high that the Scottsbluff Fire Chief had to close the doors to the event approximately an hour and a half before Kennedy arrived. Kennedy opened his remarks with the familiar joke about how his large family was good for the farmer and challenged the other candidates to match his record. The remainder of Kennedy’s address invoked the Founding Fathers and largely focused on a unity theme. The pertinent excerpts are as follows: “It is easy to forget, in the midst of a difficult struggle abroad that we have not won, and a struggle at home that we have not begun — it is easy to forget that the history of America is in large measure the redemption of the faith of the Founding Fathers. For at every critical mark in our history, Americans have looked beyond the narrow borders of personal concern, remembering the bonds that tied them to their fellow citizen. These efforts were not acts of charity. They sprang from the recognition of a root fact of American life: that we all share in each other’s fortunes; that where one of us prospers, all of us prosper; and where one of us falters, so do we all. It is this sense, more than any failure of goodwill or of policy, that we have missed in America. As our nation — and its problems — have grown, we seem to have grown apart from one another. We seem, through no fault of our own, to look only the short distance; to turn away from the far horizon; to work, each of us, on building a piece of our country. And the pieces do not match…We became separated from one another, treating those of different races, or religions, or calling, as adversaries instead of allies. The first step in this task is to remember what our government should be a reflection of a common effort, a means of aspiring greater individual opportunity for our citizens. The goal of an active federal effort in our social dilemmas must be to let loose the talent and energy of the people themselves, not to channel that energy along rigidly preconceived paths. What we see is not just greater programs but greater participation — by putting our resources directly into communities, both urban and rural, where the citizenry can determine how best to use those resources. There is much to be done in America. But with leadership confident in our citizens, these tasks can be done, this country can be put back together, and we shall in fact become “the last, best hope of man.” In the ensuing question and answer session Kennedy touched on the major themes of his Nebraska campaign. He connected the country’s economic problems to the cost of the war in Vietnam, and once again opposed a withdrawal from South Vietnam, instead calling for peace negotiations. During his speech a Viet Cong supporter heckled Kennedy. Kennedy replied: “You should do the same thing I did and cut your hair,” and when the heckler persisted Kennedy retorted “why don’t you get bored and go home!” On crime Kennedy differentiated himself from the Republicans, asserting that “We can’t tolerate violence, lawlessness and disorder.” Kennedy simultaneously combined that with a call for racial reconciliation and contended that all Americans deserve to share the country’s affluence. He believed that one of the causes of crime was the sense of hopelessness experienced by millions of Americans. In contrast, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan simply called for a crackdown on crime and offered nothing to the poor and underprivileged. Their political strategy relied upon polarizing the country around the issues of crime and race. The Republicans cynically used the issues of crime and welfare to make coded appeals to fearful White voters based upon race. Their goal was to use racially tinged rhetoric to convince middle class Whites to switch their allegiance to the Republican Party from the Democratic Party. They were aiming to split the Democratic coalition that dominated American politics between 1932 and 1968. Kennedy was critical of the welfare system for failing to reduce poverty. Instead, Kennedy proposed that jobs should be provided for everybody, with the private sector leading the effort, and government employment as a last resort. He also called for giving credits to businesses located in impoverished areas. Poverty and racial justice were major themes of Kennedy’s campaign both in Nebraska and nationwide. No presidential candidate in modern history made poverty a higher priority than Kennedy did in 1968. Steve Bell of ABC News observed: “In Nebraska, we (the press) suddenly began to realize that Robert Kennedy had a near obsession about the plight of the poor. Kennedy kept hammering away about the poor, when there was more chance for political loss than gain.” Kennedy’s passion for alleviating poverty stemmed from both his religious beliefs as a devout Catholic and experience as U.S. Senator. He attended mass on a regular basis and believed that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. Kennedy believed in the social justice mission of the Catholic Church. As a U.S. Senator, having never experienced privation himself, Kennedy had an epiphany when he learned about the awful conditions in which some Americans lived. He was especially shocked when he met mothers in Harlem whose children’s toes had been bitten by rats while they slept. Kennedy also made well publicized fact-finding tours to the Mississippi Delta and Appalachia. In Mississippi he cradled malnourished children with distended bellies. The next stop on Kennedy’s very busy day was at Norfolk (uniquely pronounced Nor-fork in the Nebraskan accent), where he addressed a crowd of around one thousand people. Notwithstanding a few notable exceptions, his message was like the one he had delivered at his previous campaign stops in Nebraska. While he was in Norfolk Kennedy worked in a joke about his brother’s loss to Richard Nixon in Nebraska in the 1960 presidential election. After spotting some Nixon signs in the audience Kennedy observed that Nebraska was his brother Jack’s worst state in 1960. “I hope you will be kinder to his brother,” he smirked. Kennedy’s motorcade departed Norfolk and made the thirty-four-mile trip to Wayne. Since Kennedy was riding in a convertible on a beautiful spring day, he was able to greet and shake hands with the crowds lined up along the route. At one point Kennedy stopped the car to shake hands with four Franciscan nuns on the edge of Norfolk and subsequently pressed the flesh with a group of farmers. The New York Senator received a warm reception even though northeast Nebraska was heavily Republican. In Wayne an exuberant crowd of two thousand to four thousand people greeted Kennedy, the first presidential candidate to visit since Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. The candidate broke new ground when he called for the South Vietnamese to play a larger role in the war, saying “I think the burdens of the fighting should be carried by the Vietnamese and not the American Marines and the American Army.” He also criticized the South Vietnamese government for its corruption and for its refusal to fully mobilize its population for the war. Kennedy’s motorcade of twenty-five cars and two press buses next stopped in tiny Laurel, Nebraska. In this hamlet of fewer than one thousand people, Kennedy made a brief appearance and was presented with a plate by the Reverend Keith Cook commemorating the town’s seventy fifth anniversary. Cook invited the New York Senator to return to Laurel in June to help them celebrate their Jubilee Celebration. Kennedy begged off, explaining to Cook that his wedding anniversary fell on the date of the event. Before he left town, the local 4-H Club gave a box lunch to Kennedy’s security detail for him to eat on the way to his next stop in Hartington. The candidate’s full day continued with a major address in Hartington. Approximately five thousand people greeted Kennedy’s caravan in the business district — three times the town’s population. As usual, crowds of people pushed towards Kennedy’s car hoping to shake his hand. Kennedy’s speech largely reflected his message in Nebraska. The pertinent excerpts are as follows: “And I also feel very close to you for another reason. Based on my family record I am doing more for the farmers than any other candidate running for president of the United States. Personally, I look at my breakfast table and I know I am doing more for the farmer. (loud cheer) And to come out here into the country and see all of you, to come out into the rural areas of the United States and have this opportunity as we have today to drive through Nebraska is a great inspiration and a great honor for all of us. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. (loud cheers) I stand for decency and honorable income for those who are the backbone of the United States, the people who live in our rural areas of our country and our farmers. I think he is the forgotten and neglected man. I think there are other groups also that are neglected, but I don’t think there is any question of our farmers, of the suffering that he has undertaken over the period of the last 30 years. When you consider his purchasing power now, the farmer in the United States is the same as it was during 1936. You know that we can’t go on and continue like this or we are going to drive thousands and thousands more of our young farmers from their farms. I don’t think this is acceptable and it is again a reason why I run for President of the United States. (loud cheers) My reservations about the war in Vietnam have not been the fact that we unilaterally withdraw from South Vietnam. But rather the fact that I think we should appraise it. That this was the war of the South Vietnamese, that we could go in and help them, but we couldn’t win it for them. And yet we have Americanized the war so that our fatalities go higher up than the South Vietnamese. I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think that American men should be fighting and dying while South Vietnamese fail to get into the army. That’s what I object to. (loud cheer) And I want this country to remember and live as its principle, those words of Thomas Jefferson that were the last, best home of mankind. That’s our responsibility around the rest of the globe. Other people will follow up by what we do here in the United States, by the fact that people can make decent incomes, that they can work on the land. I saw them in Soviet Central Asia working on the land and producing a fifth of what you do here in the state of Nebraska. I’ve seen this happen in other countries. Why we are strong and why we are powerful is really because of what the rural areas of the United States have done. China and the Soviet Union have both produced atomic weapons, but neither one of those countries, none of the other countries of the world, have done what our farmers have done here in the United States of America. I think we should recognize that, and it should be recognized right from the top, from the President of the United States, by everybody in the executive branch of the government and it will be recognized when I’m president. (loud cheer) We can turn this country around. We can start to focus some attention on your problems, and on the problems that exist in the United States, and the problem in Vietnam that can save us 85 million dollars a day, 600 million a week, 30 billion a year and start spending it on our own people here in the United States. That’s what I would like to do. (loud cheer) In closing Senator Kennedy posited, “some people see things as they are and ask why? I see things that have never been and ask why not?” After the conclusion of the Hartington event the Kennedy motorcade journeyed one mile outside of town to tour a cheese factory. Kennedy was operating on four hours of sleep and was so exhausted that he napped during the short trip to the factory. After his arrival there Kennedy observed a five-foot-tall portrait of President Kennedy at the entrance and was presented with a large cheese ball by the owner. Long time Lincoln Journal Star reporter Don Walton interviewed Kennedy on the trip from the cheese factory back to the Norfolk airport. Walton had been covering politics in Nebraska since 1960 and extensively covered the 1968 Nebraska Democratic primary. Throughout his career he interviewed John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Ted Kennedy, George W. Bush, and covered numerous other presidents and presidential candidates when they visited Nebraska. After leaving the cheese factory the Kennedy campaign invited Walton to ride with the candidate for about an hour on the way to the Norfolk airport. Kennedy asked aide Fred Dutton to buy a six pack of beer and the party drank beer and ate cheese during the trip. Walton remembers Kennedy delegating, saying: “I will open the beer and you will cut the cheese.” Because they had no utensils Kennedy gave Don the beer opener to cut up the big cheese ball. What most struck Walton was Kennedy’s question: “Why do the people of Nebraska support the war?” Walton admitted that he did not have a good answer, but he said Kennedy asked as many questions as he answered. The reporter said the war was always on Kennedy’s mind. Walton’s impression of Robert Kennedy the man was that he was highly inquisitive. The candidate was constantly asking questions to learn more about the voters and their concerns. He also said Kennedy was a very hard worker. Walton, in keeping with other historians, said that he always looked sleep deprived and had blood shot eyes due to lack of sleep. Kennedy also informed Walton that he would return to Nebraska for a whistle stop tour across the state on April 27, and for a four-day campaign foray in the run up to the May 14 primary. The epic whistle stop tour would prove to be in the words of Kennedy speechwriter Jeff Greenfield both the “highlight” and “best day of the campaign. “ [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/20/2164930/-Senator-Robert-Kennedy-s-Tour-Of-Rural-Nebraska Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/