‘If JFK Were Alive Today, He Would Vote for Me’

Who’s the political heir to President Kennedy? We’re asking in respect of the contest shaping up for Congress at Manhattan’s 12th district, occupied by Jerrold Nadler. Is it JFK’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, who is running for the nomination of the Democratic Party, and reportedly leading in most polls? Or is it Caroline Shinkle, who — like JFK and his grandson — was educated at Harvard but is campaigning for the Republican nomination? If one thinks the answer is obvious, we say, look again. We dialed Ms. Shinkle in hopes of finding what she thought about the mantle of the 35th president. She hesitated not a second. “If JFK were alive today, he would vote for me,” she exclaimed. She proceeded to speak of “pro-growth, pro-business, pro-worker” policies that would allow New Yorkers and other Americans to keep more of what they earn.Meantime, on the Middle East, the grandson of JFK is preaching defeatism with Iran and vowing to deny at least some American military aid to Israel. That would betray JFK’s assertion on the hustings in 1960 that America’s “friendship for Israel is not a partisan matter,” but “a national commitment.” Yet Mr. Schlossberg, in line with the ascendant left wing of the Democrats, has a less amicable posture toward the Jewish State.The GOP aspirant, Ms. Shinkle, a corporate lawyer who once interned for the Bank of Israel, is a more plausible heir to JFK’s vision. Ms. Shinkle is an avowed “staunch supporter of the Jewish state” at a time when JFK’s party is ever-more hostile to America’s top Mideast ally. The elder Kennedy professed a “deep admiration” for Israel, calling the Jewish state “a cause that stands beyond the ordinary changes and chances of American public life.”Then again, too, JFK’s views on taxes and growth are much closer to Ms. Shinkle’s than to Mr. Schlossberg’s. Ms. Shinkle is backing tax cuts, with a platform calling for “creating the conditions for people to build wealth and prosperity.” She calls that “essential to enabling freedom and independence.” That’s an echo of Kennedy’s call in 1962 for “an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes.” Federal taxation, JFK averred, “exerts too heavy a drag on growth in peace time,” he said, and “reduces the financial incentives for personal effort, investment, and risk-taking.” Critics fretted about the potential cost, but JFK insisted that “a rising tide lifts all boats” and, he predicted, lower taxes would fuel growth. Congress enacted the cuts in 1964, after Kennedy’s assassination, and the following year, sure enough, the deficit was lower.On America’s ties to Israel, the distinctions between Ms. Shinkle and Mr. Schlossberg are clearer still. JFK, after a visit to Israel in 1951, marveled how “a nation had been reborn — a desert had been reclaimed — and a national integrity had been redeemed.” Mr. Schlossberg, by contrast, says he would have voted with a proposal by Senator Bernie Sanders and what he called “85 percent of Democrats” to block some $450 million in military aid to Israel. Mr. Schlossberg, too, asks why “we continue funding this war which we basically just lost in the Middle East.” Ms. Shinkle calls this kind of talk “playing politics with our safety and our security,” calling Mr. Trump’s moves against Iran “47 years overdue.” Mr. Schlossberg’s positions on Iran and the Jewish State are a far cry, too from JFK. The elder Kennedy, after all, had insisted that “we will never turn our back on our steadfast friends in Israel.”So it turns out that the race to succeed Mr. Nadler in Congress could be a moment to mark. Who was JFK, and what did he really think? It could well send readers back to the classic retrospective, “JFK, Conservative,” by Ira Stoll. It’s a reminder that JFK was not the liberal icon he is thought of being today. He wanted to pass the torch to “a new generation of Americans.” What kind of aspiring heir might reach out to grasp it today?

‘If JFK Were Alive Today, He Would Vote for Me’

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