Exhibit A — liberal talk-radio host Mike Malloy, August 27:

So with the death of Ted Kennedy last night, liberalism in this country has lost its champion; the person who, in the modern era, personified liberalism to a greater degree than anyone in Congress; I think that his death heralds the beginning of a very, very very dark period in this country.
I remember feeling that way in 1963 and in 1968-when his two brothers were murdered by the right wing in this country.

Exhibit B — Novelist Lorenzo Carcaterra, September 13:

What won’t stop is the growing hatred toward a young President based on his beliefs and the color of his skin.
It won’t stop until he is stopped. That is the goal of the right.
They’ve done it before.
In the summer months of 1963, the voices of the right were tossing hate bombs at another young President. This time over concerns he was too liberal and his religion was one that frightened a fair number of them, primarily those who lived in the South. There were no Becks, Rushs or Hannitys back then, so the John Birch Society filled the void. They tossed out messages of hate, threats and warnings.
One such warning was for President John F. Kennedy to stay out of Texas.
To stay out of Dallas.

Exhibit C — Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America, September 18:

A President was killed the last time right-wing hatred ran wild like this
That being John F. Kennedy, who was gunned down in Dallas, of course.
I’ve been thinking a lot of Kennedy and Dallas as I’ve watched the increasingly violent rhetorical attacks on Obama be unfurled. As Americans yank their kids of class in order to save them from being exposed to the President of the United States who only wanted to urge them to excel in the classroom. And as unvarnished hate and name-calling passed for health care ‘debate’ this summer.
The radical right, aided by a GOP Noise Machine that positively dwarfs what existed in 1963, has turned demonizing Obama–making him into a vile object of disgust–into a crusade. It’s a demented national jihad, the likes of which this country has not seen in modern times.
But I’ve been thinking about Dallas in 1963 because I’ve been recalling the history and how that city stood as an outpost for the radical right, which never tried to hide its contempt for the New England Democrat.