What Does Kennedy Mean?

So absurd does the rhetoric of Liberalism seem when judged in the light of reality that the sober conservative tends to discredit it as pure flourish. No American in his senses could conceivably mean what the words issuing from the mouths of Liberal spokesmen patently say; it must be ritualistic titillation, for the satisfaction of ideological sentiment. Thus, President Kennedy’s speech at American University last month has largely been considered in terms of its concrete programmatic statements: cessation of atmospheric nuclear tests, and high-level test-ban discussions in Moscow. What has not been seriously considered is the meaning of the speech as a whole with its underlying assumptions.

Meyer

FS

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Frank S. Meyer

Frank S. Meyer was a senior editor of National Review.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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So absurd does the rhetoric of Liberalism seem when judged in the light of reality that the sober conservative tends to discredit it as pure flourish. No American in his senses could conceivably mean what the words issuing from the mouths of Liberal spokesmen patently say; it must be ritualistic titillation, for the satisfaction of ideological sentiment. Thus, President Kennedy’s speech at American University last month has largely been considered in terms of its concrete programmatic statements: cessation of atmospheric nuclear tests, and high-level test-ban discussions in Moscow. What has not been seriously considered is the meaning of the speech as a whole with its underlying assumptions.

Meyer