Kennedy–The Senate’s Fighting Liberal

Kennedy–The Senate’s Fighting Liberal

Kennedy–The Senate’s Fighting Liberal

“I would not be here as a presidential candidate were it not for some of the battles he fought as a senator. He battled for voting rights and civil rights when I was a child. I stand on his shoulders.” Those were Senator Barack Obama’s words Tuesday as he responded to news reports that Senator Ted Kennedy had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

In his 45 years as the Senate’s fighting liberal, Kennedy has been a tenacious champion of civil rights, health care, labor rights, education and a sane foreign policy. As historian Ronald Steel observed the other day, he was a Senator “who showed how government could be made to serve the people.”

Kennedy once said that ” the best vote I’ve cast in my 44 years in the US Senate” was the one he cast against President Bush’s 2002 Iraq war authorization Resolution.

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“I would not be here as a presidential candidate were it not for some of the battles he fought as a senator. He battled for voting rights and civil rights when I was a child. I stand on his shoulders.” Those were Senator Barack Obama’s words Tuesday as he responded to news reports that Senator Ted Kennedy had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

In his 45 years as the Senate’s fighting liberal, Kennedy has been a tenacious champion of civil rights, health care, labor rights, education and a sane foreign policy. As historian Ronald Steel observed the other day, he was a Senator “who showed how government could be made to serve the people.”

Kennedy once said that ” the best vote I’ve cast in my 44 years in the US Senate” was the one he cast against President Bush’s 2002 Iraq war authorization Resolution.

As a result of his opposition to Iraq, and through his support of the most vulnerable and the voiceless, his support of causes lost and found, Kennedy has set the standard for leadership and shown through his credo of perseverance what we must do to rebuild this country and reengage the world.

At the Nation, our hearts sank when we heard the news. But if there is one thing we know about Senator Kennedy, it’s that he’s a fighter.

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We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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