For those who lived in the time of Camelot (the new one, not the original) there sure has been a lot of changes, some good, some bad, and some just repetitive.
For those who were not around when Camelot occurred let me bring you up to speed. Camelot was how the press referred to the White House and Washington when the Kennedy clan came into office, defeating the dark forces of the GOP and Richard Nixon. The modern fiction is it was an overwhelming win for the democrat’s but that is not supported by the facts and in today’s vernacular would be classified as fake news. The electoral college vote was 302 to 219, but the popular vote was only separated by 120,000 votes out of 68.5 million cast[i], or roughly the number of dead voters in Chicago.
When the Kennedy’s swept into Washington bringing the glamor of Hyannis and the Cape to replace the staid Kansas work ethic of the departing Eisenhower crowd, there was a new musical from Lerner and Lowe opening. The musical Camelot[ii] with Richard Burton, Robert Goulet, and Julie Andrews was playing on Broadway that year and it made for a natural comparison and easy sales pitch for an adoring press. The new President and First Lady were young, vibrant, and had their children who could play on the White House lawn. Jaqueline spruced up the White House and gave the public guided television tours of the historic rooms and art. The press and the public ate it up. Of course, back then there were only three television networks and a few independent stations so the media message could be controlled and shaped by those who knew what they were doing.
In the years that followed there has been so much revealed that only those who live in a fantasy now believe there was truly a renaissance with the arrival of the Kennedy’s. Rather, like the musical, the glowing city on the Potomac was just an illusion that glowed brightly before it faded into reality. Its King, like Arthur, remains a hero who while he lived set the table where all his knights were equal, and his adoring maidens fair.
In today’s Washington, we see all the muck of the stables and not the gleaming castle we had once viewed from afar. The illusion of grandeur has been replaced by the nightly wails of the town criers bemoaning the fact the Royals have been replaced by a commoner who is not withholding to them for his fame or fortune.
To use another analogy from medieval England it seems as if King John has been replaced by Robin Hood and now the knights and friars are upset to learn he’s been living in Sherwood long enough not to be concerned with maintaining all their comforts as he rebuilds the castle.
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