Given Gordon Brown's recent comments, I am wondering who people's diverse political heroes are!
Mine inc:
Sir Winston Churchill
For giving us the morale to continue during our nations darkest hour
John F. Kennedy
For bringing forward a raft of civil reforms (unfortunatley some only realised after his death), and reminding us what could be possible. His remark "ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country" is a political creed of mine. I hold a high regard for his brother (Robert F. Kennedy) for similar reasons.
Denis Healey
For sticking to the political center at a difficult time and realising that social democracy was about pragmatism as well as principles.
Martin Luther King
For standing his ground, challenging the amoral racist attitudes of the South and sticking to his Christian principles.
William Wilberforce
For tirelessly working to abolish slavery
William Gladstone
For social reforms, such as the in the army, education, and trying to bring Home Rule for Ireland.
Tagging Cally's Kitchen , Kerron Cross-The Voice of the Delectable Left , Adele's labour blog , Cllr Miranda Grell , Iain Dale's Diary, Tim Roll-Pickering , Jonathan Chilvers and Paul Linford
5 comments:
Mine are on my website: Harriet Tubman, the Suffragettes, the Tolpuddle Martyrs and Barbara Castle :-)
Will do this when I get of MSN!
For god's sake, why does everybody praise JFK? You should be praising Johnson! He was the one who introduced civil rights, and he steered it through the southern dominated senate. We know he fucked up in vietnam, but if it wasn't for Johnson it would hav e taken another 15 years to get civil rights. Learn some history, you ignorant God botherer.
Johnson did a lot and achieved a lot, but it was Kennedy who set the ball rolling. That's not detracting from the work Johnson did.
You need to read Master of the Senate by Robert Caro to understand how the senate and Johnson worked. Kennedy didn't start the ball rolling, he made soundings about civil rights, but only Johnson was able to get civil rights through the senate. As much as I admire the hope that Kennedy gave, he didn't really do that much in terms of civil rights. If you want to admire kennedy, admire him for overcoming the instutional impetus to launch nuclear weapons during the cuban missle crisis. That took balls and courage.
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