My latest at PJ Media:
The media establishment has made it a never-ending series: features on the political views of public figures who just happen to be far-Leftists. The latest ran in the Independent on Wednesday: musician Bruce Hornsby, author of the deathless eighties classic “The Way It Is,” reminiscences about growing up in the “deeply conservative” town of Williamsburg, Virginia, where, he says, the kids in his third-grade class cheered when they heard that JFK had been assassinated. It’s a jarring story, but it reveals more about the Left’s false historical narrative – particularly regarding the fabled “switch” of the Democratic and Republican parties over civil rights – than it does about Williamsburg or the South in the sixties.
There are numerous oddities in Hornsby’s recollections, suggesting that the aging boomer’s memories may be filtered at this late date through the prism of the Leftist narrative. For instance, he says that when Kennedy’s death was announced at his school, “almost my entire class cheered. They were shouting: ‘Hurray! Now Nixon can take over!’ But I was so shocked. I felt awful. It was a seminal moment in my childhood, just stamped on my brain and I still get chills when I think about it.”
What little monsters. But of course they were only reflecting attitudes they had imbibed at home. “Narrow-minded attitudes prevailed in my small southern town,” Hornsby explains. “But my mum, Lois, was from a more forward-thinking family of New Englanders who’d moved down to Richmond when her dad got a job there as a church organist. Liberal Lois, my mum, married a big old handsome country boy. Bob Hornsby was from a fishing village and he was cut from the local cloth. My parents’ votes cancelled each other out in elections from 1948 to 1976 when my mum persuaded my dad to vote for Jimmy Carter and he never looked back and he voted Democrat for the rest of his life.”…
What’s more, as Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster explains, Nixon and Kennedy were running to succeed the Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a “forward-thinking” stance on civil rights, and was bitterly opposed by segregationist Southerners who were all Democrats. When Eisenhower’s Secretary of the Navy Robert Anderson advised the president not to press the South to accept the integration of the armed forces, the president shot back: “We have not taken and we shall not take a single backward step. There must be no second-class citizens in this country.”…
There is much more. Read the rest here.
Westman says
That’s strange. I was in one of the most conservative western states when President Kennedy died and it was mostly tears; not only for Kennedy, also for the end of post WWII tranquility in the US. We knew in our bones that the music of unity and survival, developed in the great war, died that day. Then the Vietnam war expanded from advisor to participant…
gravenimage says
Agreed, Westman. This from Bruce Hornsby sounds like bs to me.
Phil Copson says
An “invented memory” to support his current stance ?
Similarly, the BBC claimed a few weeks ago that one of their pet “hate figures”, politician Enoch Powell, declined to be interviewed by a Birmingham radio station if they had a black employee on the premises, and she had to be despatched on a errand until he had gone.
I refuse point-blank to believe this: Enoch Powell was, first and foremost, a gentleman who would never have behaved in this way, and secondly – he wasn’t the racist ogre that the chattering classes like to paint him as. (From his years in the British Army, Powell had a high opinion of the Indians he worked with, and as Health Minister in the early ’60s, he set about attracting overseas nursing staff for the NHS.)
j c a reid says
Well said. Not many people know that or, want to even admit it.
gravenimage says
+1
J Disher says
I agree
CogitoErgoSum says
Yes, I find it hard to believe kids in the third grade would cheer the assassination of the President. I was in the seventh grade in a small town in the Midwest when it happened and I remember thinking there might be a war because of it. It was scary. All the people I knew at the time, both kids and adults, were very concerned and upset about it. I remember my mother cried and I remember she and my dad had both voted for Nixon. Hornsby grew up in a different America than I did if he is remembering kids cheering that day. I wonder if his brain has not been addled by taking too many drugs.
Jon Sobieski says
Bruce Hornsby is a liar. There is no third grade class of kids cheering the death of JFK. Reminds me of that kooky woman who claimed Kavenaugh (at Senate hearings) raped her, was drunk, pawing and behaving like a drunk maniac. She couldn’t remember the date, the location, the house, or anyone to confirm her story. Never wrote about it, never spoke about it. What a nutty story. Just like this. Geez. People invent stories in their heads and bam, they become real to them
Pete says
I totally agree. I have never heard of kids cheering Kennedy’s death. I was in the third grade too. Maybe Bruce had been taking too much MDMA and got mixed up?
Emilie Green says
Don’t believe a word Hornsby says. No one cheered. There were tears that day, and the days that followed. And in the years that followed. Though I will allow that there were smiles all around from Lyndon Johnson and his group of thugs.
roberta says
These ”artist” must be foolish. So many of them waiting in line to lose fans. Granted Hornsby (like many others who take these stands) is outdated and really doesnt have much to lose, but of the 12 fans he had left, 6 just quit him.
They must have a need to hear their names mentioned on TV, and truly believe that any publicity is good publicity.
I’ll turn the channel on the radio to avoid a fool, leftest ”news”, or an aggravating commercial. I dont believe Im the only person that does this.
Carl says
Thank goodness for the Remote Control.
gravenimage says
I am a bit younger–I was in third grade when Robert Kennedy was killed. The teacher explained what had happened and we had a moment of silence. Most of the kids were either specifically upset about Robert Kennedy, or just bothered because someone had been killed and the usually imperturbable teachers were so affected. This was a generally liberal area, but I imagine this reaction would have been much the same if a conservative leader has been targeted.
A handful of the most boneheaded and usually disruptive students got bored and started making noise, but this had no political motivation at all.
tim gallagher says
This guy, Hornsby, seems to have a very vivid imagination, maybe he is delusional. I find it very hard to believe what he is saying. Maybe he uses his very vivid imagination to write his songs, etc. I have heard it said a few times that many people on the left have a dream (an ideal world) about how they think life should be and then, from then on, that dream, totally unrelated to how things really are, is set in stone for them. They invent a bullshit version of history and then nothing can budge them from that fantasy view of how things were or are. Maybe it is the same for some far right people too. Maybe Hornsby really believes in this outrageous sounding fantasy view he has of what happened. His memory of how things were sounds like nonsense, that’s for sure. Over the years, quite a lot of musicians have fried their brains with drugs and alcohol, so, although he looks healthy enough in that photo, maybe Hornsby is one of those people.
James Lincoln says
I was in the fourth grade when Pres. Kennedy was assassinated. The school, located in a small New England town, was kindergarten through sixth grade – about 100 students.
The parents of the students were split about 50-50 Republican / Democrat.
I can state with 100% certainty that every single student and teacher was very worried, saddened and concerned after hearing the horrific news that fateful Friday.
Bruce Hornsby’s account does not appear to reflect reality… I’m not sure what is going on with him…
j c a reid says
Could get interesting if/when some of his former classmates respond.
anthony Bertrand says
“almost my entire class cheered. They were shouting: ‘Hurray! Now Nixon can take over!’ not a very bright class and a much less bright teacher,, the murdering lying LBJ took over and got HIS war going full blast
gravenimage says
I think this account needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt.
andrew mckendrick says
Remember that night well ,I with three friends ,two of us engineering apprentices and the other two art school students were at The Kings Theatre in Glasgow at the opera. During the intermission when news had filtered through about the assassination , the conductor probably unaware of what had happened ,kept glancing round at the audience wondering at this display of bad manners ,people talking during the second half performance. At the conclusion there was a hasty exit from the theatre some not waiting for the conclusion of the National Anthem which was considered bad form in those days. As we walked up Elmbank Steet towards Sauchiehall St a newsvendors van came to a halt outside the Beresford Hotel ,immediately people flocked from what seemed nowhere to get a copy of the latest edition. Ironically, The Beresford Hotel had a link with Kennedy.The first British ship sunk by the Germans was on the 3 sept 1939 the Donaldson liner The Athenia onboard were American passengers , the survivors were taken to Glasgow and put up at the Central Hotel and The Beresford. John Kennedy was In London at the time staying with his father who was Americas ambassador to Britain , his father sent him up to Glasgow as his special envoy ,to look after the welfare of the survivors , he visited them all at their hotels.A lot of Glaswegians will tell you JFK political career started in Glasgow where he is still remembered with much affection.
gravenimage says
Thanks for that account.
James says
Remember Bill Clintons burning of black churches in his town when growing up? Sounds kind of familiar.
Chet Bundy says
I was in third grade in a New Orleans parochial school in 1963. The school has four wings of four classrooms. My wing had the third and fourth graders, while the wing on my right had the fifth and sixth graders.
Our principal announced over the PA that JFK had been shot. Silence.
Sometime later she announced that JFK was dead. Cheers errupted from the older children in the classrooms to my right…I would have joined in if I had known at the the time that JFK stole the 1960 election from Nixon…
gravenimage says
Uh huh…
Funny we haven’t seen much from this poster, but he shows up here with this tosh.
infidel says
So many of our great artists turn out to be duds in other spheres of life
gravenimage says
All too often the case.