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Presidential candidate John F. Kerry is most definitely not President John F. Kennedy. But as Kerry’s personal history and the history of his party reveal, it is not for a lack of will.

Kennedy has been the silent but not inaudible icon of the Democratic Party. He has been the inspiration and the ideal behind every Democrat of recent generations. The young energy, intellectual prowess, smoothness of speech, wealth and polished firmness that characterized Kennedy are attractive to the common voter, let alone to the studied Democratic strategist. It helps, of course, that Kennedy was murdered, which gained him sympathy from the judges of history and immunity from the verdicts of future history textbooks.

In the 1980s, Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart often put his hand into the flap of his jacket, a confused habit Kennedy had. Vice President Dan Quayle was notoriously chastised by Lloyd Bentsen, who said, “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy,” after Quayle compared Kennedy’s Senate record with his own. More recently, President Bill Clinton often spoke of Kennedy’s influence on his career in public service and in areas that will not be discussed here.

But the influence and similarity seem to be most pronounced in Kerry. The famous initials, a wartime record in the navy, an Ivy League education, an upbringing in Massachusetts, tremendous wealth, a solid Senate record and a brief family connection certainly shed light on promising resemblances.

Resemblances also abound in Kerry’s style as a presidential candidate. His pronunciation of words, the modulations of his speech, his intellectual manner – his pose and his poise – all remind us of the president that once was. Not really because we see Kennedy in Kerry – far from it – but because he wants us to.

Kennedy might remind political ideologues of a man of honor and charisma. But this memory would be only a predictable aftertaste of the beliefs he inherited – through parent, school or generation. To the historian or the political analyst, or even to us, we see a man who at once set the democratic political standard to be unreachably high, but the political character standard to be inadequately low.

It is for these reasons that John F. Kennedy must be dethroned as the Democrats’ ideal.

Kennedy lived and breathed in the time when Republicans and Democrats agreed on staple American issues – national security, relative economic freedom, and so on. He was a committed anti-communist whose work on a labor committee convicted a communist union officer. He was a cold warrior who fought with personal interest and special zeal to surpass the Soviets in science and military. He increased troops in Vietnam from 500 to 16,000. In his inaugural address, he declared to the world that the United States would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship ... to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

What he promised to protect abroad, Kennedy determined to uphold at home. In December of 1962, Kennedy proposed and Congress later passed the largest tax cut in history up to that point. He demanded “an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes.” He did it for the economy and for the virtue of liberty.

But today’s Democrats, and particularly John Kerry, would have none of this. Kerry’s torturously conceived anti-war stance and his promised tax hikes fly in the face of Kennedy’s policies and the convictions from which they were derived.

What Kerry has hung on to and what the Democrats must let go of is a shallow rendition of Kennedy’s personal style. After all, under youthful elegance, there was youth. Throughout his 1960 campaign and his presidential term, Kennedy had a considerable stint with adultery – he slept with prostitutes, flight attendants, actresses and even supporters. In retaliation, the nominal Jackie Kennedy went on expensive shopping sprees to redecorate the White House. Amid these tussles and confusions, depravity and vanity, the Kennedy family created a presidency that was truly royal.

But the success of these strange circumstances depended on the needs of the times – needs we do not share, times we cannot now understand. The successes depended on a young and unique character – youth we do not have, and distinctiveness that has been copied time after insufferable time. Simply put, John Kerry is too old and too late to be another John Kennedy.

At this juncture in history’s tale, in these present struggles of terrorism and conviction, John Kerry looks like a sad and hopeless parcel of history. Only his own style might vindicate him and his party – and the icon he will never be.

Hovannisian is a second-year history and philosophy student. E-mail him at ghovannisian@media.ucla.edu.Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.