Today, America is deeply divided, and neither major political party is able to command a durable majority of voters.
At another moment of national division―1968―US Senator Robert F. Kennedy ran for the Democratic presidential nomination and forged a remarkable political coalition of working-class black and Hispanic voters alongside working-class white voters, some of whom had supported segregationist George Wallace in a previous election.
RFK attracted voters from antagonistic camps with a unifying appeal to a “liberal patriotism” that drew on the best traditions of American liberalism and conservatism. In this centennial year of Kennedy’s birth, his approach offers potent lessons for leaders seeking to unify a fractured country.