If the United States has an American equivalent of the British royal family, it has to be the Kennedys. This country has been acquainted with the Kennedy family for the past century and a half, and has been obsessed with them since around the midcentury, when John F. Kennedy’s so-called Camelot presidency and its tragic ending captured the public imagination. In the intervening decades, the American fascination with this political dynasty has shown no signs of stopping, given that Robert “Bobby” F. Kennedy, Edward “Ted” Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II, Joe P. Kennedy III, Patrick J. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have all either been elected or appointed to federal office in the intervening years. (And that extensive list does not include members of the family who married in or don’t carry that famous last name.) Today the Kennedys are once again across our politics, if they ever truly left. There’s our dairy-obsessed health secretary, of course, whose anti-science views prompted five of his own siblings to speak out against him during the 2024 election. Then there’s Jack Schlossberg, the 33-year-old son of Caroline Kennedy and near-clone of his late uncle, who has entered the race for a vacant congressional seat in Manhattan. Oh, and don’t forget that the president now has his eyes—and his name—on the…
Published: February 12, 2026 4:00 pm
Source: Slate — Read original