Kennedys everywhere !

And so we learn that the recipe in the success is a mix between aesthetics, having an army of lawyers and good PR

SO…: I heard somewhere, without remembering where exactly, that if people are obsessed with the Kennedys, it is because they are the equivalent of a royal family that America, unlike Britain, does not have and that makes sense to me. People love the Kennedys.

As a result, the Kennedys, one of the most popular and affluent families of all time, have been everywhere for decades. Sometimes I feel like there isn’t an industry they haven’t yet step foot into, whether it be business, politics or public service you name it.

So, I wonder if there is any other explanation for this domination that has not been extinguished. How is it actually possible for one family to have maintain such a dominance, a longevity and a relevancy throughout time, throughout countries when everything else around them has changed ?

The Kennedy family. Let’s play “Who is who?” together!! (credits to owner for the picture)

PART I: KENNEDYS ON THE BUILDING

I think the first clue that makes one understand how powerful the Kennedy Family is what they have lend their names to.

Let’s take for example the principal corridor from Europe to the US that is New York City and which currently has the Zohran Mamdani as their mayor (I am so jealous of them!).

The Big Apple has in total 4 airports on site, including one most called by using just 3 letters: JFK for John F. Kennedy International Airport. By doing some research, one can find out that it is not how it was originally named. The change only happened after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, during his term, in 1963.

It actually isn’t the only building that went through a name change after this event that has been discussed, analyzed through and through many times over history to find out who actually did it.

The country’s capital, Washington D.C, home residence to Presidents; it is where the White House is located, is indeed home to the Kennedy Center which, if you have been paying attention to the news lately, has been talked about quite a lot. Founded in 1971, it is an auditorium hosting concerts and all kind of performance arts all year long. Except that today it is no longer up and running: all because, President Donald Trump decided to become chairman of the center and rename it in his honor instead. As a result, the people stood up in protestations: performances were cancelled, tickets stopped selling, residence of the Washington National Opera ended.

[embed]I just love this video. (video from CNN official Youtube Channel)

Now, the center is closed. The official cause ? Renovation to last for 2 years.

I deduce from this first part that the Kennedys are so powerful, official government buildings bear their name. The Kennedys are so powerful, they still manage to make current leaders jealous. Even when the Kennedys are no longer in their prime years of politics. Or aren’t they ?

PART II: KENNEDY IN POLITICS

Kennedys: I think I speak for everyone when I say the name is synonym for the young, the charismatic handsome fellow of their clan, tanned skin like the others, who happened to be the only one who was elected president and frequented the likes of Marilyn Monroe or was married with the one and only Jacqueline Kennedy.

His name comes up first for me when I type “Kennedy” in the Google search bar. I noticed that whatever biography I was looking at, of a relative more or less close to him in the family tree, the result was always the same: his name was there again. He steals the spotlight from everyone else because he reached the highest function (and perhaps because his death remains a mystery, open to the conspiracies).

It is of course JFK who I am talking about.

This automatic association of one name to one guy has a tendency to make people believe that they know the whole family. I believe it is completely untrue.

Besides for JFK, did you know the depth of implantation of the Kennedys in American politics ? I bet you don’t know of the following impressive statistics available online : “*At least one Kennedy family member was serving in federal elective office in every year from 1947 (…) until 2011*” or how they have sitted at almost every government body at least once, at all scales it seems.

Next to the brother who is often seen as so glorious, he might as well be wearing angel wings, I learned while making this article of the life stories of his other siblings:

• There is the eldest of the 9 children of Joseph P. Kennedy and his wife Rose, called Joseph Jr. who died at war at just 29 in 1944 and should have become President, had his father’s initial wish become true.
• The mother Rose herself is the daughter of a Boston mayor John F. Fitzgerald from 1910 to 1914.
• There is RFK, Robert F. Kennedy, 8 years younger than JFK, who went as far as becoming US attorney general meaning the chef of the US Department of Justice.

[embed]RFK is a man who could very well have been president, the proof is in this 2018 documentary series (video from Netflix official Youtube Channel)

• Last but not least, in the list of men of the same generation of Kennedys, we have Ted Kennedy who I did not know was Senator, continuously from 1962 to 2009, making him belong to the top 10 of people who served the longest in this position in U.S history. By the way, fun fact: the term of a US senator lasts 6 years. Talk about beloved public servants…

[embed]As well-rounded politicians, the Kennedys have always been great at one thing: speeches (video from Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center)

PART III: KENNEDYS TRAVEL

The Kennedys story even transcends the borders of America.

It happened, if I had to make it short, as follows. They were first based in Ireland which is why their name then was “O’Kennedy”. Then, they emigrated to the US in the state of Massachusetts in 1849. 35 years after, they first step foot into politics with Patrick Joseph Kennedy. And the rest, with his son and Rose becomes history.

Besides politics, reading the respective Wikipedia biographies of each member of this clan, I noticed that a lot of Kennedys once were ambassadors: starting the family’s patriarch who himself hold this position in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1940, then Jean Kennedy Smith, one of the sisters, who served in Ireland from 1993 to 1998 under the Clinton administration, or Caroline Kennedy, daughter of JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy, who was ambassador in Japan from 2013 to 2017 under Obama and Australia from 2022 to 2024 under Biden.

[embed]The job of ambassador is so fascinating there is a show on it on Netflix called “The Diplomat” to which real-life people with this exact position react, to let us know if the representation is close to reality and promote this career path to young audiences. Mind-blowing stuff (video from the U.S Department of State official Youtube Channel)

I think this common denominator says a lot about the family.

Being a diplomat and chosen to act as representatives of the US in foreign territories only means one thing: the Kennedys are some of the best thing the US can offer and make. You are not a nobody if you make it at this point. This is why it does not surprise me to identify how the Kennedys went to the most prestigious schools there exist. They have the diploma and got the best education possible. They are people of culture, who frequent the best of the best, choose carefully including who they marry. They publish books, have careers in journalism. They are the smartest. Even visually: they all look gorgeous and very attractive in their own way.

By the way, in case you are wondering, for the other women of the same generation as the golden trio that is JFK, RFK and Ted Kennedy, to my surprise, none of them made it onto politics. Besides Jean who we already mentioned, Patricia, Eunice and Kathleen are:

• either described as socialists meaning that, to me they fit in well within societies and are of pleasant company to have around
• or they had philanthropy as their focus to give back, establish themselves and ensure their legacy would stand the test of time.

PART IV: KENNEDYS HOLDING THE HOUSE TOGETHER

When it comes to the Kennedys, there are these fates which are impossible to ignore: for instance, when it comes to the women again, what happened to Rosemary and Patricia. While the first spent most of her life being institutionalized as the result of a lobotomy arranged by her father, it is said that the second dreamed of being a film producer but never could actually do it because it wasn’t in the spirit of her time.

Many call it a “curse”: how closed to one another the dates of birth and death are or the circumstances of their passing, often plane crashes.

[embed]A very detailed rundown of all the catastrophes that the Kennedy bloodline has encountered (video from History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday Youtube Channel)

The repetition leaves room for surprise, of course. The repetition leaves room for surprise, of course, and this accentuates the fascination we have for them. The Kennedys are the elite and they also have been through uninimaginable tragedy.

We look up to them, their success, how good their names and image sells to this day, as much as we pity them. Such people give hope for ourselves separately and together, we feel that we can be better on our own and together with them. They give hope.

I want to point out again how the women in this story deserve to be given their flowers, especially the matriarchs. Two of them especially caught my attention: Rose Kennedy, the mother of them all, and Ethel Kennedy, who was married to RFK. They both share interesting common points: they both had a tribute of children and went on to live very long life, reaching the nineties or hundreds.

To run households that had this many kids, a husband totally outside playing dress up, I imagine those were very strong ladies.

Let’s also not forget her: Jackie Kennedy, at JFK’s funeral in the picture, was there for everything! (credits to owner for the picture)

I can see a ressemblance in their story to modern day women like Amal Clooney: yes, she is the wife of a golden handsome actor called Georges Clooney, and has twins with him but she also is an international human rights lawyer who represents very high profile clients and sit in juridictions such as the United Nations and people often forget that.

Most times, women are the one who have to hold it together in the face of tragedy, of their husbands sometimes embarassing them with their extramarital affairs, to keep their head above the current when all eyes are on them.

PART V: KENNEDYS TODAY

Today, the Kennedy name still has not left the top of the headlines. For once, we are kind of thankful to have representatives at the top of the food chain who are able to form coherent sentences without stuttering and placing a dumb word in there. It is becoming rare and rare…

There is of course one exception to this rule in the person of the US current Secretary of Health and Human Service, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the pure product of Trump’s obsession with the clan that went as far as going rogue to the others.

But the others surviving Kennedys at least called him out on his B.S, and refuse to let themselves be associated with him. It is the case of Caroline Kennedy and her children Tatiana and Jack Schlossberg.

Editor’s note: My god what is it about the name Jack that they love so much they make it appear in every generation?

I think two words that fit best to encapsulate both the Kennedys who live publicly and those who are quieter are: preservation and adjustement.

On the one hand, as we see with the example of the are determined (and right) to let no one erase the family’s impacts, contributions to society and legacy. The last example I mentioned above shows it. But I could have as well talked about the Ryan Murphy show who has been everyone’s lips online, “*Love Story*”, inspired by the couple of Caroline Bessett and John John (JFK’s only son), and the aftermath of this new creation: how Jack Schlossberg reacted to it and called him out.

Jack Schlossberg is, I figure, a proud successor, a flag bearer who is at the height of his ancestors. I recently saw an old interview of his mother on the David Letterman show pop up on my feed. His sister Tatiana, who sadly passed away at just 30 years old, wrote the most popular essay of the New Yorker, for 2025. His other sister Rose is one of the producer and writer behind Time: The Kalief Browder Story which won a Peabody Award. Netflix loves the Kennedys if we judge by the amount of content they have on them in their catalogue. In 2026, which marks the 250 year anniversary of America, Jack Schlossberg himself just launched, a campaign to become a member of the House of Representatives, from NYC 12th congressional district.

And it isn’t over. There will soon be a Netflix series on the family, directed by Thomas Vinterberg and with Michael Fassbender in the role of Joe Kennedy Sr. (credits to owner for this picture)

And just like that…we are back to where we started: NYC.

It means: it is time for a conclusion.

If there is one thing we have proven with this article, it is that the title is not an exaggeration; the Kennedys are omnipresent in the public sphere. This has been going on since they established themselves in the United States and does not seem likely to stop anytime soon.

The Kennedys are therefore a family that is somewhat similar to an octopus whose tentacles affect all areas. The Kennedys are also America in a way, they are a fraction of its history and embody all the aspects of its core to an impeccable degree: splendid and glorious, they represent simultaneously the best it has to offer, its dangers and its fractures.

An article written by Nica — May 10th 2026 — France — RANDOM#107