Dead Kennedys have been shaping American policies for decades. The dead ones appear to be even more influential than the living ones. (We can make an argument that Joe's bootlegging and the later assassinations gave us the '34 and '68 gun laws that re-made the Second Amendment climate in this nation.) They continue to be useful ideological phantasms for the lefist zealots. Ted will be no different, even though over half this nation doesn't really know who the Kennedys are or were, much less care. Today's Americans aren't that up on or big on "history," after all, and when John Jr. went down in that plane crash the pop mystique died with him. Caroline isn't hot, and Ted wasn't cool, just an aging reprobate; the rest of the clan is more concerned about dividend checks from those Fiji-based trusts.
That said, Ted won't change America's political history; his death is a subplot. The real drama here is The State versus The People, and that is most definitely going to be played out on the large screen over the next few years, with an unpredictable climax.
