From The Presidential Papers of Norman Mailer, special preface, written after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, for whom the book was ostensibly written:

Still, John F. Kennedy was a remarkable man. A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped. Kennedy was not in a hurry to stop us. I would not be surprised if he believed that the health of America (which is to say our vitality) depended in part on the inventiveness and passion of its outlaws.

Do we give too little credit for the rhetoric of our politicians? To the ways they attempt to appeal to us? For the ways they think we are? They think we are enough like this that it will help them win the election. And in thinking that, and in winning, do they make us more like that?

In my lifetime, it's always felt like the GOP has been the party of the past, and of smallness, selfishness and exclusiveness, while the Democrats have been the party of the future, and of inclusiveness. It has the larger spirit. I think JFK reflected this in his rhetoric. I think Pres. Obama does so now.