The Administration still felt itself under pressure to prove its own worth to centrists and conservative Americans, and it believed that liberal-left Americans would simply have to accept the Kennedy proposition that the Administration was by far the best they could hope for.
David Halberstam,The Best and The Brightest
After having read only the first few pages of David Halberstam’s book The Best and the Brightest it is clear that power in the United States has been passed down like the power of royalty. If you were born in the right family, went to the right schools, and knew the right people, you got to carry the mantel of power. The truly powerful people were those who stayed out of print. Indeed, getting in print detracted from your power, because it said you needed the lowly media to let everyone know who you were. When being truly powerful means that the people of influence, the important people, already know who you are.
It should be said, but goes without saying, that this is completely contradictory to the idea that the United States is the greatest democracy in the world.
