U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) took positions on many political issues throughout his career via his public comments and senatorial voting record. He was broadly liberal with regard to social issues. Kennedy favored stricter gun control, supported LGBT rights and abortion rights, advocated for universal health care, and legislated for education initiatives.
Abortion Kennedy was initially opposed to abortion rights. In October 1970, he expressed a negative attitude towards abortion: "Don't tell me there's not enough love in the world to take care of all the unwanted children. I don't believe in on-demand abortions. The day when we can solve the problem of the world's population, the problem of browns in Central America, the problem of blacks in the ghetto, by aborting them, is unacceptable to me. What about children in psychiatric hospitals: they are parasitic on the environment. What about the elderly in hospitals: they clutter up the landscape. Do you want to destroy them too?"
In 1971, Kennedy expressed that he opposed legal abortion on demand, writing:
His reversal on this issue after the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 became a source of continuing dispute between him and the Catholic Church, of which he was a member.
Later, Kennedy declared his personal negative attitude towards abortion and at the same time voted in favor of using federal funds to finance abortions among the poor, according to the Supreme Court decision. This transition period lasted from 1973 to 1979, when he made statements along the following lines (for example, in an interview with Vatican Radio on November 13, 1976): "Personally, I am against abortion, although I did not promote any of the amendments. I feel that there are many different measures, legislative and otherwise, that can be considered. But Americans are divided on this issue." Kennedy continued to have deep doubts and hesitations about his attitude to abortion until 1979, as hinted at by Frank Mankiewicz, the former press secretary of his elder brother Robert Kennedy, who called these problems "strange things" during the 1976 Democratic National Convention.
However, if back in 1978 he considered these issues too acute and inconvenient for public discussion, then in November 1979 he directly supported women's right to abortion (in 1973-1979, with reservations about his negative attitude to this topic, he supported federal funding of Medicaid for poor women). In August 1980, Kennedy succeeded in including an item on support for abortion rights in the Democratic Party's presidential election platform.
In 1987, Kennedy delivered an impassioned speech, condemning Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork as a "right-wing extremist" and warning that "Robert Bork's America" would be one marked by back-alley abortions and other backward practices. Kennedy's strong opposition to Bork's nomination was important to the Senate's rejection of Bork's candidacy. He argued that much of the debate over abortion is a false dichotomy. Speaking at the National Press Club in 2005, he remarked, "Surely, we can all agree that abortion should be rare, and that we should do all we can to help women avoid the need to face that decision. History teaches that abortions do not stop because they are made illegal. Indeed, half of all abortions in the world are performed in places where abortions are illegal. The number of abortions decreases when women and parents have education and economic opportunities"Dionne, E.J. "The New Liberalism: Democrats Need to Show Their Family Values", Washington Post, January 14, 2005, page A19. Kennedy voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.
Affirmative action Kennedy strongly supported affirmative action. In 1996, he called Patrick Chavis a "perfect example" of how affirmative action worked.Patrick Chavis, 50, Affirmative Action Figure, Is Dead The Boston Globe: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION CAN BE FATAL Affirmative Action Hero: The Life and Death of Patrick Chavis [Los Angeles Times]: Doctor in Landmark Anti-Bias Case Slain
Immigration policy Kennedy introduced, and was a strong supporter of, the 1965 Hart-Celler Actsigned into law by President Lyndon B. Johnsonwhich dramatically changed U.S. immigration policy.Three Decades of Mass Immigration: The Legacy of the 1965 Immigration Act, Center for Immigration Studies, September 1995. Accessed online December 26, 2006. Kennedy said: "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs."U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, D. C., February 10, 1965, pp. 1–3.
Kennedy asserted that the bill would end the favoring of Europeans for immigration into the United States. The 1965 legislation replaced the Immigration Act of 1924, which favored immigrants from northern and western Europe and Canada. Proponents of the 1965 bill argued that immigration laws and quotas were discriminatory, and that American immigration policy should accept people not on the basis of their nationality. This also abolished the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Kennedy's bill was designed to re-allocate visas to poorer countries, and also added the stipulation that extended families of visa holders would also be eligible for visas. Although Kennedy promised the bill would not increase the number of immigrants into the United States, or change the ethnic composition of the United States, immigration numbers doubled from 1965 to 1970, and then doubled again before 1990.
Kennedy was the chairman of the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Citizenship, and remained a strong advocate for immigrants. Kennedy subsequently took a lead role in several other would-be immigration measures, including the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act (S. 1033) ("McCain-Kennedy") in 2005 and the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, a bi-partisan measure worked out with President George W. Bush which ultimately failed on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Among other reforms, the 1033 legislation proposed allowing "undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to come out of the shadows, submit to background checks, and register for a legal status. Immigrants and their families would have six years to earn permanent residence and, ultimately, citizenship."
Gun laws Kennedy was a staunch supporter of gun control initiatives. In 2006, he was one of the 16 senators who voted against the Vitter Amendment prohibiting the confiscation of legally possessed firearms during a disaster.
Energy policy Kennedy generally favored alternative energy sources, and opposed additional Alaska oil drilling. However, he opposed the Cape Wind wind turbine project which would occur near his home.Ted Kennedy on Energy & Oil, On the Issues (issues2000.org). Accessed online December 26, 2006.
Wiretapping
Kennedy joined other Democratic leaders in the Senate to write letters to Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2007, urging him to take up legislation that would block the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. Among authors of other letters to Reid on this subject were Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joseph Biden, Russ Feingold, and Barbara Boxer.Thomas, Will. '08 Dems Pressure Reid Over Wiretap Law. HuffingPost.com, Dec. 12, 2007. Accessed 6-14-2008.
Foreign affairs Vietnam Following the Cold Warrior path of his brothers, Kennedy was an early proponent of U.S. intervention in Vietnam.Moritz, Charles, ed. (1978). Current Biography Yearbook 1978. H. W. Wilson Company, pg. 226 Despite publicly becoming a major voice for some in the anti-war movement, it was acknowledged that Kennedy refused to heed calls to investigate the legality of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and that in October 1965, Kennedy publicly denounced the growing number of anti-war demonstrations, while visiting the South Vietnam capital of Saigon to discuss refugee problems. He supported not only the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, but also the massive U.S. bombing campaign in North Vietnam as well. He also supported increasing the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam from 23,000 to 175,000, and openly promoted the war effort when he told students at Boston University that a U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam "would permanently undermine our credit with other nations in the area, while we are trying to remain independent of the powerful and historic influence exerted in China".
Afghanistan Kennedy was opposed to US involvement in Afghanistan following its invasion by the Soviet Union in 1975. He used it as a campaign platform during his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980, mocking his incumbent opponent Jimmy Carter, who called the invasion the "biggest threat to world peace since World War II".
Kennedy was a supporter of the war in Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in reaction to the September 11 attacks.
Iraq Kennedy opposed the American-led 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. Kennedy was intensely opposed to the Iraq resolution, the bill voted on in 2002 to authorize invasion and occupation, as it would hand over complete military control and maneuverability to the President. Such precedent would not only allow tyrannical military policy, but an undermining of the Democrats. He was also been a harsh critic of the way the invasion of Iraq was planned and conducted by the Bush administration. Kennedy would later say that the best vote he ever cast in the Senate was his vote against giving President Bush the authority to use force against Iraq.Kennedy fights 'immense new mistake' of troop surge - CNN.com
As the Iraqi insurgency grew in subsequent years, Kennedy pronounced that the conflict was "Bush's Vietnam." In response to the killing of Massachusetts service personnel by roadside bombs, Kennedy became vocal about Humvee vulnerability, and co-sponsored 2005 legislation that sped up production and Army procurement of up-armored Humvees.
In early 2007, preceding Bush's announcement that he would initiate a troop surge in Iraq, Kennedy made a speech at the National Press Club opposing it.Sen. Ted Kennedy at the National Press Club, YouTube.com, January 9, 2007. Accessed online February 22, 2007. Kennedy was the first Senator in the 110th Congress to propose legislation opposing the troop surge.
Israel Ted Kennedy was a staunch supporter of Israel while in the Senate, and was mourned by Israeli leaders such as Shimon Peres and Avigdor Lieberman as a "friend to Israel" when he died. According to one tally, Ted Kennedy voted 100 percent in concert with positions taken by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. During the run up to the Iraq War, Kennedy said '"Iran has had closer ties to terrorism than Iraq ... Iran has a nuclear weapons development program, and it already has a missile that can reach Israel."
Ted Kennedy's death gained massive public attention in Israel, as all the Kennedy brothers were big supporters of the Jewish state, including Ted Kennedy. In his Senate career, Kennedy promoted US aid to Israel, and fought against proposed arms sales to Jordan and Saudi Arabia. He became the first American politician to meet with Soviet refuseniks in 1974. He rebuked the George H. W. Bush administration when it stopped loan guarantees with Israeli, given the Israeli settlement issue. He also opposed dividing Jerusalem up in a peace deal.