"I said I watched Fahrenheit 9-11."

My brother shook his head. "How could you do that? Don’t you realize it’s just a bunch of left-wing propaganda?"

"That may be," I countered, "but how can you say that if you even refuse to look at it."

"Any idiot knows it’s a bunch of trash," he answered, the appearance of a conversation quickly degenerating into an argument

"Don’t you want to know how I rate it?" I asked him. We have always used a private rating system to tell the other whether the movie is worth seeing. An "A" is a "must see", and anything below a "B" is "watch it at your own risk".

He shook his head again. "I think you’re becoming an elitist," he said, pointing his finger at me.

That one hit me hard. My older brother always knew how to get to me. Me? An elitist? Call me anything you want, but I am certainly not an elitist. Doesn’t he know I hang out with a bunch of good ‘ole Southern Maryland boys?

"The next thing I hear will be that you have joined the Hollywood crowd. I can see you and Tim Robbins sipping tea together at the French Embassy," he continued.

"Don’t you think it is important to know what the other side is saying?" I pleaded on deaf ears.

"You and Michael Moore," he laughed, shaking his head as he walked away.

That was before Christmas. It was no big deal, because one thing we always do is move on to the next topic, but last night I woke up and thought I was having a nightmare. Ted Kennedy’s face filled the T.V. screen in front of me, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I seemed to be agreeing with him. My forehead filled with perspiration at the thought, but after a few moments, I realized I was watching a rebroadcast of a Chris Matthews’ interview. My brother’s words flashed before my eyes like a Time’s Square tickertape. "I’d better turn off the T.V.," I thought, still not fully awake, "before I become indoctrinated with more liberal propaganda." Then I smiled as I realized that my brother would never know I actually watched a Ted Kennedy interview unless I told him. After the Michael Moore discussion, I concluded I would keep this one to myself. By now, however, I was fully awake, and adjusted my pillow so I could see the television better.

In front of me was Ted Kennedy, the voice of the Democrat Party that the Republicans had just trounced at the polls, recycling the same old Democratic Mantra. He looked like he had lost a few pounds, and spoke very deliberately. There was no denying his passion. Ted Kennedy believed what he was saying. Of course, he attacked the President on the war, saying that Iraq was Bush’s Vietnam. "He might be right on that one," I thought.

Then Ted said that the best way to fix the country’s healthcare system would be to expand Medicare to all Americans. That one intrigued me. It seemed logical and simple. Ted said he would immediately lower the entry age to 55, and then drop it gradually until all Americans were covered. He noted that Medicare patients have the right to see whatever Doctor they wish, a definite selling point for me. I shook my head. "Maybe my brother was right. I have gone over to the other side," I thought, but by then my brain cells fully activated, and began to analyze Ted’s words. "The problem with your idea, Ted Kennedy, is you have never dealt with Medicare. You have no clue of its massive bureaucracy that makes it a nightmare for doctors and hospitals. A good idea, Ted, but unworkable, until the red-tape is eliminated, which is almost impossible," I thought.

Now I was getting my footing again as the interview continued, and Kennedy resumed his frontal assault on the President’s agenda, opposing privatization of Social Security, and advocating at least seven days of paid sick leave for all Americans. "More good ideas," I thought, wondering again if my brother was right about me, but then I remembered I grew up in a Democrat household. In those days, Democrat meant Labor and any Catholic worth his salt back then supported Labor. It was "them" against "us", Big Business against the working man, good jobs against child labor and 14 hour workdays. It was Republicans who owned the Big Businesses against us, the Democrats, who supplied the Labor.

I remembered the 1960 election when everybody in my extended family supported Ted’s brother, Jack, for President because he was one of "us." I also remembered visiting my Irish cousin, Maggie, now in her late eighties, sitting in her kitchen high in the mountains on the Leitrim/Fermanagh border a few years after the assassination. There were only two pictures on her wall. One was the Pope, and the other was Jack Kennedy. She saw me look up and said in her Northern brogue, "Aye, Terence, he was a good man himself."

"But that was yesterday," I thought. "The world has changed and so have we. The Catholic Church’s massive education effort has been successful. We now own many of the same businesses we fought years ago."

Maybe the Democrat Party also is changing. Isn’t former U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer, a Catholic who had a 94% National Right to Life rating, running for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee? And doesn’t he have the support of House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi?{I guess the School Sisters of Notre Dame who taught her at Saint Leo’s in Baltimore’s Little Italy have been haunting her}.

Then Ted Kennedy very deliberately and carefully said that he "wholeheartedly" supported the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. My mind was very clear now as I realized that Ted Kennedy and today’s Democrats still don’t get it. Didn’t they read the CNN poll that said that 22 percent of voters defined "moral values" as the most important issue in the 2004 election? Didn’t they read that 80% of those people voted for President Bush, with challenger John Kerry getting only 18%? The 2004 election was the Democrats to lose and they found a way to lose it. When John Kerry stated clearly in the third debate that he would not appoint anyone who opposed Roe v. Wade to the Supreme Court, I sent an e-mail to my friends telling them that Kerry had just lost the election.