The title of this article is borrowed from a book. But we all own our relationship with our fathers.

Fatherhood is among life’s most exacting roles.  One of the most important aspects of which is a father’s responsibility to protect his children. As mine protected me.

Charles Leven passed away about five years ago. Years before he was a father, Charles was a 14-year-old who ran away to join the Canadian Army during WWII under an assumed name.  After more than 6 months of combat he sustained a near fatal shrapnel wound and was nearly decapitated by a German booby trap.

One could say that made my father a hero. And in a sense, he was.  No child soldier can meaningfully process war, the reality of killing others, and stepping over their body parts. Charles was no exception. Even so, by risking all my father met his moment.

Tom Kean, Sr., one of New Jersey’s most popular governors, worked extensively with traditional Democratic constituencies and, after his second term, served on the board of President Bill Clinton's One America Initiative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kean. In painfully stark contrast to so many of our politicians now, Kean, Sr. also served the public with integrity.   The 9/11 Commission has been called “perhaps the most important U.S. government commission in American history given its mammoth responsibility for investigating the causes of the first foreign attack on the U.S. mainland since the War of 1812.”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kean. As its Chair, Kean, Sr. pulled no punches. He called out our national intelligence services.  He demanded fact-based answers. He suggested fundamental changes. It was not about partisanship.  It was about protecting us.  Kean. Sr. met his moment.

He is also Tom Kean, Jr.’s father and has sought to protect his son in many ways, including appearing in some of Kean, Jr.’s recent campaign ads. None of which mentions the fact that as part of a razor thin majority in the House, Kean, Jr. was handed a unique opportunity. Because Trump needs the House’s support and, therefore, every Republican in it. Giving Kean, Jr. an outsized voice on all manner of Trump’s decisions; both foreign and domestic.  The mere threat of a single “no” vote on legislation gave Kean Jr, the power to insist on changing certain behaviors from Trump, and that may very well have succeeded in doing so.

The list of outcomes that Kean, Jr. could have altered is long. Bullying Greenland.  Prosecuting political enemies.  Vilifying Canada. Extremist attack rhetoric against Judges.  The Trump family’s staggering enrichment. Threats to, and punishment of, news outlets. Characterizing Ukraine as a villain. Trillion dollar plus deficits.  Hegseth’s running of the Pentagon. RFK, Jr.’s running of  HHS. Replacing a very imperfect healthcare system with empty rhetoric. The Gulf of America.  The false election integrity narrative. An Iran war entered into without a plan. Trump crypto. The Trump Kennedy Center. The Trump Arch, Trump sneakers, the Trump Bible, Trump national park passes, Trump passports, and Trump currency.  Ignoring Congress.  Ignoring the Courts. Ignoring most of us. Lake America. And - by relentlessly alienating NATO – leaving this country to face its many enemies alone.

The list of things Kean, Jr. actually did to alter these outcomes is much shorter. He did nothing. Not a thing. Not a word.  Not a syllable.

All of which is wholly consistent with much what Kean, Jr.’s campaign is built on. That is, “fixing” our healthcare system by making it more broken, “standing up” for us by being silent, and then asking us to “thank him” for doing so.

Coupled with attacks on Bennett as a “millionaire.” Who if she has accumulated that sum, worked for it on an aircraft carrier and elsewhere.  Contrast Kean, Jr., a professional politician who has never held a real job outside government.  https://kean.house.gov/about. Kean. Jr. is worth $10 million plus.  He appears to have “earned” it by being born.

Along with the series of absurd allegations about Bennett’s “accountability” culminating in a recent Kean Jr., flyer that suggests Bennett is somehow responsible for gouging out a patient’s eye because she worked for Johnson & Johnson and other healthcare companies. A mistake by the campaign?  No. That flyer – featuring a severed, bloody eyeball – states that it was “authorized by Kean for Congress, Inc.”

What to make of this?  What conclusions can be drawn?  Here is one. Tom Kean, Jr. is his father’s son. But he is plainly not his father.

I take no pleasure in comparing any father to their son and would not do so here, but for a sense of obligation to do so.  Since multiple Kean, Jr. campaign ads wrongly suggest that the son is following in his father’s footsteps, and because I, too, am a father with children that I, too, have the responsibility to protect in this moment in our national life.  A moment that is about what America is, what it will be for all of our children, and whether we will continue to honor those upon whose shoulders we now stand.

Many years ago, in a situation not so very dissimilar from our own, Oliver Cromwell dissolved a corrupt British Parliament more interested in its own survival than the British nation’s with these words: “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!" https://www.historyhit.com/in-the-name-of-god-go-significance/

If you think Tom Kean, Jr., has met his moment, then vote for him. But if not, then Kean, Jr. has surely sat far too long for any good he claims to be doing.