What does the JFK story mean in the Age of Trump?

Gavin writes:

“The assassination of JFK matters because the political system in America has never restored the trust lost in it through its continued promotion of the official version of events (lone gunman etc), right up to the present day.”

“If the state loses the trust of its electorate, or at least a sizable number of its voters and citizens, then there is going to be significant long term damage to the heart of civil society and governance. Alienation, despair, inequality, cynicism, helplessness,and other ills and conditions are significantly fueled by the loss of faith and trust in government (I would never argue that the JFK assassination caused all or any of these things by itself).

“Of course in the American case, the Vietnam war, Watergate, the Iran Contra scandal, the justification for the Iraq war, all contributed to these conditions and attitudes towards the American state. But in the UK there are similar feelings, as we saw here with Brexit.

:Forget what the media pundits are telling you about the American electorate losing its mind (it might seem like that at the moment but consider it in historical terms), on the contrary many clearly know they have been sold a pup for decades upon decades. I believe electing Trump POTUS is really a cry for help/despair, and of anger/rage/revenge etc. They realise that the political, economic, and security elites in the USA have been largely unaccountable for a very long time.”

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