Tuesday night for the first time since 1946, (That was a khaki election that saw young Jack Kennedy elected to Congress. Across the country another Navy vet also got the House nod, Dick Nixon), a Kennedy lost in Massachusetts as Rep. Joe Kennedy III, one of the lower orders of the many branches of the snakebit family, lost his bid to unseat incumbent Dem Senator Ed Markey in a Dem primary.

The Daily Caller put it this way, “Our fractured country has many needs. Another wet-mouthed rich kid in the U.S. Senate isn’t one of them. Americans of all political persuasion should celebrate Kennedy’s defeat, not to mention the demise of a political dynasty defined by death, addiction, sexual assault, and sympathy for the Third Reich. Kennedy’s historic failure does not, however, mean Americans should let their guards down. John Bouvier ‘Jack’ Kennedy Schlossberg, a sentient boat shoe whose grandfather may or may not have been gunned down by Rafael Cruz in 1963, is definitely going to give politics a try at some point.”

If you count Rose Kennedy’s maternal line of the family, the Fitzgeralds-who elected a lot of Boston Irish pols in their time, it’s possible this family has not lost a Massachusetts race since the 19th century. So, what happened?

First, that old Kennedy nemesis, hubris. The kid was telling all of DC that he was a lock. I heard it myself from a DNC staffer at a party. After all, he was a Kennedy and they don’t lose in Massachusetts, right?

Second, the Kennedys and their once potent machine are looked upon by the current Bolsheviks who run the national party as too old school and thus out of touch. That’s why AOC endorsed and fought for Markey. And let’s be honest. JFK would be a conservative Republican #metoo predator today and Bobby, not withstanding his hilarious completely phony transformation into a saint when he ran against LBJ, was known as a vicious streetfighter when he ran JFK’s various campaigns for office.

As Caller notes, after them the credible pickings in the clan have been few. Teddy was a carousing playboy and when not drowning girls or making “waitress sandwiches” he was known to be the dimmest bulb in the family and the Senate. Caroline has been an exception, as was her mother, and has led a normal elite existence. Her brother’s fate was tragic and the rest of the brood are just embarrassing to speak of.

It’s happened before. The Adamses, the Harrisons, the Roosevelts, the Bushes, all great political dynasties fallen into irrelevance and oblivion. Which is a healthy American tradition. This nation was founded on a distaste for hereditary leadership. As Joe III just found out the hard way.

So he’ll lick his wounds and probably get the seat in 6 or 12 years when Markey retires. He’ll have time by then to fix that over-salivation issue he has and get hair color of a shade found in nature. Then the Senate will have another Kennedy. Oh joy.