Politics
Williams was close friends with Robert F. Kennedy and his wife Ethel Kennedy, campaigning in 1968 for Kennedy in the Democratic presidential primary races. Williams was among the celebrities who were in Kennedy's entourage in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles where RFK was shot and mortally wounded by Sirhan Sirhan in June 1968. Williams solemnly sang "Battle Hymn of the Republic" at RFK's funeral, at Ethel's request. By August 1969, over a year after Bobby Kennedy's death, Williams and Claudine Longet named their newborn son Bobby after Kennedy. The Williams' friendship with Ethel Kennedy endured, with Williams even serving as escort to Ethel during events in the 1970s. He also raised funds for George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign, performing at benefit concerts On the morning of October 21, 2012, McGovern died at age 90 just four weeks after Williams died.
Despite his association with those Democratic candidates, Williams later said he was a lifelong Republican. In 2009 he was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as accusing President Barack Obama of "following Marxist theory" and "wanting the country to fail". He gave Rush Limbaugh permission to use his recording of the song "Born Free" for the theme to the "Animal Rights Update" on Limbaugh's radio show — in which a portion of the song is then followed by gunfire — saying "Hey, it's fine with me. I love what you're doing with it." The record company later blocked Limbaugh's use of the recording.
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Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.”
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“The real grounds of difference upon important political questions no longer correspond with party lines.... Politics is no longer the topic of this country. Its important questions are settled... Great minds hereafter are to be employed on other matters.... Government no longer has its ancient importance.... The people’s progress, progress of every sort, no longer depends on government. But enough of politics. Henceforth I am out more than ever.”
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“The newspaper reader says: this party is destroying itself through such mistakes. My higher politics says: a party that makes such mistakes is finished—it has lost its instinctive sureness.”
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