It wasn't just JFK who was civil. So was Vice President Nixon. I was born in the sixties, and grew up in the golden era of Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan criticizing each other sharply, but "after six, we're friends". Reagan and Mondale laughing together, McCain and Obama standing together at the 9/11 Memorial in NY. I'm (for the last four years anyway) about as partisan a Democrat as you're going to find, but the civility which inspired me growing up came from both sides of the aisle.
