One of the clichés of modern U.S. politics—and a relatively accurate one—is that Democrats, no matter their views, stick together, while Republicans go their separate ways.
This accounts, in great part, for the Democrats’ ability to ignore escalating violence in our streets, the deadly fentanyl epidemic due to open borders, obey all scientifically absurd diktats around COVID-19, buy into “antiracist” propaganda absolutely contradicting Martin Luther King Jr., and of course, hold their noses and vote for the most dubious, intellectually challenged candidates.
Modern Democrats have had the mainstream media in adamant support of this groupthink. In fact, that has been key, creating what has been called mass formation psychosis among the rank-and-file, some of whom are supposedly educated and, you would think, have discernment. It’s almost as if they will swallow anything or anybody with a D in front of it.
It wasn’t always that way. I’m old enough to recall a contentious Democratic Party when I was part of it. But that was in the previous century.
Enter Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the remembrance of things past.
We don’t know whether he will run yet, but if you want to see Democratic Party elites and their media allies’ heads explode, an RFK Jr. candidacy is it.
Imagine him on the debate stage with President Joe Biden.
That would be the son of Robert F. Kennedy, nephew of President John F. Kennedy, and the author of the brilliant and authoritative “The Real Anthony Fauci,” versus someone who plagiarized in law school and who presided over useless lockdowns and masks and even now—despite mountains of discrediting evidence from scientists and doctors—won’t let Novak Djokovic into the country to play in a tennis tournament without being vaccinated.
Of course, the media will instantly pounce on RFK Jr. for being an anti-vaxxer—in fact, Wikipedia already has—but as Jeffrey Tucker pointed out, this will wane quickly, since Kennedy understands the science better than almost all the media and certainly miles better than Biden.
He will try, but without ritual Trump Derangement Syndrome to rely on, it will be hard for the current president to hide in his basement, as he did during his previous campaign, against a Kennedy candidacy, because he would be ducking a fellow Democrat.
Can you imagine what it would be like if RFK Jr. brought up the Hunter Biden laptop and its alleged (I’ll be polite and still use that word) evidence of his father’s involvement?
I am obviously not privy to the private conversations of the real powers behind the throne (Barack Obama, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett, and so forth) but they can’t be happy with this eventuality. They know that with a Kennedy, they are dealing with considerable political magic. They also must realize he could do serious damage to their candidate in the primaries and consequently wound him for the general election. Likely, and for equally obvious reasons, they will bring up the execrable Uncle Teddy and Chappaquiddick, even though he backed the socialized medicine that they loved.
They also—having to deal with the scion of a family for whom the term “vigah” was coined—are likely to be thinking more than ever of a way to push the aging Biden out. But for whom? Kamala Harris? Pete Buttigieg? The paucity of their bench puts them in a catch-22. Where to go?
And speaking of political magic, you might accuse me of pretentiousness for referencing Marcel Proust’s “The Remembrance of Things Past” above (no, I never got through it), but I did have a reason.
That phrase was Scott Moncrieff’s English version of the original French “À la recherche du temps perdu” and was taken from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30: “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought/I summon up remembrance of things past ...”
It’s one of the more evocative poems in all literature and continues: “I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought/And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste.”
Dear time’s waste? Of course, the context is wildly different, but who knew the greatest of English-language writers would be describing the Democratic Party in our day?
President Ronald Reagan was nowhere near as eloquent, but rather more succinct when he said: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.”
I, and I assume many others, have felt the same way. If you believe in the two-party system, and I do, then you would like there to be two healthy parties stimulating each other with constructive ideas. That doesn’t exist in the United States these days. While the Republican Party chases its own tail, the Democratic Party has turned into a monolithic voter-grabbing machine with no real thought or discussion of its by now used-up ideas, unless you count “woke,” which is no more than a victimhood competition for the gullible.
RFK Jr. in the race could well change things, and I encourage his candidacy heartily, even though I don’t agree with all his opinions—notably on the environment—but at least they seem to be his. He has actually thought about them.
His candidacy would elevate the discussion, which barely exists on the Democratic side and still could use focus on the Republican side.
Kennedy, with his thorough criticism of the way COVID-19 has been handled, could even cross parties and force Trump to clarify his position. Operation Warp Speed may not have been 45’s finest hour. It’s understandable how it happened, but nonetheless worthy of explanation, even a bit of mea culpa.
And one last thing about the Kennedy magic. I saw and felt it personally because I attended a Bobby Kennedy rally in East Los Angeles on June 3, 1968. I know the precise date because it was two days before his assassination by Sirhan Sirhan at LA’s Ambassador Hotel.
That rally was at once a thrilling and unnerving experience. I was an RFK supporter at the time and happy with his overwhelmingly positive response from the largely Mexican American audience. Bobby had formidable charisma. Other than Trump, I have never seen a politician with that ability hold a crowd in the palm of his hand. But the constant shouts of “Viva! Viva!” began to disturb me. I didn’t want Bobby Kennedy as a dictator or “caudillo.” I wanted him as president.
This isn’t to say that RFK Jr. is likely to become a dictator, not in the slightest—nor that he even faintly wants to. It’s just as a reminder of the power of that family’s charisma at its height. If Kennedy can channel even some of that, Biden & Co. had better beware.
