For those of you not aware, Robert F. Kennedy Jr is running for President. Now Robert F Kennedy (the original) was John F. Kennedy's younger brother and Attorney General. In fact their relationship is why now you can't appoint your immediate family to political positions as President. Another law and precedent Trump stomped on when appointing Ivanka and Jerod, but I digress.
Anyway, Robert F. Kennedy was handsome, part of the Kennedy family, against the Vietnam War, and a fighter for minorities in general and Black Americans in particular. He was astronomically popular, even for those who thought LBJ was a better candidate.
Robert F. Kennedy Junior, on the other hand, is a antivaxer who has blamed any number of ills of vaccines. Despite numerous studies, he still promotes the idea that childhood vaccines cause autism. He thinks that the Covid vaccine causes problems (he is rather unspecific in this). He doesn't believe the HIV causes AIDS*. He thinks transgenderism occurs because of a mineral in our water.* He doesn't think that transgender children should have access to medical treatment before 18 - I am okay with this. As long as this position does NOT mean that emotional and educational support for transgender kids is okay.
I think his views on Ukraine are SUPER wrong. He thinks Russia was okay attacking. He thinks the west stopped peace talks and that it could easily be resolved, although he cannot guess whether Ukriane would lose more territory or not.
In looking at his other positions, I think that Democrats tend of over emphasize his views on vaccines, Ukraine and LGBT in order to disregard him.
However I think so of his other positions are actually pretty good. Hi is very environmentally friendly, pro-gay rights (marriage, adoption, etc), and very much against the outsized budget of the military.
Anyway, my point in this post is the interesting, and hopefully non-predictive, coincidence of father and son political trajectories.
You see Robert F. Kennedy campaigned for the Democratic nomination against President Johnson (LBJ) in 1968. Kennedy stressed his bonafides in opposing LBJ's War in Vietnam. RFK won a number of primaries before being assassinated in California. LBJ was weakened and so his Vice President, Hubert Humphrey ran as the Democratic candidate as lost (badly) to Richard Nixon.
And here is where I see a parallel. RFK Jr is also running against a weakened President. Joe Biden's age is the cause for concern here - and maybe Ukrainian support by then. If RFK Jr weakens Biden enough, Biden might lose to Trump / DeSantis or he might force Biden out of the nomination, leaving us with a less popular nominee ((*cough* Harris *cough*)
* Some of these "positions" were posted in anti-RFKjr sites, I am looking for reference files.
uh-oh. A lot of Dems would like to see a younger candidate and might go for it - it will be interesting to see how he does in the debate and his poll numbers.
ReplyDeleteI think he is NOT his father's son in the area of personal ideology. I had hope for him back in the day when he was super focused on environmental issues. But his refusal to acknowledge science in regard to vaccines keeps me from believing he's a real threat. On the other hand, I think if Biden truly loved the American people, he wouldn't run.
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