The Daily today (podcast here) had an absolutely fascinating show today on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It was unique and ended up being pretty fair / honest about RFK. What I found really interesting is the conversion of him and the reasoning. It is even more surprising that this was a thoughtful piece, considering that the NY Times is very anti-RFKjr.
a) (I added it later) He thinks the Democratic Party as a governing party has abandoned "Democratic" positions like being anti-war, being pro-worker, and international non-interference as much as possible.
1. He started as an environmental lawyer, implementing and then fighting for the EPA (the Environmental Protection Agency.) It built up a lot of goodwill from his family and others. It also built up a distrust of large corporations and their lobbyists.
2. Building on the antipathy of the truthfulness of corporations, he backed the anti-vaccine group that believed (and still believe) that vaccines cause autism. His advocacy there led him into a bit of a conspiracy hole.
3. Listening to him, and understanding his distrust and hatred of pharma, makes it understandable that he freaked out over the Covid vaccine. He thought it wasn't proven and might be dangerous. This "might be" solidified under the pressure from government sources to change his mind and censor his views on social media. He had 2 points here; both make twisted sense, albeit I totally disagreed.
He said first, an unproven vaccine that is given nationally and worldwide to a disease that only kills 1 in 22,000 people is dangerous. Now the number of Americans is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than 1 in 22,000, more like 1 in 300, but I don't know when he made his decision.
Second, the idea that the government would put you on a 2 week lockdown that ended up being 20 months long shows how the government has way too much power. I believe it saved lives. He believes that it just proved governmental power.
4. He thinks our government, Democratic and Republican, is driven by corporate interests, not the interests of the people. Well that is definitely true. He calls out Lockheed Martin and Boeing driving the Defense Department in order to sell more weapons (I agree, actually). He calls out pharam (like Johnson & Johnson) for killing national health care, charging an exorbitant price for drugs, and not fighting for stricter food standards like Europe has.
5. He sees no real difference in the two parties. Both have caved to corporate interests.
6. He thinks the Democrats have restacked the primaries to benefit Biden. (True, but if just for Biden is unknown). He also thinks the DNC is stacking the deck by not allowing him to debate Biden, even though he has 20% backing of Dems.
In many of these things, I do not think he is wrong. In some things, I think he is VERY WRONG. But I also think some of Biden's actions are very wrong. And don't even get me started on Trump and MAGA. adn therefore, like I said, interesting.
And no, I will not vote for him. I believe a vote for RFK Jr as an independent is a vote for Trump.
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