Junior

THE PAST

Robert F. Kennedy, was the brother and close confidante of President John F. Kennedy, Attorney-General of the United States, assassinated while running for President against Lyndon B. Johnson and the Father of eleven children with wife, Ethel.

Some of those eleven became public figures in their own right: Joseph, Jr. went into the oil business and represented Venezuelan oil producers; Kerry, became the wife of New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo, divorced him and became chair of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation; Kathleen Kennedy Townsend became a successful Hollywood movie producer and then went into politics in Maryland, became the Lt. Governor and lost a bid to become Governor; the eldest of the eleven, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. became a noted environmental lawyer, in the 1980s focused on clean water and was responsible for cleaning up millions of miles of polluted rivers across the country including work on the Hudson River in New York and polluted water in the industrial area of Brooklyn.

He then won accolades and recognition for his talent and liberal focus on a whole range of environmental matters, including deep involvement with labor and working minorities across the country…he was a pallbearer at the funeral of Cesar Chavez after going on a hunger strike with the United Farm Workers to help them gain recognition in that industry. Most of this undoubtedly vigorous effort took place in the 1980’s and 90’s and into the new century.

And then, Kennedy turned to take on the all-powerful pharmaceutical industry.

His efforts against them settled on the development of childhood vaccines and he was responsible for getting them to remove Mercury from many of the vaccines developed to stop childhood diseases and to prevent them from being spread in America’s elementary schools.

And then became something else…a denier of the value of vaccines, claiming they caused diseases like autism. His solid reputation, his name and his dedication to this cause led many American parents to take his claims at face value and there was an effort to ignore vaccines which had become mandatory for school entry.

Dozens of studies followed these actions. Not a single study indicated that there was any truth to Kennedy’s claims and yet he persisted without any proof whatsoever that his claims were true.

Mr. Kennedy has a history of alcohol and other substance abuse. It sadly is part of the Kennedy history.

He developed spasmodic dysphonia in his 40’s and his hoarse, raspy voice has worsened over the years. It is sometimes difficult to understand him when he speaks at meetings and in interviews. He is now 70 years old.

A loyal and involved member of the Democratic Party for most of his life, he stepped away from the party some 15 years ago as he thought it had lost its focus and so its value as the party of the working and middle class for whom he had been working for 40 years.

He first challenged President Joe Biden in an effort to win an eventual primary to become the Democratic nominee against Donald J. Trump.

When the Democratic Party indicated they wanted no part of him and when not one member of the huge Kennedy family endorsed his effort, Kennedy became an independent candidate and pledged to run against the Democratic and Republican candidates.

Never in American history has an independent candidate for President won a Presidential election. Not even such well known and well- funded candidates as Ross Perot and Ralph Nader.

TODAY

Why would anyone care about electing Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. President of the United States?

The answer calls into question who those voting for him will be and what those misguided votes will do to the upcoming Presidential election.

John F. Kennedy was President in the 1960’s. His brother, Robert F. Kennedy was his Attorney General. Those were difficult years on the international front. America was at the height of its Cold War with Russia and the World’s communists.

The Cuban missile crisis and the edging towards an involvement in the Vietnam War were paramount problems. Little of this became part of America’s public school curriculum and so today’s over 30 year old’s know little about those few Kennedy years that preceded his assassination. They know the Kennedy name only because of the circumstances of his death.

So when they see the Kennedy name they believe it is worth their vote because they can’t abide Trump and think Biden is just an old man and they don’t want an old man in the White House. If this all seems simplistic, it sadly is.

The simple perspective of President Biden’s look and movement was dramatically heightened into a form of reality after the recent Biden-Trump debate where the President literally made every negative thought about his mental and physical state become visibly true with a performance that caused supporters to be frightened and drove the New York Times to immediately call for him to step away from his attempt to gain a second term. Every single columnist on the paper has supported the Editorial Board’s request. Every day since.

And all kinds of media have kept this very critical reality in public view every day.

The agonizing truth is that neither national political party has a true representative for the job other than Biden and Trump, but no media voice has risen to challenge that truth or even mention it.

The Times has struggled to propose two women – one of them black – and two men who are Jewish. In fact, the black women– Kamala Harris–is married to a Jewish man.

Is this an America ready and able now to vote for a woman or a Jew?

In the meantime, Kennedy has chosen Nicole Shanahan, a very wealthy California lawyer, as his Vice Presidential candidate.

Ms. Shanahan arrived at her grand fiscal state by way of two unsuccessful marriages and two very successful divorces. How all of that happened can be found on Google and it sounds like it would make a great Netflix movie.

Ms. Shanahan’s ten million dollar gift to the campaign has earned her the chance to be Vice President of the United States. We doubt that she is holding her breath.

So then why vote for Mr. Kennedy? His very expensive route to get on the ballot of the seven battleground states has only produced Michigan. He knows that every vote for him takes a vote away from Biden and gives Trump one more vote to another inauguration.

Is Kennedy so convinced that the Democratic Party is lost that he won’t mind MAGA, the new Republican Party, and its plan to get rid of the FBI as an investigative body, get rid of the Federal Reserve as the controller of America’s money and get rid of 660,000 civil service jobs and turn them into political appointments?

Or is it simply some need for a level of recognition that he thinks he deserves for being a Kennedy who has done some genuine good…even if it took place in his youth?

Kerry, the sister closest to him, has begun to speak out against his candidacy. Hopefully, the Biden campaign will be smart enough to fund and support her efforts on a continuing basis so that she is where he is, countering everything he says with the appropriate warnings that he cannot and will not win…nor should he.

And as Mr. Biden struggles with his image and future as elements of the media and Democratic Party politicians try to push him out of the way, will his close confederates be smart enough to help him handle the pressures? He certainly has not had the advice to date, continuing to use endless words to push off the new pressures instead of the simple words of what another Trump Presidency will bring.

There is no question in the liberal mind of what MAGA has done to the Republican Party and what harm it will do to the America we wish to see.