I've written quite a bit about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his quixotic bid for president in 2024. He's not exactly thrown a wrench into the proceedings, but he's certainly rocked the boat a little bit, upsetting both sides of the aisle. Not only has the Biden administration denied him Secret Service protection on at least three separate occasions, the DNC has pushed to remove RFK Jr. from the ballot altogether. Perhaps it's because RFK Jr. can deliver a response to Biden's screeching, angry State of the Union address that gives voters something to vote for instead of voting against someone.
Aside from the attempts to remove RFK Jr. from the ballot (yay, defenders of democracy!) and deny him Secret Service protection (decency and norms are on the ballot, y'all), Biden has openly bragged about getting the Kennedy family endorsement.
Having the support of the Kennedy family in this election means the world to me.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 19, 2024
Together, we will defeat Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/4SjgVpD4uD
The entire narrative is that RFK Jr. is rejected by his own family, so we must vote Biden. Another way to look at it is the Democrats are afraid of what RFK Jr. would mean for their party -- an increasingly radicalized, Leftist collection of totalitarian-minded control freaks.
But RFK Jr. is also getting heat from Trump, calling a vote for him a 'wasted protest vote.'
Trump calls RFK Jr. a ‘Democrat plant,’ says voting for him is a ‘wasted protest vote’ https://t.co/nR9FPVuROu pic.twitter.com/iFDPe3jvxo
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) April 28, 2024
The Washington Times has more:
Former President Donald Trump accused Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of being a “Democrat plant” in a tirade against the independent presidential candidate.
Mr. Trump took to Truth Social on Friday to contend that Mr. Kennedy could play a spoiler if people vote for him.
“RFK Jr. is a Democrat ‘Plant,’ a Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the History of the United States, get Re-Elected,” Mr. Trump wrote.
RFK Jr. responded:
When frightened men take to social media they risk descending into vitriol, which makes them sound unhinged. President Trump's rant against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims that should best be resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate.…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 27, 2024
Will Trump debate him? I'm doubtful.
But they're all missing the bigger point, just like they missed the the point in the 2016 election.
RFK Jr. is a thing because the entrenched, two-party system has utterly failed the American people. Time and again.
There are so many examples that I could write a book, but here -- off the top of my head -- are just a few examples of how both Republicans and Democrats have left the American people behind:
- Unfettered illegal immigration
- 'Defund the police' and unchecked crime in blue cities
- BLM, Antifa and pro-Hamas riots in the streets and on college campuses
- The gutting of Title IX and the transgender agenda
- Funding for Ukraine
- Unchecked federal spending in omnibus bills
- People like Tom Cotton telling us to take matters into our own hands regarding protesters blocking roads
- Failure to repeal Obamacare
There really is little, if any, daylight between the two major parties at present. They are a uniparty, more interested in their power, their control, and rubbing elbows with one another than actually being public servants.
(One day, I'll write about what could be done to return Congress to a body of public servants, but today is not that day).
Going back to the 2016 election -- left and right were utterly lost as to why Trump became a thing.
I'll tell you why: at the time, it was clear Obama and the Democrat party held the American people in utter disdain. We were the cause of all the world's problems, inherent racists (even though we'd elected a black president), and selfish, greedy people who needed to be punished for 'global warming' and 'inequity' and all the other sins the Left decided we were guilty of.
But...so too did the Republican pundits -- Charlie Sykes and Bill Kristol come to mind here -- and career politicians like Mitt Romney and John McCain.
They all knew better than us bitter Bible-clinging, gun-wielding plebes. After giving us the failed, milquetoast McCain and Romney campaigns in 2008 and 2012, respectively, they were ready to tell us who to vote for in 2016. And they expected us to just nod and take it.
Elect Jeb! (please clap), or whatever Democrat-lite candidate who, they decided, was deserving of their turn.
Except we didn't.
And the more the media covered Trump -- quite literally giving him billions in free campaign airtime -- and the more the right-wing pundits cried and screamed 'NEVER TRUMP!', the more entrenched support for Trump became.
They all assumed, after the nominations were set, the election was Clinton's to walk away with. She did, too, which is why she never set foot in Wisconsin in 2016 and Wisconsin went to Trump for the first time since Reagan.
When Trump won, they were all mad. We were stupid, we couldn't be trusted with democracy, and they pushed for guys like Biden because they felt his administration would punish us for not obeying them. They, metaphorically, took their balls and went home. And -- for many of them -- Trump continues to live rent-free in their heads.
I won't lie -- I was never Trump in 2016; I voted for Cruz in the Wisconsin primary and Gary Johnson in the general. Trump won, and because I am an adult, said I would deal with it. I'd survived Obama's two terms, after all. Knowing how bad Biden would be (not to mention how clearly mentally unfit he was for office four years ago already), I voted for Trump in 2020.
I was not happy with Trump's COVID response, and it's a big reason a lot of people are drawn to Kennedy's message -- he opposed both the vaccine mandates and lockdowns, saying the latter 'wiped out' the middle class. It was an unforced error in an otherwise okay presidency. And since I can engage in introspection, I can look back and say that while remaining confident that my opposition to Trump in 2016 was the right choice, and my concerns about how he's conducting this campaign are legitimate.
And Trump has to own that. I don't think I'm alone in that assessment.
Trump also needs to learn discipline: to control his mouth, his temper, his ego. Focus on the issues -- hammer Biden on the things most concerning to Americans -- and try not to say outrageous things in interviews or on Truth Social. I may as well ask for the moon or a billion dollars to land in my lap, but a girl can dream.
He's the nominee, and if our choice is four more years of Biden or another four of Trump, I could at least afford gas and food under Trump.
As to the Democrats, well... *gestures broadly at everything.* Crime, inflation, transgender insanity, abortion, illegal immigration. Every major area of governance has been a massive failure under Biden. Immigration is damaging him in polls in 6 of 7 swing states. Their prosecutions of Trump smack of political motivation and -- I'm laying down the marker here -- if they jail Trump, whether for contempt of court or after a guilty verdict, he wins the election in a landslide.
And they keep doubling down on the insanity. When you question them you are a racist, a bigot, an extremists, a TERF. They know better than you, so shut up and sit down.
That doesn't go over well with voters, and yet they keep doing it.
Even CNN can't deny things are going off the rails for Biden:
New CNN national poll: Trump over Biden 49-43 in 2-way race, 42-33 in 5-way race. 55% say Trump's presidency was a success, while 44% say it was a failure. 61% say Biden's presidency has been a failure, 39% a success. https://t.co/Vr8mVZ1xEY pic.twitter.com/32R8aOXnrJ
— Byron York (@ByronYork) April 28, 2024
Those are just astonishingly bad numbers. And as we enter another summer that looks to be rife with riots, protests, and civil tension, those numbers can only get worse for Biden.
That being said, Trump does not have a lock on this election. To rest on his laurels now would be a terrible, terrible mistake.
Once one of the two parties regains its sanity, third party bids vanish and the sane party enjoys electoral benefits for the next few elections. Look at Ross Perot and his Reform Party. Once Gingrich introduced — and largely stuck to — the Contract With America, Republicans enjoyed their longest period of Congressional control since Reconstruction, and Perot was gone.
And while voters see the unrest under Democrat rule, and the issues with Trump's personality they're desperate for a modicum of normal. RFK Jr., despite some of his left-wing beliefs and his ultra liberal running mate -- offers voters that alternative this election cycle. For better or worse.
The question is: will the major parties take note and learn from it?
