Vote Empathy, Not Conspiracy

 Vote for Empathy, Not Conspiracy

I became a sentient political being when John F. Kennedy was President, and his brother Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy was his attorney general. Together these Kennedys brought empathy to governance. JFK started the Peace Corps, RFK led the way for the government to restore the unfettered right of Black folks to vote and championed other civil rights initiatives. Bobby convinced his brother to take on these challenges as well. I remember well when both were assassinated.

Fast forward to the present and we find Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Bobby’s son, claiming the Kennedy mantle and running for President, first as a Democrat and, after that imploded, as an Independent. Aside from RFK, Jr’s commendable work as an environmental lawyer, he is the anthesis of all that his Kennedy predecessors stood for. They would have been appalled at what RFK, Jr. has embraced and how he has become a pawn for the MAGA crowd’s pursuit of power.

Former President Trump first saw RFK, Jr’s potential as a foil to President Biden’s re-election bid when Junior embraced some of the same anti-vaccination conspiracy theories Trump did.  RFK, Jr. started making unsupported claims that vaccines cause autism and that Covid was cooked up by the Chinese to target Blacks and Caucasians. He went further claiming that the Covid vaccines killed more people that they saved.

RFK, Jr’s 2021 book, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” accused Dr.  Fauci of all manner of abuses with respect to the Covid pandemic and the vaccines developed to combat it, echoing claims by the former president.

Some in the MAGA conspiracy have rallied to RFK, Jr’s flag and pumped large sums into his SuperPac in hopes that the Kennedy name will draw votes away from President Biden come November.

Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon Bank family fortune and a top Trump donor, donated $20 million to RFK, Jr’s PAC. The same PAC that supports MAGA sycophant Marjorie Taylor Green is supporting RFK, Jr’s campaign.

If one needs further proof that the MAGA crowd is in bed with RFK,Jr., look at the recent speech by his self-proclaimed New York campaign director, Rita Palmer, to local Republicans. She told them that Kennedy needed to get on the ballot in New York to take votes from Biden so Trump could win the historically Democratic state. She stated her number one priority was to get rid of Biden. She urged the GOP to help get signatures to get Kennedy on the ballot there and in Pennsylvania.

If this unholy alliance does not convince you to stay away from RFK, Jr’s campaign, consider that most of the current Kennedy clan supports President Biden’s re-election and they have specifically and forcefully condemned RFK, Jr’s candidacy. 50 Kennedys took part in a White House photo on St. Patrick’s Day showing their support for Biden.

There is more to RFK, Jr’s unhinged world. He issued statements claiming that those who participated in the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol were merely “activists” who had been “stripped of their constitutional liberties” and their prosecutions may have been “politically motivated.” He questioned the clear evidence that Sirhan Sirhan killed his father and claimed that the CIA was involved in the JFK assassination. Without offering significant support, RFK, Jr.  has opined that environmental chemicals are responsible for gender dysphoria leading to transgender people.

Even if you are disaffected by President Biden, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has no place in American political life given his conspiracy theory driven positions and his delusional beliefs. Trading on his famous family name should not convince voters to cast ballots for him and take votes away from President Biden. Those of us who lived with his famous father and brother in public life know RFK, Jr.  is no true Kennedy.