Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the 2024 Presidential Election
America's Last Chance to Exercise Democracy in the Land of the Free?
Its been 55-years since RFK’s insurgent and momentarily successful campaign came to a sudden and horrific end within the kitchen pantry at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
US Senator from New York, Robert Kennedy had just won the critically important California primary. He had just defeated his chief opponent, US Senator Eugene McCarthy, the cerebral and soft-spoken Midwesterner from the state of Minnesota.
Without argument, US politics has not been the same since that terrible evening. In the aftermath of RFK’s assassination, Senator McCarthy virtually disappeared. The deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and RFK, within a span of two months, had devastated the courageous Minnesotan. As a US senator, as a significant voice within the anti-Vietnam War movement, McCarthy was a man of honor and integrity. After RFK’s death, he was done in 1968. Period.
In 1990, I had an opportunity to meet Eugene McCarthy at his office, located near Dupont Circle, in Washington, DC. He had the look of a war-weary man. Beaten down from the multiple and volatile political wars that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. During our session, at first, McCarthy appeared a bit distant, but was polite. He listened to my questions, and his level of energy began to rise.
However, when I brought up RFK, McCarthy became uncomfortable, serious and introspective. Though it had been twenty-two years since Kennedy’s stunning death, and twenty years since McCarthy’s own political downfall. He soon left the US Senate in 1970. Hubert Humphrey would take his seat. McCarthy never held political office again. And the Democratic Party had not invited McCarthy to any official party function in Washington since 1968.
Why?
In 1968, Eugene McCarthy had courageously taken on a sitting US president, Lyndon Baines Johnson. McCarthy had played a major role in forcing Johnson out of the Democratic primaries with his unexpected strength in New Hampshire and Wisconsin. McCarthy was hero of the moment. The leader of the anti-war movement. He had forced an extremely unpopular President Johnson to the sidelines.
However, McCarthy’s moment of glory, his political independence, was short-lived. He was quickly supplanted by another insurgent candidate, Bobby Kennedy. Kennedy’s entry into the race was viewed as complicated, controversial, and opportunistic on many levels. A significant part of the Democratic Party was outraged by RFK’s entry into the presidential race. McCarthy never forgave him. I felt this tension during my meeting with McCarthy. He took all the political risks and was quickly usurped by JFK’s little brother. I will not lie, I felt a great amount of empathy for this man.
But RFK’s entrance into the volatile presidential race was also seen as indisputably dangerous. Jackie Kennedy and Teddy Kennedy were dead set against his running. Teddy wanted Bobby to wait until 1972. Jackie said they would do to Bobby what they did to Jack. Other close friends and associates agreed. They were deeply concerned for his safety.
Unquestionably, RFK knew the risks. They were very real and irrefutable. In March 1968, RFK challenged the political gods of destiny. If he was afraid, he kept it to himself. A strong and sturdy RFK entry into the public arena. Yet, a disquiet loomed over his announcement. No one broached the subject during the interview that followed his announcement, but the sense of foreboding hung in the air throughout the event.
Hell, even former US vice-president, at this time, Richard Nixon, who was in Oregon campaigning for the GOP nomination, was shaken by RFK’s announcement. Nixon aide Patrick Buchanan remembered that Nixon sat and stared at the TV for a number of minutes after he turned it off. Then very solemnly stated that nothing good would come from RFK’s effort. Nixon knew that danger lurked in the shadows for RFK.
Millions of Americans, myself included, learned due to Oliver Stone’s powerful and electrifying movie, JFK, that Nixon had flown out of Love Field in Dallas just hours before the arrival of President Kennedy, and the First Lady Jackie Kennedy. Both of their fates were already in the saddle, and JFK’s rendezvous with a brutal death awaited him.
In March 1968, it had been less than five years since President Jack Kennedy’s death in Dallas at the hands of multiple shooters implementing an assassination stratagem by triangular crossfire within the small confines of Daley Plaza.
Within four months, after RFK’s entry into the presidential race, Jackie, Teddy, and Nixon were proven to be correct. Once again, the natural order of US politics was massacred.
In April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, and shortly afterwards was smothered to death at a local hospital. Two months later, RFK lay sprawled on a kitchen floor with blood dripping from his head wound.
These deaths, and so many others, left an indelible scar on the American body politic. They still do.
In May 2023, Robert Kennedy, Jr., a 69-year old environmentalist and health care activist and lawyer, the oldest of RFK’s children, announced his candidacy to be president. And, like his father in March 1968, RFK, Jr. is running against an increasingly unpopular incumbent president, Joe Biden.
Robert Kennedy’s campaign, though only a month old, polls show that he has already garnered 20% of potential Democratic voters. And, if Biden drops out, a real possibility, another poll indicates that already 44% of Democratic voters prefer RFK, Jr. as their 2024 Democratic nominee. Even many of RFK’s critics and skeptics (and there are many) are impressed with these early numbers.
RFK, Jr. has been barnstorming the nation. His crowds have been impressive. Fund raising has gone much better than expected. Former nine-term US congressman and Cleveland mayor, Dennis Kucinich, has agreed to be RFK’s campaign manager. RFK. Jr. has surrounded himself with first-rate people. As a consequence, his campaign has considerable energy and momentum.
Though, the Biden White House pretends that everything is fine. It is not.
RFK’s relentless appearances on a multitude of local and community based TV stations, being interviewed on an endless number of popular podcasts, and speaking about issues (local and national) on numerous radio programs, and, finally, speaking to receptive editorial boards of newspapers across America.
Collectively, these efforts are beginning to pay off. Big. The word is getting out.
The major networks have been ordered by their respective corporate owners that there is to be no interviews - in any capacity - with RFK, Jr.
This mandate is taken very seriously.
Fox television’s star personality Tucker Carlson learned this truth the hard way. He interviewed RFK, Jr. about a week or so ago, and was fired by Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch the next day. It was obvious to viewers that Carlson liked RFK and the interview went well.
Incidentally, a few days ago, Tucker gave his first live broadcast on Twitter and almost 88 million viewers tuned in. The media world was completely flummoxed. Since Tucker’s first brilliant Twitter foray, Fox is now suing him for breach of contract. In truth, Fox intends to keep him from speaking to his legion of fans. Though I am not a strong supporter of Tucker Carlson, I am the first to admit — 88 million viewers for your first Twitter broadcast is simply mind-blogging.
In June 2023, the thunderous echoes of the past are clearly resonating in the present.
Like his father, RFK, Jr. is directly challenging the Democratic Party’s hierarchy. Like his father, RFK, Jr. is challenging a sitting Democratic president. Like his father, RFK. Jr. is contending with a nation that is badly divided. Like his father, RFK. Jr. is publicly questioning the validity of an unpopular war.
Like his father, RFK. Jr. finds himself in the public arena - fraught with danger.
Point of fact, no political family in American history has ever experienced such death and tragedy.
Most Americans do not know, or they are unaware of this unnerving fact.
Within a span of four and half years (November 1963 to June 1968) JFK was shot dead in Dallas, RFK was shot dead in Los Angeles, and Teddy Kennedy (barely survived a plane crash just months after JFK’s death). Indiana US Senator Birch Bayh pulled Teddy from the burning wreckage. Teddy would have almost certainly died because he was virtually immobile due to breaking his back during the crash. The pilot and Teddy’s top legislative aide were killed in the crash.
No other American political family has experienced such darkness. And, there has never been a book published about this very, very strange and violent history.
RFK, Jr. is much more than a traditional candidate. Post-WWII US political history tugs on his jacket every time he speaks. The Kennedy name still possesses some magic and resonates in American politics.
Yet, like his father, in May 2023, RFK, Jr., did not have the full backing of the Kennedy clan when he announced his candidacy for president.
A number of reasons were provided. But one specific reason was not stated.
There is an unspoken fear. History has not been kind to the Kennedys.
Just like his father in March 1968; RFK. Jr., in May 2023, has entered the political arena.
Once again, America’s fate is in the saddle, and mankind rides into the future without fear or favor.