On Tuesday, March 26th Robert Kennedy Jr. formally torpedoed his own presidential run with the announcement of his running mate: an elite Leftist named Nicole Shanahan.
RFK Jr. was clearly making a statement with this pick. Something like: “I am a Democrat, not a Republican or Libertarian. I am Liberal, not Conservative or Moderate. I am on the Left, not the Right or Middle.”
He was reclaiming his roots, which seemed to have drifted, shifted and replanted into a place that he was not comfortable. He had found himself rubbing shoulders with the “disaffected middle,” made up of former Occupy Wall Street Bernie Progressives, Never Trump MAGA OGs, “science-deniers,” “anti-vaxxers,” Bitcoiners, Swamp Drainers, Spook Haters, Anti-Lockdowners, Christian Nationalists, Irreversible Damage concerners, Joe Rogan Podcasters, Substackers, Climate Deniers, National Debtors and Globalist-haters.
Kennedy is a Democrat. And I am here to say that this is a good thing. And he is still going to play an important role beyond the 2024 election.
2024 Is Only The Beginning
Kennedy has likely handed the presidency to Trump. Independent voters who lean Libertarian and/or Populist have nowhere else to go. Most see Trump as the lesser of two evils. Biden is simply not an option.
Kennedy was a cute play thing for many of us to entertain. We put up with his “classical liberalism” and ate up his laser focus on ending captured agencies and public-private partnerships.
There was a lot like. And a lot to dislike. But his 10 minute speech in front of one of those lame, witch-hunt congressional hearings was incredible. When was the last time we had a presidential candidate speak with such sincerity, such wisdom, such empathy and dignity?
But the 2024 presidential election is not what matters. What matters is the policy priorities of the parties.
The Shift
Over my lifetime I have seen almost a total and complete shift of what each party stands for. When I was a kid, farmers and union members voted exclusively Democrat. “The Rich” were the Republicans. No Democrat would EVER stand up for a big corporation like Pfizer. No Republican would ever want to see restrictions on Public-Private partnerships. No Democrat would ever promote censorship and sell out the 1st Amendment. No Republican would ever demand that we stop fighting wars and “spreading democracy.”
The only two things that seems to be the same are the Democrats want BIGGER government and limitless abortions (although there was a time when even THAT was different) while the Republican (claim to) want the opposite.
But at the end of the day there is the platform and there is the behavior. And the behavior of both the Democrat and Republican parties is very much aligned against the will of the voters.
UniParty Versus The Voters
Both the Democrats and Republicans have ballooned government and government spending over the last 30 years.
Both want endless wars to launder money to the Military Industrial Complex.
Both wanted lockdowns and both deferred to ridiculous public health “experts” at a time when brave leadership was in short supply.
Both have pushed for public-private partnerships while deferring to, and funding, globalist “authorities.”
Both kept JFK’s files secret and haven’t pardoned Assange or Snowden.
The list goes on. The UniParty seems hell bent on protecting the power of the UniParty, no matter what the price is.
Trump’s Role
What I think the Never Trumpers and the Democrats fail to understand about Trump is that the IDEA of Trump is better than the person of Trump. MAGA is a movement that Trump did not start; he simply took the leadership role. MAGA doesn’t need Trump in the same way that the French Revolution didn’t NEED Napoleon.
And if Trump wasn’t such an idiot, he could have capitalized on that during his first presidency and beyond.
Back To RFK
But while a post-presidency Trump was replaying his same talking points from 2016, RFK was speaking to crowds around the world about the harms of public-private partnerships and corporate capture of regulatory agencies.
He wasn’t alone, Vivek and Tulsi were also ringing bells along with Bukele, Bolsonaro, Milei and Orbán. Not to mention countless non-politicians like Rogan, Naomi Wolf, Jordan Peterson, Elon Musk, etc.
RFK was exposing Fauci while Trump was bragging about the “miracles” he masterminded via Operation Warp Speed.
RFK was connecting to the PEOPLE in a way that only the IDEA of Trump could ever do.
RFK’s Role Going Forward
I agree with Malone that RFK is playing for 2028. He knows he can’t win in 2024, so he named a Silicon Valley Elitist as his running mate to lock down his base—his Democrat party base. In that move he just made a LOT of diehard Democrats REALLY happy.
RFK surely sees that the future of the Democrat party is not the Trans-For-Palestine voting bloc. He knows that the Progressives are going to implode. Heck, the original anti-vax crowd were hippie liberals.
So he is making his move.
He is going to take back the Democrat party.
And, really, who is his competition?
An Improved Democrat Party
When RFK takes over the Democrat Party he changes the narrative of BOTH parties. Remember when Democrats and Republicans used to fight over balancing the budget, capital punishment and the arms race?
Well, those times are ahead if RFK can shift the talking points of the Democrat party. Gone are open borders, runaway military spending, and captured regulatory agencies. Back are Three-Letter-Agency accountability, classic environmentalism and free speech.
A Democrat party headed by RFK will still talk “Climate Change” but will neuter itself by killing the Green money laundering that is enriching countless Green Energy companies.
Kennedy is oddly opposed to nuclear energy. Why? Because he doesn’t like that it needs to be subsidized by the government to make a profit. Not bad, eh?
Sure Kennedy is terrible on the stranglehold that the teachers unions have on public education. And he has been oddly silent on the gender mutilation pandemic. But on the first, what would you expect out of a Democrat? And on the second, I am confident he will come around.
But who cares. If our primary battle lines between Democrats and Republicans were Teachers Unions, Trans Rights and Green Energy, we would be in a WAY healthier place in this country.
The American PEOPLE are opposed to Globalism, Corporatism, Lockdowns, Censorship, Open Borders, Regulatory Capture, Runaway Spending, Endless Wars, and a “public health” complex that has had a terrible record on, well, the health of the public.
RFK, MAGA, and the “disaffected middle” largely agree on that list. So with RFK in charge of the Democrat party, America can get back to being a serious country again.
Great work! Agree with your analysis.