RFK Jr.'s Campaign Suspension Speech a Patriotic Home Run
While suspending his campaign and throwing his support in swing states to Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered one of the more important, and information packed, political speeches in recent years.
He had much to say from personal experience of the reactionary (what better word, really) behavior of the mainstream media that conspired virtually overtly with the post-Obama Democrat Party to keep him off the ballot.
The huge and growing threat to free speech, the sine qua non of our society, was discussed, as was the self-destructive futility of the Ukraine war, the extent to which we prodded Russia into it through NATO encirclement.
He also disclosed how his relationship evolved with Donald Trump and how Kamala Harris would not even take his call.
But the most interesting part of the speech, about which he is highly knowledgeable, was the frightening condition of public health in our country. We spend more on our care than any other nation and barely get third world results, arguably less. We are a country of overweight diabetics and pre-diabetics with rates of diseases from cancer to autism spectrum disorder (a staggering 1 in 36 of our children) skyrocketing, all as profits to Big Pharma have gone through the roof via the questionable COVID vaccines and virtually everything else you can think of (or is advertised on television).
This is a national catastrophe with horrifying implications for our children and our country going forward that no one, other than Mr. Kennedy, has been talking about to any extent in the presidential campaign.
Mr. Kennedy said pretty much the same at a Donald Trump rally in Glendale AZ only a few hours later.
It was a stirring event, to be sure, fascinating to watch as Kennedy, awkward at first to be in alien territory, appeared to be overwhelmed in a positive way by the hugely welcoming response of his MAGA audience.
It was as if the lost Democratic Party of his father and uncle were visiting us from the past and the crowd loved it.
So did Donald Trump. There is little doubt this alliance will be of immense benefit to him going forward.
Hats off to RFK Jr. for putting country first!
(As Michael Shellenberger notes , Kennedy’s endorsement could make the election actually about issues. Imagine that.)
To be honest, however, I wasn’t always such an RFK Jr. fan. I went in and out, but I liked him at the beginning and even more as we approach the end—or the end of the beginning, as he may end up serving in a Trump administration. It certainly seems that way.
I first met RFK Jr. what seems like eons ago (July 2023)—this campaign has gone on forever—when I interviewed him in Memphis for the defunct Epoch Times Roller Coaster series He gave us three generous hours at the time and I thought he was an interesting guy, better informed and more articulate, despite his speaking impediment, than most (actually almost all) politicians.
We talked in both his hotel suite and in a nearby park, all the time watched by his security people who were nice, friendly guys, but I wondered at the time why he didn’t have secret service protection, given the well known history of his family.
It evolved that he had been denied such protection by the Biden administration, a harbinger of what was to come not only with him but with Donald Trump. It’s little wonder RFK Jr. wants little to do with today’s Democrat Party that is about as far from the party of his uncle and his father as we are from Alpha Centauri.
This was not the first time I had heard the man speak. I dropped down from covering Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign in New Hampshire to attend his original announcement at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, April 19, 2023. It was what one would call a “buzzy” event that seemed like a long shot, but who knew? (I didn’t realize then how lethal and anti-democratic the MSM—Obama/Biden combo would be.)
I met him again—this time briefly— at one of a series of birthday parties he gave to drum up support, this one at a Georgetown home where JFK allegedly met Jaqueline Bouvier in the kitchen. I will leave the rest to Page Six.
And then in the midst of all this was his (probably jealous) family screeching at him and the bear cub scandal (ho-hum) and a video with Roseanne Barr that I liked a lot as I consider Roseanne a hero.
But in all I have tremendous sympathy for RFK Jr. He is doing the right thing now at the right time. I guess we should call him a patriot.
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I am not sure how voters who were very committed to RFK will react. Same for traditionally Republican voters who were in the "anybody but Trump" camp---both minorities to be clear but we are talking about a national election being decided by less than 100,000 votes.
Here is what I think about RFK Jr. I disagree with him on some of his thoughts, opinions and the policies to get there. However, I think if he and I sat down we could have a very rational objective discussion and come away both liking and respecting each other and at the same time finding a different solution than he started with.
I also very much appreciate his humanity, and that he seemingly brought his real person, his real self, into his campaign. He wasn't a staged puppet like the current Democratic ticket.
I cannot imagine how hard it was for him personally to buck the peer pressure of his family given their political and ancestral history. That tells me a lot about his confidence in himself, and the comfort he has with himself in his own skin.
In the early 1990s, Republicans moved very far to the right on many issues. They were nanny state like and as a Republican, it was very uncomfortable. Using government the way many of them planned to use it partially paved the way for Bill Clinton. Since 1996, Republicans have held the White House 12 years. Democrats 20. Republicans have woken up, realize government isn't the solution. andThe Democrats have moved very very far to the left now and as Roger wrote, seemingly resemble the Communist Party. Will RFK wake up the Democrats? Or is it too late?
I listened to the Kennedy speech in the middle of a pasture looking south to the Mexican border. Those of us living on this edge know full well the implications of an open border that will potentially transform our American security forever. Our dilemma will now be your dilemma. It is that fact that I sat immersed in Kennedy’s words. It has been too long since inspiration and hope tickled the back of my neck, but it happened yesterday. He emerges as the son of American ideals that his predecessors often missed with the views from the American frontier. Good for you, Mr. Kennedy. You have struck a chord of immensity.