Sunday, April 23, 2023

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for President

Otto von Bismarck is credited with observing that, “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best.” Given the state of the world today, the strongest possible choice to be the next President of the United States is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The candidacy of RFK, Jr. is just that: strong and possible. This endorsement is offered out of sincere pragmatism, with scant romanticism involved.

Nevertheless, like a Protestant wedding night, let us dispense with the romance right away.

There is a theory that America is eager to heal the psychic wounds caused by the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. Since RFK, Jr.’s announcement for president, this notion has been advanced by estimable writers.

After due consideration, we must reject this idea. While Americans of a certain vintage may wax lyrical about Camelot and the electric, too-short campaign of 1968, their numbers vanish by the day, and are already outmatched by the political machine that would deny RFK, Jr. the Democratic nomination.

As another Fitzgerald averred, we are “borne back ceaselessly into the past.” To this, L.P. Hartley might add, “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” America today lacks the cultural memory to recognize and grieve the deaths of JFK and RFK as we ought. Too few understand that on November 22, 1963, the United States was sent on the most tragic detour since a chauffer took a wrong turn in Sarajevo in 1914. On June 6, 1968, our chance to right that course was foreclosed.

Nostalgia is vapor. In the real world, we must do the best we can with what we have. We cannot summon Ronald Reagan to negotiate with Russia, or Abraham Lincoln to heal our national rift, or James K. Polk to fix the southern border.

Our obligation is to take stock of the challenges we face, then cast about for the most practical solution. Two such towering challenges are the threats to personal sovereignty, and America’s threat to the sovereignty of the other nations of the world.

On each of these, RFK, Jr. has risen as the people’s champion.

We are just now emerging from three years of siege. The conflict of which it was part is not new, and did not begin with an illness. From mankind’s earliest memory, we have fought against the will to dominate others. This urge for control is the very stuff of hell itself and, with bittersweet thanks to our global ordeal, those who wish to look can see it plain as day.

RFK, Jr. is the only major candidate, from either party, who understood this threat from the beginning and has consistently stood in opposition thereto. That is almost enough for me to set down my crayon and conclude this endorsement right here. But wait, there’s more.

For many modern liberals, the only F-word they abjure is Freedom. The very notion is sneered at, derided as a stand-in for any manner of istophobic wrongthink. This column has never before endorsed a Democrat for any office, in part due to their tendency toward collectivism and disdain for individual liberty. On only one topic are they unbendingly “pro-choice.” On all others, from your child’s education to what medication you must receive, the choice is always theirs.

RFK, Jr.’s pronouncements and prose are saturated with Freedom. To a civilian wishing for an honest marketplace of ideas, and a legitimate choice between parties, it is hard to overstate how refreshing this is. Moreover, he understands the Byzantine mechanism by which modern man is distanced from his liberty.

In no small thanks to RFK, Jr., we have temporarily eluded the medical and digital prison proposed in just-so tones by globalist busybodies (he literally wrote the book on Anthony Fauci); but they’ll be back. They have made no secret that their next gambit will be advanced for the good of the planet.

Here again, RFK, Jr. is thoroughly versed. For decades, the environment has been one of his defining issues. But a distinction must be made. Like you, gentle reader, and all decent people, he is concerned about pollution and the preservation of life. This is separate from the cricket-chomping Church of Climate that would see you confined to within 15 minutes of your home, digitally monitored.

Unlike many environmentalists, RFK, Jr. does not hate humanity, and he understands we have as much right to be here as the speckled poison arrow frog, or what-have-you. He is therefore able to address the issue in a responsible way, while defanging its tyranny.

Speaking of tyranny, RFK, Jr. has pledged to put an end to America’s deathly swaggering about the globe. As every civics student knows, only Congress has the power to declare war; yet as everyone with eyes can see, America is always bombing someone. By some estimates, America has been at peace for only 15 years in its quarter-millennium of existence.

This has to stop. Simple humanity decrees that America has no God-given right to kill for its supposed values. Further, as a matter of national, and perhaps global survival, America’s blood-drenched, rules-based order must cease to be. I write this as a former These-Colors-Don’t-Run jingoist of the highest order. Scales have fallen from my eyes, as perhaps from yours as well.

The most recent theatre of America’s War on Everyone has brought us closer to nuclear annihilation than at any time since 1962. Assuming this is averted (and if not, thanks for reading), it has accelerated the collapse of the US Dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Consequently, the lifestyle to which Americans have become accustomed is imminently at an end.

A fiat currency backed by nothing but other people’s oil through the petrodollar system was always unsustainable but, thanks to interventionist meddling and confiscation of foreign property, collapse is upon us. Once again, RFK, Jr. has been specific and compelling in his condemnation of American foreign policy, and clear-eyed as to the need for change.

Now let us deal, as we must, with the orange elephant in the room. It says here that neither Donald Trump, nor any other Republican nominee, will be permitted to win the presidency in 2024.

We need not make a big, hairy deal of this, since it is a contentious matter, shrouded in twilight. But we have seen it enough over the past few years, in both national and state races, and in elections around the world, to recite the playbook. In brief: Turnout is beyond robust in favored areas, while less enlightened regions contend with various challenges (not enough ballots, fritzy machines, broken pipes, etc.). Confusion reigns, papers fly, fluster is all about. When the lights come back up, we are solemnly told how close, how excruciatingly close, the election was but, mirabile dictu, the Approved Candidate has won!

(This column eschews hyperlinks, inasmuch as we don’t want people clicking away until we have finished making whatever point it was we had; nevertheless, viz. this forensic analysis of the 2020 election.)

If none of that tastes right going down, one wagers that no one you know or respect would contemplate voting for Trump, or his keychain version in Ron DeSantis, so perhaps look at it that way.

In any case, the Democratic nomination contest becomes the de facto race for the White House. This is RFK, Jr.’s principal challenge. It is a chuckling irony that, in a land replete with roads and buildings named for his dad and uncle, RFK, Jr. is the enemy of the Established Order. But be assured, dear reader, he is.

The Democratic National Committee is demonstrably good at engineering who will, or will not, appear on their national ticket (for more, consult President Sanders). Will they reanimate the incumbent for a sequel to Weekend at Biden’s? Kamala-mania seems a bridge too far, even for them. Or perhaps they intend to anoint Gavin Newsom, Grand Duke of the French Laundry, whose hunger to dominate your person and property have been laid bare during his governorship of California.

All RFK, Jr. needs is a transparent process and a fair hearing. He is just an animal in debate and a surgeon with argumentation. For example, perhaps have a look at his dismantling of Alan Dershowitz – assuming you have the time and a cigarette for afterwards. Most important, his words have the benefit of being true.

Many Americans have been reduced to measured expectations. We seek a president who will not medicate us by force, restrict our movement, and who will cease to make war upon the world. If he can also remind us what it feels like to have hope, that would be even better.

Fortunately, such a president is on offer, and he is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Theo Caldwell just wanted to be left alone. Contact him at theo@theocaldwell.com