Wayne D. Holt
Before the “two Americas” of political ideals sink into yet more rage and mutual distrust, may we at least consider the possibility there is someone with the will, and the character, to approach our national malaise in a fundamentally different way?
Are we doomed to ride this pale horse all the way down a course of enmity and destruction, or is it possible that the right person, in the right place, at the critical moment, can turn the tide of events and offer new possibilities?
You are going to be hearing a lot about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. soon in his bid for the 2024 Democratic Party nomination for the presidency.
If not in mainstream media, it will be apparent on alternative news and independent social media sites that something is afoot.
Reactions will range from the rhapsodic to the vitriolic, skepticism that he can do anything about our descent or perhaps even has the intention to govern in a way the average American would benefit from.
Before you adopt a left, right or skeptical position, you owe it to yourself and to your country to read his campaign’s vision for America. It’s easy to find a statement among the many written and spoken that will condemn a candidate’s beliefs in our eyes.
But spend just a few minutes watching his campaign launch video and reading the brief, yet inspired, positions on defense, the environment, government corruption, corporate strangulation of small and medium American businesses and more. You may have an epiphany.
I came away from my study of his positions convinced that our country is owed the chance to place someone in the Oval Office with a record of bold pronouncements condemning the evil that threatens to swallow us up.
Will you be able to find a statement that sounds like a left Green in all he’s said? Sure.
Will there be other positions that may sting the sensibilities of those of us who have been uncompromising regarding the Bill of Rights and other fundamental protections? No doubt, yes.
But I am asking you to withhold judgment until you read for yourself what Kennedy regards as the foundation of his bid for the presidency. Uncompromising anti-militarism; an anti-free trade perspective that calls out the gutting of heartland America, while faceless corporate directors gold-plated their splendid isolation at the top; sane policies that encourage regenerative agriculture to provide healthy food and cleaner environments not poisoned by Big Chem toxins; accountability for wrongdoers wherever placed and an end to a two-tiered system of justice.
I came away with the distinct feeling this man has greatness in him, a quality that has the capacity to call to the greatness in Americans that has been held suspended for far too long by a system that works very well for the few while working badly or not at all for the many.
Look, read and consider. You may, for the first time in many years, feel a sense of well-placed hope.
Wayne D. Holt lives in Galveston.
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(27) comments
There are some respected polls that have him in a statistical tie with Biden and he’s really not done any notable campaigning so there is more than just a chance here.
The opposition within the Democratic Party isn’t the voters it’s the DNC. They’ve already subverted the process by claiming here will be no primary debates !
We all know why but unless Democrat votes get up in their face and demand debates well…
Wayne, thank you for taking the time to tell us to check out Kennedy. I will.
A recent Emerson College poll found Kennedy with 21% of the vote among Democrats, while a Fox News poll had him at 19% among Democratic primary voters. What polls are showing Kennedy with larger numbers?
One of the ways to know if Robert Kennedy Jr has traction, would be President Biden selecting Joe Kennedy III as his running mate.
Why would Biden debate anyone? Debating for Biden is not part of a path to his second term.
Here are some of the people that are backing Kennedy. If you have the same Values as the following, support Kennedy.
Roger Stone, the former Richard Nixon aide who was one of Trump’s early political advisers, called Trump-Kennedy a “dream ticket” on the news program "Real America."
Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, tweeted, “I am really starting to like this presidential candidate’s attitude.”
" President Biden selecting Joe Kennedy III as his running mate...." Let's see if Kamala picks him.
As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at this time is not leading Biden, he has little incentive to select Joe Kennedy III as his running mate.
I have spent the time to take a look at Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and what he regards as the foundation of his bid for the presidency. I consider him to be the real deal. As a Reagan Republican, it seems right to also consider myself a RFK Jr. Democrat.
RFK Jr. is a member of the beloved historical Kennedy family, and he is an excellent choice for the Democratic nomination for president as opposed to the unpopular Joe Biden.
Go to RFK Jr's website at kennedy24.com to take a look, and to give Kennedy some much needed financial support to help him overcome the obstacles he faces.
Joe Cool's biggest supporters are as follows: The FBI, CIA, IRS, USA JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, FACEBOOK, CNN, CNBC, RED CHINA 🇨🇳 & XI JINPING!
Keep Joe Cool for another term and America will be another [censored]-hole Country like Cuba, Venezuela, China, and North Korea....where government tells you when to eat, sleep, drive, what you can drive and how far you can go! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention when you can talk and what you can say! Ask the FBI WHISTLE-BLOWERS if I know what I'm talking about! The DEMISE of America has already started, with Joe Cool pretending to be President! President Rice is really calling the shots![beam]
Ray, as someone who has identified as a conservative/Libertarian for my entire voting life, this is more to me than a knee-jerk reaction to the dearth of quality candidates that are being pushed by both parties. RFK Jr's sensibilities are to end run the Republican/Democrat schism and find the foundation of American idealism that truly motivates the grassroots of BOTH parties, minus the extremes that make it impossible to even speak to one another.
I won't be going into point-by-point refutations of criticisms made here, as that is a process each voter should do for themselves, if so inclined. I will say I cannot remember a candidate in my adult life who inspired my support more with every interview and feature story that allowed him to offer his own narrative.
The "real deal." You have summed up the essence of his candidacy perfectly. I urge everyone, no matter political affiliation, to READ RFK Jr's OWN WORDS and do not allow those who benefit from our division to interpret them for you.
I don’t even think Caroline Kennedy cares for her cousin that much, and she’s ambassador to somewhere for the Biden administration.
And can someone explain to me how the title “III” works. If Joseph P Kennedy III is the son of Joseph P Kennedy II, then how come Joseph P Kennedy Jr. is not considered Joseph P Kennedy II? He was the son of Joseph P Kennedy Sr., so it seems like he got skipped. Just because he died and didn’t have children, how does he get overlooked in the title succession?
Joseph Patrick Kennedy II is the son of former United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (USN), the son of Joseph P. Kennedy, was killed in World War II and had no wife, no children. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. is the uncle of Joseph Patrick Kennedy II. In common usage if father and son both have exactly the same name, the son is called "Jr." not "II".
Post Script: JPK Jr. visited Germany in 1934 and expressed admiration for the Chancellor. In a letter to his father he praised the Chancellor's sterilization policy as "a great thing" that "will do away with many of the disgusting specimens of men." - NYT
He explained, "Hitler is building a spirit in his men that could be envied in any country." - Jerusalem Post
Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr died while participating in a top-secret mission in 1944. Kennedy was appointed a lieutenant on July 1, 1944. He had completed 25 combat missions and was eligible to return home. He instead volunteered for an Operation Aphrodite mission. Kennedy and his co-pilot Willy flew a BQ-8 "robot" aircraft which exploded prematurely. As planned, Kennedy and Willy remained aboard as the BQ-8 completed its first remote-controlled turn at 2,000 ft (610 m) near the North Sea coast. Kennedy and Willy removed the safety pin, arming the explosive package, and Kennedy radioed the agreed code Spade Flush, his last known words.
Remember that forced sterilization was an American invention. The American fervor for forced sterilization won attention overseas. In “Mein Kampf,” published in 1925, Adolf Hitler praised American eugenics programs. He knew of one country in the world, he wrote, that was making progress toward the kind of racially homogenous model of citizenship he envisioned. “Of course, it is not our model German Republic,” he wrote, “but the United States.”
In the 20th century, 32 states legalized compulsory sterilization, laws that resulted in approximately 65,000 American men and women being involuntarily stripped of their ability to have children, mostly while institutionalized in mental hospitals. The laws were a distinctly American invention: Indiana’s 1907 legalization of the practice established the world’s first program for compulsory sterilizations conducted under the auspices of a government. In the 1927 case Buck vs. Bell, the Supreme Court determined that forced sterilization was constitutional. In the decision, which still stands today, chief justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously declared that “three generations of imbeciles are enough.”
"Adolf Hitler praised American eugenics programs." And that program was promoted by Margaret Sanger who went on to found Planned Parenthood. In 1921 she wrote “the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective”. And in 1939, “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
Gloria Steinem wrote "[Sanger] adopted the mainstream eugenics language of the day, partly as a tactic, since many eugenicists opposed birth control on the grounds that the educated would use it more."
"Sanger decided to broaden her alliances and work with Neo-Malthusian and eugenic groups as a way to make the use of contraceptives respectable and widespread. Eugenics was embraced by many during the early twentieth century as a progressive movement, and several pro-eugenic laws emerged that validated forced sterilization." TWU publication
Geesh, and I thought I was going down a rabbit hole.
It’s what they do. I just ignore them.
Everything I have seen and read about RFK, Jr. indicates to me that he is no more than a nepo baby who should be satisfied with debating Marianne Williamson in a primary.
That says a lot about your breadth of thinking. He would wipe the floor with ANY of the candidates presently seeking the Democratic nomination, and do it note-free. Joe Biden's handlers already are running terrified from debating the B team candidates. RFK Jr. would expose to the world exactly how enfeebled, intellectually inadequate and bereft of creative response Biden is.
In reality, Trump is the only one who could hold his own against him. And I truly hope I get to see that debate after the respective primaries. It's the only show that could possibly get more views than Tucker Carlson's old Fox broadcasts.
If you go to his website and read “Priorities” you’ll see an array of carefully scripted platitudes – “solutions” that don’t actually solve anything.
Click on “Interviews” and you’ll see who is interested in spreading his ideas – “B list” talking heads that pollute our airwaves with half-truths and specious logic. He somehow manages to attract the fringe of both the left and right, as well as libertarians.
Go to his Twitter page and, again, you’ll see a lot of nice-sounding platitudes that no one would argue with, spiced with conspiracist dog whistles and reminders to all of us that he’s a Kennedy.
To my mind, he seems to be going after the “Q-anon Lite” crowd – people who reject the full-on insanity of Q-anonsense while still embracing the faulty logic and sloppy thinking that it’s built upon. Instead of appealing to conspiracists as an actual dead Kennedy, he’s only brain-dead.
Bailey Jones, who still cannot manage to accept the proven fact of bald faced lies told to the American people by the Big Pharma, FDA, White House, Pentagon, etc. tools that deconstructed America in record time. You can't help it, Bailey, you have a Stockholm Syndrome love affair with every organ of American life that should either be in prison or in front of a wall with a cigarette and a blindfold as their personal effects.
"He somehow manages to attract the fringe of both the left and right, as well as libertarians." Translation: what he offers transcends the self-serving BS of RINOs and the New Democratic Oligarchy, while intriguing the folks who actually take the Constitution at face value. Oh, the horror!
"nice-sounding platitudes " Wouldn't it be refreshing to have a president who actually could offer platitudes instead of showcasing ineptitude, incompetency and corruption at every opportunity?
"reminders to all of us that he’s a Kennedy." That's probably because being a Kennedy still carries value as a family with a pedigree of civic virtue...as opposed to a president with a son who spent his allowance on crack and whores, an adolescent daughter who thought showering with Dad was normal, a brother who helped facilitate selling out America to Chinese tyrants and a wife who is desperate to retain the president's ear, even if his brain is no longer connected to it. Yeah, I'll take the Kennedy brand to that any day.
Wayne, your letter asked us "to read his campaign’s vision for America". I did. I also watched a few of the interviews he's given. In spite of my misgivings about interacting with you once again, I gave you the respect of reading your letter and checking out a candidate that you are obviously quite enamored of. And I gave you my honest assessment of him.
I can see why you are attracted to a guy like RFK, Jr. Unfortunately, you can't see why I'm not. That's no surprise. This isn't the first time you and I have looked at the exact same data and come away with exactly opposite conclusions. I doubt it will be the last.
And as you may have noticed lately, I will give unequivocal support to your views gladly, each time they are thoughtful and open-minded. I no longer vote party, and I no longer drift one way based on nostalgic recollections of principles long-lost to greed and power seeking in both parties.
If you are suggesting (without saying outright) that I wasn't respectful in my response to you, I will concede that point 100% and work harder at disagreeing without an edge that really doesn't serve a good purpose.
My first blush has been the RFK Jr is a lucky member of the rich kids club just trading on his name to push an early ‘70’s style hippie agenda. But, admittedly, he is deeper than that. He lays out some worthy goals, some of which seem libertarian in concept, others felt very command and control. As with any candidate at this stage, his platform is mostly platitudes and ambitions.
At least he believes in something other than igniting culture wars, which the right has become very effective at, and the left tries with less efficacy. If he’s on the primary ballot on 2024, I’d give him a look-see. If he’s on the general ballot against Trump I don’t know if I’d support him; it would depend on the third party candidate out there.
Fair enough, Gary.
It doesn't matter whether you listen to RFK Jr. or not. The inner circle of the Democrat Party has their agenda and Jr. doesn't fit. Locally Democrats really only have a say in local elections. The upper echelons of the Party will select their presidential candidate for you.
The upper echelons? And who would that be, George Soros? The ghost of Hugo Chavez? I swear Carlos, sometimes your posts are as useless as Gary Millers.
George Soros is 92 years old. He left the ranks of upper echelons about a decade ago. Hugo Chavez is neither American nor alive. Ted Gillis seems to be suffering from the same mental disorder as THE BIDEN.
What, did he get kicked out of his hotel room to make room for immigrants or something?
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