It is understandable that the cache of the Kennedy name still resonates with various parts of the American electorate. After all for some the name conjures up a time of youthful exuberance and possibilities. It was Robert F. Kennedy Sr. in quoting George Bernard Shaw who said “some men see things as they are and ask why, I dream things that never were and ask why not.” The tragic death of JFK and RFK despite their flaws both personal and politically represented for many people the death of promise. Unfortunately the Kennedy name is also synonymous with tragedy from the two brothers, JFK Jr who was seen as bearing the political mantle of the Kennedy to the scandals of Senator Ted Kennedy. The latest tragedy to befall the Kennedy name is the presidential candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

The question as to why he is running appears to be a mystery for many people. Is it that he is still suffering from the after effects of his heroin addiction, guilt from the suicide of his former wife, a narcissistic need for attention, or is he one of those endowment babies that thinks he is entitled simple because of his name.

As many ponder his motivation it should be considered that much of his funding comes from Trump donors such as Timothy Mellon himself a scion of a prominent family or Steve Kirsch who has repeatedly said that COVID vaccines killed more people than saved.

As RFK Jr. consorts with right wingers like Steve Bannon who encouraged Kennedy to run and even floated the idea of a Trump/Kennedy ticket as well as people like Roger Stone and appearing on Alex Jones Infowar it doesn’t take rocket science to connect the dots. When you add this to Robert Kennedy lying about Biden attempting to get him banned from Twitter you begin to get a picture of a man who is less credible than he would have you believe perhaps to the level of paranoia.

When it comes to his anti-vaccine stance the black community should be especially wary of him. In the infamous Tuskegee experiment conducted between 1932 and 1972 black men with syphilis were not given the known cure at the time which was penicillin. Instead scientists wanted to observe what happened to people with syphilis who go untreated. It should be remembered that RFK Jr. as an anti-vaxer has erroneously claimed that vaccines causes autism. He has gone on to say that
“Covid was targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people.” and that “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” While he tried to deny that he said this it nonetheless brought up concerns of anti-semitism which are more aligned with the sentiments of his grandfather Joseph Kennedy who had served as ambassador to Great Britain, supported US neutrality during World War II and had tried to secure an unauthorized meeting with Hitler to create what was in his mind an understanding between Hitler and the United States. He also espoused the notion of a Jewish cabal. If he is to be compared with any of the Kennedy clan maybe it’s with his grandfather. Perhaps his comments are a function of his belief that his father was assassinated because of his support for Israel. 

My concern with people like RFK is that another pandemic will occur and given his opposition to vaccines I’m afraid that like the Tuskegee experiment when a cure is readily available RFK will be able to convince people not to avail themselves of what may be a life saving vaccine. What’s more is the fact that RFK has lied about his stance on vaccine. He has claimed that he is not anti-vaccine but on a podcast he said “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.”

Those who lift up his work as an environmentalist would be correct in their admiration for his work at organizations such as Riverkeeper. Nonetheless his conspiracy mentality deems him unacceptable in my mind to occupy the Oval Office. Despite the cache of his last name he seems to be a pariah even to those who hold the Kennedy name in great esteem. In March he held a celebration in honor of the late iconic Caesar Chavez in order to court the Latino vote. This led to a condemnation of RFK Jr. by the Chavez family which issued the following statement “It causes us great pain to see your campaign repeatedly using our father’s images along with related documentary film and photographs of him to suggest the alignment of your campaign with the values of Cesar Chavez, It is our sincere conviction that this association is untrue and deceptive”

Even his own family has condemned him in which they said “we denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.” JFK’s grandson called his campaign “an embarrassment .“ Kennedy in essence is a Trojan horse that should be avoided like the plague. At present he is thankfully only on the state ballot in Utah. Nonetheless his candidacy because of his last name will con a lot of people. But to paraphrase the words of Senator Lloyd Bentson in his debate with Dan Quayle, Robert G. Kennedy Jr we knew your father and you are no RFK Sr.