By Dan Murphy
Most of us who have lived in Westchester for more than a generation are familiar with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. RFK Jr. lived in Westchester (Bedford), and worked and served the people of Westchester for 35 years as an Environmental attorney for Riverkeeper and a law professor at Pace University Law School in White Plains.
Kennedy was one of many environmental activists who sued corporations that polluted the Hudson River and forced them to pay for its cleanup.
But after the COVID years of 2020 and 2021, RFK Jr. is most known for his loud opposition to the COVID vaccines, and his overall skepticism to vaccinations in general.
Last month, RFK Jr. announced his run for President. Most of the mainstream national media have for the most part either ignored his campaign, or prefaced their comments with “anti-vaxer,” “anti-vax radical” and “anti-vax clown.”
And most democrats in Westchester County are doing the same as the media; either ignoring RFK Jr.’s campaign, or pointing to his anti-vax past as a disqualifier for him to be considered for the nomination.
My question to several Westchester democrats we spoke to off the record is, if nobody takes RFK jr. for Prez seriously, then why is he polling at 20%?
“RFK Jr. has a lineage that is still beloved by many Americans, and most democrats, who remember his uncle JFK and father RFK. There is still magic in the Kennedy name,” said one Yonkers democrat.
Another Sound Shore democrat echoed the same thoughts. “He is a Kennedy, and he has the same name as his father, who is the most revered Kennedy to some of us and still remains a hero to many older Americans.”
Other Westchester democrats told us that they are behind President Joe Biden and his reelection, and they don’t want Kennedy, or any democrat, to get in his way. “Most democrats want RFK Jr. to go away. They don’t want a challenger to Biden, so it’s best to ignore him.”
One Northern Westchester Democrat told us that, “there are other similarities to RFK Jr. and his father’s run for the Presidency. In 1968 President LB Johnson was in the middle of the Vietnam war. After losing the democratic primary to McCarthy, LBJ decided not to run for reelection. RFK is running opposed to the war in Ukraine, and Biden could decide not to run for reelection. Stranger things have happened.”
Kennedy has been able to circumvent the major media by conducting dozens of lengthy interviews and taking all questions. Whenever he is asked about his vaccination stance, he replies “I am not leading with my stances on vaccination.”
And this is true; RFK Jr. has a lot of other issues that he talks about, which deserve more attention and can be found on YouTube. But for some of those interviewing Kennedy, and for some Westchester democrats, his anti-Vax stance is too much to overlook.
“We busted our ass here in Westchester to get everyone vaccinated, and that kept our death rates down during COVID,” said another county democrat. “That is why I am not supporting him, and why I get annoyed at your question about his campaign. RFK Jr. will never be President. He is an anti-vax radical who is way outside the views of democrats.”
We renewed our question to those who would consider it; Why is RFK Jr. polling at 20%. “There will always be a segment of our party that doesn’t support the incumbent. Democrats don’t like to fall in line. Remember Gary Hart? And Paul Tsongas? They were getting 30% of the delegates in many primaries. And RFK Jr. may very well win the New Hampshire primary next January, because Biden will be running in the South Carolina Primary as the First Democratic Primary in the nation,” said one elected Westchester democrat.
One Westchester democratic chair said, “As an old time Democrat, Bobby Kennedy Jr. does interest me, but not enough to jump off the Biden campaign. I think the President has done a fantastic job and I will continue to support him. I will certainly be looking forward to a Kennedy campaign in 2028.”
Only a few Westchester dems we spoke to were concerned about “Biden making it all the way to reelection.”
And none of the democrats we spoke to were willing interested in discussing any of the other issues that Kennedy is talking about in his campaign. Those issues include:
· The fact that both parties have become one, Uni-Party, with more similarities than differences.
· Opposition to the continued war in Ukraine and putting that money to use here in America. “Earlier this year the government notified 30 million Americans of cuts to their food stamps, at a time of steeply rising costs. Too bad we can’t afford to feed people. But hold on — military aid to Ukraine thus far equals an entire year of food stamps for 41 million Americans. People are going hungry to fund a war that doesn’t serve any vital U.S. interests. Most of the hungry are children and minorities. Time to reorder our priorities!”
· Skepticism over how corporate America, and Big-Pharma, has control over both parties and the mainstream media. Calling it, the rise of corporatism in this country, Kennedy says, “my party is becoming a party of war-the party of censorship-the party of wall street.”
· How the COVID lockdown crushed the middle class, and disproportionally affected people of color and small businesses. Kennedy claims that while the rich got richer during COVID, the middle and lower classes lost more. “During COVID lockdown, there was a $4.4 Trillion shift in wealth from the American middle class to billionaires.”
· Kennedy also argues that it was a mistake to close down the entire country during two years of COVID, and that the healthier Americans should have been allowed to continue to live their lives, go to work, go to school, and go to church. That view is shared by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who touts the fact that under his watch, Florida remained open during COVID. DeSantis is polling around the same 20% in republican presidential polls.
· Seeing a humanitarian deathtrap on the border, Kennedy says he “would seal the border. You can’t have a country if you can’t protect your borders.” But he would also increase legal immigration.
· On debt and deficit spending. “Both parties have been printing money, which creates the illusion that there’s no cost to massive federal spending but is, in the end, a gift to the rich and a bane on the middle and lower classes.”
RFK Jr. vows to “Tell the Truth to the American People,” and that the reason he is running is because “I felt like my country was being taken away from me.”
This form of politically incorrect, brutal honesty, is a breath of fresh air to many independent minded democrats, republicans and non-affiliated voters. “I consider myself a traditional Kennedy liberal but there is a growing coalition in this country of populist forces on the left and right that are finding common ground, and that is the only thing that is going to rescue American democracy.”
