In history and life, sometimes huge watershed events mark a turning point. That includes some years like 1607, 1776, 1865, 1945, etc. We might be too close to see it clearly now, but 2024 may be a major turning point in an historic political realignment.
The US doesn’t technically have a royal family, but the Kennedys are perhaps our closest match. On Friday, August 23…carefully timed to fall on the heels of the DNC gathering in Chicago and abort any post-convention bounce… RFK Jr. from the iconic Democrat family endorsed not only a Republican for president, but Donald Trump!
Caveat: Kennedy told his supporters in strongly “blue” or “red” states that his name will be on the ballot and do vote for him. But in the ten or so “battleground” states, his name will not appear and he asks his supporters to all vote for Trump. Since recent polls indicate Virginia is a toss-up, that should apply to Old Dominion voters.
RFK Jr. is the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of Robert Kennedy, John’s younger brother and Attorney General. Both senior Kennedy’s were assassinated.
Kennedy opened with his three main points.
- Stop the Censorship. Free speech is a cornerstone of America and liberty.
- Stop the Endless Wars. Even though Russia invaded Ukraine, he blamed the West for partially helping trigger that war.
- Stop the War on Children, (and adults), especially as it relates to chronic diseases.
His speech was ground-breaking on so many levels. Think how much of our national discourse focuses on issues like abortion, sex-changes for minors, males getting to use girls’ locker rooms or play female sports, “income inequality,” etc. When’s the last time you heard a politician ask why so many kids have autism, or diabetes, or obesity, and what can be done to reduce it?
The speech was also remarkable for its authenticity. Kennedy even teared up near the end.
Trump is known for his “Make American Great Again” focus (MAGA). Since Tim Walz let Minneapolis burn for four days and Kamala bailed out the looters and arsonists, the Dems’ slogan is MABA: Make America BURN Again.
Based on Kennedy’s priorities, his position can be summed up at MAHA: Make America HEALTHY Again.
Here are just a few gems from RFK’s remarks:
- “The DNC waged continual legal warfare against both President Trump and myself.”
- “The DNC and its media organs engineered a surge of popularity for VP Harris based upon nothing. No policies, no interviews, no debates. Only smoke and mirrors. Only balloons, and a highly-produced Chicago circus. A string of Democratic speakers mentioned Donald Trump 147 times…just on the first day! Who needs a policy when you have Trump to hate?
- “If I’m given the chance to fix the chronic disease crisis and reform our food production, I promise that within two years, we will watch the chronic disease burden lift dramatically. We will make Americans healthy again. Within four years, America will be a healthy country. We will be stronger, more resilient, more optimistic, and happier.
- “This is a spiritual journey for me. I reached my decision through deep prayer, through hard-nosed logic, and I asked myself, ‘what choices must I make to maximize my chances to save America’s children and restore national health?’ I felt that if I refused this opportunity, I would not be able to look myself in the mirror, knowing that I could have saved the lives of countless children and reversed this country’s chronic disease epidemic.
- “I’m 70 years old. I may have a decade to be effective. I can’t imagine that President Harris, a President Harris, would allow me, or anyone, to solve these dire problems. After eight years of President Harris, any opportunity for me to fix the problem will be out of my reach forever.
- “Ultimately, the only thing that will save our country and our children is if we choose to love our kids more than we hate each other.
- “That’s the spirit on which I ran my campaign and that I intend to bring into the campaign of President Trump. Instead of vitriol and polarization, I will appeal to the values that unite us, the goals that we could achieve if only we weren’t at each other’s throats. The most unifying theme for all Americans is that we all love our children.
- “I do interviews everyday. Everyone who asks gets to interview me. Sometimes I do ten a day. President Trump also does many interviews. How could the Democrat Party choose a candidate who refuses to do an interview?”
As if to prove Kennedy’s point about censorship in the deeply-dishonest media and to show their own lack of self-awareness, CNN began to talk over Kennedy then cut away from the speech when he got too close for comfort, citing how Kamala had been so unpopular in 2020 she won not a single primary and now has not given any interviews or unscripted interactions with voters in 35 days. You can watch that in this link.
RFK’s voice is scratchy due to a condition called spasmodic dysphonia, something that affects some 50,000 Americans. Just when you thought CNN couldn’t go any lower, in this video a CNN speaker made fun of Kennedy’s voice.
RFK’s speech was so epic, please let me encourage you to listen to it all. If you’re pinched for time, you can listen while driving or else read the transcript.
If you only get snippets from others, you’re only hearing what they want you to know, and probably with a slant. You owe it to yourself to hear or read it all yourself and you be the judge.
You can watch the speech here.
You can read the transcript, courtesy of PJMedia.
–Scott Dreyer