We are often heavily influenced by political figures that are popular when we come of age.
I became politically aware younger than most. JFK and Camelot meant a lot to me, not just for what they did but also for what they promised to do.
The assassination of President Kennedy seemed to me like a dream interrupted. LBJ accomplished much of the Civil Rights agenda, only to fall way short with Vietnam.
RFK felt to me like an opportunity to restore the dream. Bobby was a more brash figure than his brother, starting out more conservative. But after the assassination, he went on a spiritual and political journey that brought him to identify more with minorities and the poor and disadvantaged. He had the rare ability to earn support from both Black and Latino voters, along with the white working class.
In my room at home, I had a poster of a quote that Bobby would often use -
This was initially said by George Bernard Shaw but made popular in my generation by RFK.
Once again, the dream was cut short by an assassination. It left me angry, confused, hopeless. Would the legacy ever be restored?
The youngest brother, Teddy, held some promise, but Chappaquiddick left him compromised. He still had a lot of good things to say, but it was hard for him to overcome what happened in that tragic accident. Although I longed for a Kennedy restoration, I stuck with President Carter in the primaries.
I looked for future generations as they entered adulthood and politics. Joe Kennedy Jr, congressman for Massachusetts, came the closest, but none quite fit the bill.
On the surface, I should have liked RFK, Jr., but I admired his earlier career in environmentalism. But then...
He kind of went off the nut.
His personal life was shaky (babysitter affairs, brain worms, adventures with roadkill). His policies were skewed towards the unacceptable. Some might consider his anti-vaccine routine acceptable or just a minor thing. I do not, not when childhood diseases are making a comeback, not when he was a significant part of the Covidiot nonsense.
So, I knew that he was not someone I could support. Some friends were upset that he was getting resistance from being on the debate stage or fighting to get on enough ballots.
If he was a ground-roots movement designed to build a vital new political party, I might have some sympathy with that viewpoint.
But his is not. It's another rich guy's vanity project. Funding came from a consortium of right-wing billionaires. I kept being told RFK was a liberal by those who damn well knew that he was not.
Many thought he was a plant to draw Democratic voters away from Biden. I was skeptical and just thought it was narcissistic selfishness.
I was wrong.
Yesterday, he suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump, even showing up at one of Trump's rallies.
Well, that rips the cover off that ball, doesn't it?
I am grateful that we don't have a monarchy in this country. We've had few families where we could safely transfer power from one family member to another.
The royal attraction is still strong in this country. John Adams to his son John Quincy Adams. Roosevelt cousins. Bush Sr to Bush Jr. The desire to go from Bill to Hilary. Those who swore until the convention that the Democrats would turn to Michelle Obama.
I am no longer yearning for a return to the Kenedys. However, I do still yearn for the politics represented by Bobby Kennedy—that progressive bent that attracts ALL the working class across all other barriers.
I see that ticket in Harris/Walz. Harris is experienced and competent speaks the right language, is strong in our various American communities, and crosses gender and racial lines. Coach Walz has a simple and direct way of communicating with the working class in ways that they can understand and identify with.
I still wonder what American History would have been like had Bobby not been assassinated and had won the Presidency in 1968. We can only conjecture. We can only dream.
But even though the dream of Bobby might be gone, and his legacy devolved by his own son, Harris/Walz convinces me that the dream is still alive.
I'm voting for Gus's Dad!
Harris/Walz 2024!!!
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