Bobby Unplugged: Will He or Won’t He?

By David Talbot

Will he or won’t he run as an independent?

That’s the big question on the tongues of the political chattering class these days about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A commentator in The Hill compared Kennedy to the crusading populist senator played by Jimmy Stewart in the classic 1939 Frank Capra movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, as he attacks the Democratic National Committee for “rigging” the primary system in favor of President Joe Biden and “sabotaging” democracy. Like the idealistic Senator Smith, Kennedy is taking on the mighty power of the corrupt political machine in Washington. And, like Senator Smith, he says he believes in true, grassroots democracy—the kind championed by FDR, JFK and RFK.

When Kennedy launched his presidential campaign in April, he emphasized his family’s deep Democratic Party roots, which stretch back to his great-grandfathers in Boston’s political hurly-burly.

But what’s a popular challenger to do when the Democratic establishment locks him out and its allied corporate media smears him every day? They did the same thing to Bernie Sanders and Jesse Jackson Jr. even though, like RFK Jr., they reinvigorated the moribund party—a party heading toward electoral disaster in 2024 like a dead man walking. As I pointed out, the Democratic establishment even lined up against Kennedy’s father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, when he announced his own insurgent presidential campaign in 1968. (Of course, the martyred RFK is now a political saint—President Biden displays a bust of him in the Oval Office.)

Kennedy hinted at an independent run last week on the campaign trail. “They're trying to make sure that I can't participate at all in the political process, and so I'm going to keep all my options open,” RFK Jr. said. Tongues have been wagging ever since, inside and outside of the Democratic Party.

DNC fixture and ABC News commentator Donna Brazile immediately scolded Kennedy for even considering the independent path: “Anyone who is a true Democrat would not threaten to leave the party,” she said.

But the Democratic establishment has given Kennedy little alternative by blatantly putting its finger—no, its entire hand—on the scale.

RFK Jr.’s been appearing a lot these days in Iowa and New Hampshire, even though the DNC has ruled out those traditionally early contests because Biden fared poorly in them in 2020. Kennedy is also directly challenging Biden in South Carolina, the state which served as a “firewall” for Biden in 2020 and was rewarded by the DNC with the starting slot in the 2024 primary schedule.

Wherever he goes, Kennedy draws many Republican and independent voters. Last week, he packed in a record-breaking crowd at the annual Republican event in New Hampshire, “Scott Brown’s No B.S. Backyard BBQ.” Brown, the Republican who filled Ted Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat in 2010, was awestruck by the big turnout: “I’ve never had a crowd like this, ever.”

The corporate liberal media has flayed RFK Jr. for attracting voters from across the political spectrum. But Kennedy has said he “welcomes” this wide support. And he should. Not only is it the way you win national elections, drawing voters outside of your party base, it’s also the way that our leaders need to govern. As Kennedy has pointed out, our country is bitterly divided. We desperately need a visionary president who can bring us together. Has Biden, with his historically low poll numbers? Did Trump? Can you think of any nationally known political figure who has this unique ability except Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?

Even though RFK Jr. would arguably hurt Trump as much (or even more) than Biden if he ran as a third-party candidate, he’s been shut out by liberal CNN (owned by entertainment conglomerate Warner Brothers-Discovery) and MSNBC (owned by NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast), but is a frequent guest of Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters. The Fox personalities have their own reasons for inviting Kennedy to appear—and yes, they obviously enjoy tweaking the Democratic Party. 

But Kennedy has his own agenda. He reaches the vast Fox audience with his message. The liberal TV news channels, which are always playing ratings catch up with their conservative competitor, should be as freewheeling as Fox. They should stop falling into the “fake news” trap, by opening up their guest list, by no longer being so shamelessly biased.

Last week, Kennedy appeared on a C-SPAN show, fielding questions from callers with different political affiliations. The program, which allowed Bobby to respond intelligently and fully to the questions—a few of which were hostile—showed why he has attracted voters from across the political spectrum. His responses were informed and unscripted. He seemed unfazed even by the angry callers. He did not sound like a politician—he sounded truthful.

He said he opposed the corporate capture of Washington. He talked about the environmental battles he has fought as a lawyer, how certain chemicals damage humans as well as nature. He patiently explained that he was not “anti-vax,” but he wants vaccines to be subjected to “robust science” like all medicines that we put in our bodies. He wants to tax the marijuana industry so we can pay for a national network of drug treatment and rehab centers. He denounced the Wall Street giants that are taking over the housing market and crushing the middle class. He decried the billions we have poured into the Ukraine slaughterhouse, and how the “forever wars” benefit the military-industrial complex not the millions of Americans who are barely hanging on despite the so-called Bidenomics bonanza. He accused the U.S. government of using the latest technology to surveil its citizens. After the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden, he said, “Is there anybody left who does not believe the government is spying on the American people?”

Kennedy also makes sense to voters of all stripes when he calls for a sane southern border policy, replacing the current disastrous situation—which is controlled by predatory drug cartels—with a closed border and increased flow of legal immigrants.

On C-SPAN he said he was “ten times the threat” to the status quo that Bernie Sanders was. Which is another reason he deserves the Secret Service protection that President Biden has outrageously denied him—especially after an armed man posing as a campaign security guard (the way that his father was assassinated in 1968) was arrested at an RFK Jr. event in Los Angeles on Friday evening.

Bobby’s straight-talking has wide appeal to Americans, including me, who’ve been hoodwinked by politicians for too long. Like one of the C-SPAN callers, I too have been a loyal Democrat for my whole life, but I feel my party—increasingly beholden to its wealthy donors—has deserted me. If the Democratic Party “jams” him, continues to treat him unfairly, and forces him to run as an independent, then I will follow the exit path of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

At my late age, I’m tired of being ruled by the lesser of two evils. I want a president in whom I truly believe.