How to Answer Legacy Party Pundits

A quick guide to Kennedy's Policy Positions

by Adam Garrie, The Kennedy Beacon

Most Americans are disillusioned with our political duopoly, as Pew Research found in a survey on the eve of the 2022 midterm elections. The results of the midterms validated this, as neither party won a decisive victory. Since then, politicians continue to be viewed with broad disapproval as was indicated in an extensive Harvard-Harris poll published last week. The polling data speaks to broader realities that millions see and feel in our daily lives. We are an increasingly suspicious society in which we are disconnected from our fellow citizens.

If we are to maintain a functioning political system, it is fundamental to ask the following question: Do politicians exist as problem solvers working on behalf of the people? Or alternatively, do they exist merely to hurl insults at the other side, while collecting donations and favors from the same pool of corporate interests? 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a clearly defined answer to this question. Kennedy’s independent presidential campaign is centered on the need for real people to have real problems solved. This was the approach Kennedy took when litigating on behalf of everyday men and women against the same corporate interests that have a stranglehold on Republicans and Democrats alike, and it is the approach he will take as President of the United States. 

The Border

Rather than pretending that dramatic changes haven’t happened, as others in politics prefer to do, Kennedy has engaged in a national dialogue that revised a number of his political views. This speaks to the empiricism and open-minded position from which Kennedy approaches the great issues of the day. 

In his October 9 speech in Philadelphia, Kennedy described how his view on illegal immigration changed after listening to those directly impacted by the border crisis:

As I’ve surrendered my attachment to taking sides, I’ve been able to listen with new ears to people with whom I disagree… Six months ago, I thought… that sealing the border meant you were a xenophobe or perhaps even a racist. I was wrong… My views changed as I spoke to border patrol officers, to local officials, to aid workers, and to the migrants themselves. I saw that no one party has a monopoly on wisdom, and no simplistic narrative contains the whole truth.

Click the above thumbnail to watch the video on YouTube

According to a Fox poll from this month, 71% of surveyed registered voters believe that the Biden administration’s handling of border security is too lax (including a majority of Democrats), and 57% agree with Kennedy’s position that a physical wall must be completed to secure the border against illegal crossings. A border wall is favored by 53% of independent voters surveyed, by 49% of Hispanic voters, and by 40% of Black voters.

As Politico points out, this Fox poll shows that the opinion of voters has changed significantly since 2019, when a Gallup poll found that 60% of Americans opposed the building of a border wall. In this sense, Kennedy’s self-described shift mirrors the attitudes of the average American.

Throughout his presidential campaign, Kennedy has made clear that he shares the view of a majority of Americans who want a secure border. Kennedy has also expressed his desire to reduce the inefficient bureaucracy that has made legal immigration to the United States increasingly cumbersome. 

Abortion 

If Democrats have fallen out of collective favor with the average voter on the border and migration, Republicans have done the same on abortion. It was not always this way; prior to the Reagan era, Republicans were broadly pro-choice. Writing in New York Magazine, Ed Kilgore details the evolution of the GOP from a party whose voters tended to be more pro-choice than Democrats to a party whose major figures are almost uniformly pro-life.

The 2022 Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson transformed the issue into one that would be fought at the state level, and the results have been surprising. Voters in several red states, including Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana, rejected referenda that would place severe limits on legal access to abortion. A similar referendum was rejected in Michigan, a moderately blue state but one that supported Donald Trump in 2016.

While these results defied the policies of major Republican politicians, they are in line with a poll from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, which found that in 2022, 65% of Americans wanted abortion to be legal in all or most cases. This figure had increased from 2010, when 55% of Americans held this view. 

This position is in line with that of Kennedy, who is a pro-choice candidate; nevertheless, he has said that every abortion is a “tragedy.” This view was described by the health publication STAT Magazine as a “centrist” position, a description supported by nonpartisan polling data.

The Second Amendment

When asked about his views on firearms during a town hall with voters hosted by NewsNation, Kennedy said: “I’m not going to take people’s guns away. Anybody who tells you that they’re going to be able to reduce gun violence through gun control at this point I don’t think is being realistic.”

Kennedy has dared to discuss one of the leading causes of violence in America, on which both Republicans and Democrats remain equally silent. On X, he explained how decades of American militarism, interventionism, and proxy wars abroad have been internalized domestically. He added that until America stops exporting violence abroad, there is little hope of turning the tide toward peace at home.

In a Twitter Space interview with Elon Musk and venture capitalist David Sacks, Kennedy stated that, as a Constitutional absolutist, the position of the Second Amendment has been settled by the Supreme Court. 

Rather than seeking to deepen the divide over gun rights, in that same interview, Kennedy highlights the role of prescription drugs as a proximate cause of violence – an idea that dates back over twenty years, when British pharmaceutical giant GSK was found liable for a tragic Wyoming murder-suicide. In this case, a jury found that the makers of the drug Paxil were 80% responsible for the killings. 

The Environment

Kennedy’s capacity to reconcile traditionally opposing factions has been well documented in his environmental work. By the early 2000s, he had become one of the most influential environmentalists in the United States, designated by TIME magazine as a “Hero of the Planet.” But, as early as the 1990s, Kennedy challenged media stereotypes of environmentalists as “leftists.” In the 1997 book The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right, co-authored by Kennedy and John Cronin, the authors noted that in their campaign to clean up the highly polluted Hudson River, they worked alongside hardworking fishermen who tended to be culturally and even politically conservative.

Kennedy's brand of environmentalism is the kind that emphasizes localized solutions to polluted lands and waterways. It is an environmentalism that strives to make the world better for small farmers, ranchers, hunters, hikers, rowers, sportsmen, and sportswomen, rather than for global elites who push policies like carbon offsets that become a source of global profit-taking and corruption. Kennedy’s approach is not the environmentalism of Washington, D.C., that makes everyday items more expensive for the hardworking men and women of the country.

Contrary to statements of parties opposed to Kennedy’s candidacy, a Kennedy administration would not immediately ban fracking, due to the devastating impact it would have on the economy, but would instead gradually phase out fracking by ending taxpayer subsidies and forcing it to function in the free market. 

Safe And Healthy Food

It is impossible to separate America’s food crisis from Kennedy’s love for the natural environment. Although America is a fertile land, it has become a land of processed foods whose toxicity constitutes a costly and even deadly epidemic, according to Harvard Public Health. Kennedy shared this view with Joe Rogan, on a recent podcast. Rogan is himself an advocate for toxic-free foods and a fiercely independent voice who transcends the tribal politics of legacy media. Late last month, Rogan announced his support for Kennedy’s campaign. 

The environmentalism of Kennedy is also about bringing high-quality nutrition to the food deserts of urban America. Kennedy has been deeply involved in supporting inner-city communities that are increasingly deprived of affordable and healthy food. Kennedy has taken a hands-on approach to the problem, which disproportionately impact Black and Latino Americans. Kennedy's solution is not one of further bureaucracy but one that supports communities that wish to grow their own food locally. Such activities nourish not only the body but also the mind, as they provide young people with an education in agriculture almost never taught in urban schools.

Kennedy has been particularly critical of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who is involved not only in Big Pharma but also in Big AG. Kennedy has campaigned against Gates' strategic purchases of farms and the dangerous transition from traditional farming to GMO foods.

Instead of looking for solutions that increase the divide between rich and poor, Kennedy has consistently been on the side of the small-business owner and farmer against large multinational corporations. While the RNC claims that, “RFK Jr. Once Said Farmers Were Worse Than Bin Laden Just Months After 9/11”. The truth of the matter is that in his statement Kennedy said that big food processing companies including Conagra Foods, Smithfield Foods and Premium Standard Farms are a threat to local communities in small towns across America. His statement categorically did not refer to family farms or agricultural workers. 

Taxation

Contrary to RNC claims, Kennedy is not a high-tax candidate in the mold of Joe Biden or New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Kennedy has said that he will not increase capital gains tax or corporate tax. He further would end the Biden administration’s requirement that payments over $600 made on online payment platforms should be directly reported to the IRS. Kennedy has further said he would create a free tax filing system that all Americans would be able to use, thus reducing the cost of annual tax filing for millions of Americans. 

Kennedy added that he is opposed to progressive plans to increase property taxation which would harm low-income families, many young homeowners and the elderly. Finally, Kennedy would shift the tax burden from families and small businesses to large corporations by enforcing presently under-enforced collection activities on major multinationals while rolling back the Biden administration’s enforcement blitz on small businesses and families. Kennedy has also prominently pledged to uphold the freedom of all Americans to transact in cryptocurrencies including bitcoin. Kennedy is also deeply committed to a policy of not requiring Americans to pay capital gains tax when converting bitcoin into dollars. 

Kennedy’s Remedy 

Kennedy has not only demonstrated a willingness to change his mind after engaging with people directly impacted by the major political issues of the day, but he has also shown a willingness to debate staunch opponents when challenged. 

The Kennedy campaign demonstrates it is possible to set a policy agenda that conforms to the democratic will of Americans rather than to the entrenched ideologies and financial interests of the legacy parties. Politics shouldn’t be a metaphorical football game in which the voters are disengaged spectators. If the uniparty isn’t challenged by independent people with independent views, there is no clear path to any meaningful solutions. The Kennedy remedy is a direct challenge to a status quo that is failing the vast majority of Americans. As Kennedy said when declaring himself independent of any party affiliation:

I am proud to say, my supporters include pro-lifers and pro-choicers. They include climate activists and climate skeptics. They include the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. They include people on both sides of our culture war. Why? Because more and more Americans are beginning to understand that for the good of the country, one cannot insist on getting one’s way on every issue. They understand that people can disagree and still respect each other.