It's Kennedy's Time

By Anne Keala Kelly, The Kennedy Beacon

“Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has carefully been hidden.”

– Phaedrus

Biden is out, more uncertainty is in.

We are three and a half months out from election day and the only thing we can be certain of is that nothing is certain. Well, that and the fact that no mainstream media source can be trusted to produce any messaging beyond what their respective party affiliation dictates. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was forced out of the Democratic Party when he challenged President Biden in the primary and took up the cause of protecting the democratic process, has been bashed every step of his candidacy. Democrats have proven to be the worst stewards of democracy, destroying their party’s integrity by dismantling their own primary, which has led to this critical moment. And they have consistently lied about Biden’s condition, while injecting deep hostility and rage into every narrative space available in order to smear Kennedy. 

Hours after Biden withdrew, Kennedy held a press conference in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and in a brief statement and Q&A, he reminded people of a few significant, but often overlooked, truths. 

He said, “A little over a year ago when I entered this race, I predicted that President Biden suffered from a degenerative condition that was not going to improve and that it would make it impossible for him to govern effectively. The reaction of the DNC [Democratic National Committee] to that obvious condition was to hide it from the American public and to use their power over the Democratic Party nomination process to make sure that nobody could compete with President Biden in a way that would expose his deficiencies.”

Kennedy was savaged by the DNC and the liberal media after he left the party to run as an independent last October, and accused countless times since of being a shill for Trump. While Kennedy’s campaign has worked unceasingly to get him onto every ballot, the DNC has used its deep pockets to try to sue him (and other third-party candidates) to keep him off ballots. Currently, the Nebraska Democratic Party is trying to block Kennedy from that state’s ballot. As far as Democrats are concerned, Americans deserve only two options: them or the other them.

Throughout the brief press conference, Kennedy pointed out some of the reasons his candidacy is such a contrast to what the duopoly offers. He referred to “the domination of corporate power over American democracy,” which has “accelerated beginning in 2010 with the Citizens United case that unleashed a tsunami of corporate money into the American political process. And both parties are now captured by that corporate money.”

Alluding to Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” in 2016, he said, “Instead, he came in and he appointed a pharmaceutical lobbyist and CEO to run [the Department of Health and Human Services,] HHS, a Verizon lobbyist to run the [Federal Communications Commission] FCC, a Goldman Sachs CEO to run the Treasury Department, an oil lobbyist to run the Interior Department, a coal lobbyist to run the Environmental Protection Agency, and so on.”

Then Kennedy mentioned Trump’s recent statement that if elected he will name Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock (the world’s largest money management firm), to be his treasury secretary, as reported in the New York Post. Kennedy said that Fink and others, like Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, are the “swamp creatures” Trump pledged to root out of American politics. Further, he stated unequivocally that Trump’s choice of running mate, Senator J. D. Vance, “is a salute to the CIA and the intelligence community and to the military industrial complex. Their gravy train is going to continue.”  

And when asked about the likelihood of Democrats “anointing” Kamala Harris, Kennedy pointed out that she is “monumentally unpopular within her own party,” and that they would be doing it because “it is the easiest way to hold onto the [Biden campaign] money.” He described that process as “a cabal that is choosing the same way the Soviet Union did.”

He went on to define Harris as “a product of the corporate control of democracy,” with “one of the worst civil rights records of any public official.” Kennedy remarked that while Harris was the attorney general of California, “despite a Supreme Court order to release 5,000 prisoners [convicted] of nonviolent drug crimes who were illegally in California jails, she kept them in there, saying that ‘we needed them for fire-fighting and for other public work services.’ And that is just a modern version of indentured servitude and a modern version of slavery.” 

On the heels of an assassination attempt that spun a spell of Trump’s invincibility, and Biden bowing out, which has sent Democrats into a dizzying, multilayered attempt to triage their party’s hollowed-out ticket, Kennedy stands strong. He has been on the campaign trail for 15 months and is unafraid of whomever the Democrats decide to run — including Harris, who as of July 23, appears to have consolidated her party’s power, with remarkably little push back against her record in California and as the (invisible) vice-president under Biden.

Unlike Bernie Sanders, the popular independent senator from Vermont who ran twice as a Democrat and quit both times, Kennedy, who was a Democrat all his life and left the party to run as an actual independent, is not quitting anything. In fact, he exudes unflinching confidence and fortitude.

In the coming weeks, as Democrats scratch and claw their way to what may be a roller-coaster of a convention, Kennedy’s campaign will be on the ground, on ballots around the country, and on the rise. As the cracks in the Democratic establishment’s facade let light into the presidential narrative, it is getting easier to actually see Kennedy and what he is fighting for.

Toward the end of the press conference, a reporter asked, “Would you open up to the possibility of taking part if there was an open convention – you called for that.” Kennedy responded that if he were approached by leaders of the party, he would be willing to have the conversation, adding, “I am the only presidential candidate who can beat Donald Trump.” Another reporter followed that up, asking if he would actively seek out the Democratic Party’s nomination. Kennedy answered, “I am very content running where I am. I believe I can win this election.”