Kennedy’s 'Independent' Thoughts Are Shared by Majority of Americans

Social media continues to buzz with speculation about whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s reported plan to run for president as an independent will "take" more votes from President Biden or from former President Trump. 

Absent an extensive survey, it is all speculation at this point. But Kennedy is expected to be a strong independent candidate, who will garner support from both major parties' traditional bases. Even more crucial than such assumptions are the facts surrounding Kennedy's campaign.

Kennedy continues to focus on issues that neither of the major parties’ frontrunners appear ready to discuss. For example, central to the foundation of Kennedy24 is the American Dream of homeownership. 

The rate of U.S. homeowners peaked in 2004 and, as statistics cataloged on Wikipedia show, it has trended downward ever since. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median price of an existing home increased by 53% between January 2020 and August 2023, far outpacing wages, which persistently fail to keep up with inflation, as reported by Statista.

There are many reasons for this, all of which are highlighted in the Kennedy campaign. As Nickie Louise notes on TechStartUps, the historically unprecedented creation of new fiat money during the Covid shutdowns inflated asset prices, making existing homes much more expensive. Here, we see the Cantillon Effect, as described by Jessica Schultz on FEE.org,  in action; the macroeconomic phenomenon that occurs when central banks increase the money supply, the beneficiaries are limited to wealthy asset holders, while those on fixed incomes, workers, savers, and those on social security become poorer. 

Since the Federal Reserve began aggressively raising interest rates, in an attempt to reverse the inflation created by the expansion of the money supply, even those who could afford a home can no longer qualify for, or even afford, a mortgage.

On CNBC Kennedy noted that large asset management companies, including BlackRock, Blackstone, State Street, and Vanguard, are making matters worse by buying multiple single-family homes, thus shrinking an already tight market while driving up costs for the average American by outbidding average home buyers. 

Not only has Kennedy identified these pressing problems, but he has presented workable solutions. As President, Kennedy would change the tax code to make it more difficult for corporations to acquire large quantities of family homes. He would also enable the federal government to guarantee mortgages at a 3% rate for first-time single-family home buyers.

This would help a new generation realize the American Dream, building both personal and familial equity. Doing so would enable more Americans to innovate, invent, and start their own businesses. This would further allow more Americans to create generational wealth and take greater pride in their communities. This, in turn, according the non-profit organization called Mid City Redevelopment, could help reduce crime, hopelessness, cultural deprivation, and food deserts, as communities with higher levels of homeownership tend to have fewer of these problems compared to those with low homeownership rates.

Another aspect of Kennedy’s campaign that voters from all walks of American life appreciate is that he is the only candidate willing to hold both the government and the pharmaceutical industry accountable for the catastrophic consequences of Covid shutdowns and the personal hardships caused by vaccine-related injuries. 

Far from being a niche issue, Covid shutdowns resulted in the destruction of many small and medium-sized businesses, as reported by the Brookings Institute. Many Americans lost their jobs for no reason other than their unwillingness to take an experimental injection. Additionally, the shutdowns of gyms, parks, beaches, schools, and places of worship left a void in the lives of people at physical, social, spiritual, and intellectual levels. Kennedy is the only major candidate talking about the economic and cultural fallout from the government’s catastrophic Covid era overreach and has made it central to his campaign. 

Beyond these two major gaps in policy and priorities among both Republicans and Democrats, Kennedy speaks to another issue where they are out of touch with voters. The Achilles’ heel for Democrats is the border. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, 64% of Democrats and 93% of Republicans favor stronger border controls. Former Democrat and current Republican, Elon Musk, said that he was told by Border Patrol agents that today's border problems are different from anything experienced under the Obama or Trump administrations. Most Americans agree that Biden has completely failed on this issue.

For Republicans, a clear Achilles’ heel is abortion. A poll conducted by the non-partisan group PRRI found that even in bright red states, a majority of Americans believe that abortion should be legal.

On both of these issues, Kennedy’s position aligns with the majority of voters across the country. 

Perhaps the area of greatest concern to Americans is the government and corporate assault on the First Amendment right to free speech.

While former President Trump has experienced censorship after the 2020 election, Kennedy has faced censorship for decades. Kennedy testified before a Congressional committee that under both parties, the Federal government specifically requested that his speech be censored from the internet. 

As the government embraces censorship, in the name of a monolithic state approved “truth,” a growing number of Americans find that their perfectly reasonable questions and thoughts are being censored. In other words, it isn’t that the views of Americans are becoming more extreme, rather, it is the government’s willingness to treat the First Amendment, one of America’s most valued constitutional rights, as an inconvenient suggestion. 

At its most fundamental level, an independent candidate is someone who has decided to put his or her personal principles against partisan conformity, a person with no strings attached. In Kennedy’s case, the only hold on his campaign is experience that connects him with the values and instincts of a majority of Americans.