Why My Daughter Is Leaning Toward Voting for Kennedy

By Charlie LeDuff, Special to The Kennedy Beacon

[*with a section, below, written by Charlie’s daughter, Claudette]

When the nurse handed me my newborn, I introduced myself to her something like this: “Hello Claudette. I’m your father. More than anything in life, I wish you contentment.”

And to that end, we don’t talk much about politics.

It’s not that I’m uninterested in her point of view. I am interested.

Rather, I think she’s uninterested in mine. I admit, when I really get going, there’s little room for anyone else. That’s when my daughter will shoot me the empty stare of a dollar store mannequin.

Claudette will turn 18 on election day. Her first vote will mark her legal coming of age. I’m sure she’ll remember it. But she just can’t seem to find the contentment in it. She won’t vote Trump. Too abrasive. She won’t go Harris. Too goofy. 

I might have an idea which way she’s leaning. I hear enough in the car rides.

Her biggest concerns aren’t the stuff assigned to her generation by the Cable Kens and Broadcast Barbies. It’s not student loans she worries about, or transgender rights or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Those things are important to her, to be sure, but they’re too nuanced to be at the top of her list.

Claudette is a young woman now, thinking about grown-up things. Things like the cost of housing and the price of health insurance, things that I currently provide her, but things a young woman begins to trace out for herself.

Young people today are smarter than we give them credit for. They’re probably the most informed generation in American history.

For instance: my daughter knows that the president of the United States – with all his powers – isn’t really in charge. He is more a figurehead guiding a bureaucracy controlled by special interests. The state of the Democratic Party proves as much.

It’s Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Banks, General Mills, General Dynamics, and the Joint Chiefs who really run things. The corporate cats get fat while we the people grow gaunt.

Too-Big-To-Fail needs to be dismantled before it’s too late to fix. Free speech and free thought must be protected at nearly any cost. That’s why I think Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might appeal to my daughter. The economy must be based on the fundamentals of a good day’s pay for a hard day’s work. And like RFK Jr., Claudette D. LeDuff believes that the environment is on loan from her grandchildren and must be returned to them in reasonable shape.

My daughter has her own mind, and I don’t presume to speak for her. But she likes a lot of things about Bobby. Not all things, but some things. I introduced her to him recently, and she found Bobby the Boomer to be a nice man who listens.

Maybe she’ll vote for him. She’d be able to say her first vote was cast for a Kennedy. That’s how we used to do it up here in Michigan. But she can tell you herself.

By Claudette LeDuff, Special to The Kennedy Beacon

I am constantly hearing insults toward people my age: “Young people don’t want to work.”

Or: “Gen Z is lazy, overspends, and spends too much time online.”

Older generations seem to forget they nurtured us, created the internet platforms, and they once didn’t want to work either.

I feel shut down for being young. I am informed. I am living amidst inflation, and I don’t want a dead-end job. My generation is growing tired of Fortune 500 companies running everything: setting rules on how to work, how to live, what to buy, and what to do.

It’s the working people who drive profits, and yet we can’t afford what we produce. Everyone on the news constantly repeats this without offering any solutions. The two-party system doesn’t leave me hopeful.

So there’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

I agree with RFK Jr.’s views on decreasing military spending and raising the minimum wage. I believe many of his ideas would be beneficial to our country. Health is an important issue to me, too.

Big corporations cut costs and increase profits through the ultra-processing of food. Drug and healthcare costs are sky high. If the government is truly “for the people,” then why doesn’t it prioritize health? RFK Jr.’s proposed ban on lobbying is also something I believe would improve our living standard.

Having said that, I am skeptical.

I don’t know how RFK Jr.’s economic policies would be implemented in the American “free market” economy. I would like more information on how he will “uproot Big Pharma.” I don’t believe medication is bad, and I am unclear on his full views, considering all the media claims. RFK Jr. needs the opportunity to explain himself better. The media doesn’t portray him as a serious candidate.  

It’s not a matter of charisma, he has plenty of that. I saw him responding to the presidential debate that he was locked out of. I heard him speak eloquently in the aftermath of the shooting of Donald Trump. I even spoke to him, myself, for a few moments at a recent fundraising event.

Personally, I would like to see RFK Jr. come back to Michigan. Come back and convince me to give him my vote.

Charlie LeDuff is a reporter based in Detroit and host of the No BS Newshour. Claudette LeDuff is a reporter based in Detroit and an incoming college freshman.