My first exposure to RFK Jr. was when he, as a representative of River Keepers, came to Banff, Alberta which is just down the road from where I live, and held a rally for local environmentalists who were dedicated to “saving the Bow River”. My first reaction was,
“Why don’t rich Americans stay home and keep their noses out of other people’s business.”
I calmed down when I read his material and the argument that the Bow River folks were making. A lot of what they were saying was hyperbolic in my view but they wanted to bring attention to their issue. Fair enough. I get that. It wasn’t until many years later that Mr. Kennedy would again come under my critical gaze.
In the interim, I had gained a tiny bit of notoriety by aligning myself with an upstart political movement called the Reform Party of Canada. My family and I had just returned from a foreign assignment in Colombia, South America and during a visit to our home, my dad suggested that we attend a local meeting of a new political party. I was familiar with the party because we were devoted followers of Ted Byfield, who both published our major news source “Alberta Report” and was one of the creators of the new party.
The early premise of the Reform Party was “The West wants in” - into confederation. Decades of Liberal and Conservative governments had ignored the economic vigour of western Canada and actively legislated in opposition to the legitimate desires of those living in the West. That, at least, was my interpretation of the political state of Canada in the late 1980s. We were also fond of saying that,
“I didn’t leave the Conservatives. They left me.”
In the election of 1993, the Canadian Liberal/Conservative uniparty was dealt a terrific blow leaving the formerly governing Conservatives with two seats in Parliament and the Liberals with diminished power. From a standing start in 1987, the Reform Party was now the Official Opposition. It was very heady stuff. The party underwent a number of transformations and, in 2003, it merged with the rump of the Progressive Conservative Party to become the Conservative Party of Canada under the helm of someone I had worked with in the early days.
In 2006, Mr. Harper won a minority government which was converted to a majority government in 2011. My wife and I, along with a few thousand fellow-travellers gone beserk, excitedly listened to Mr. Harper’s victory speech on election night 2011. It was a moment to be cherished. Politics is a blood sport but it is also a great deal of fun and you meet the nicest people. And sometimes old parties die and new ones take their places, injecting new energy into the political environment.
In 2008 or thereabouts, I became convinced that the key to my queries about the nature of the world lay in an understanding of the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. I won’t go into the details but my greatest anticipation of Heaven is to join the group of people listening to Mr. Lincoln as he holds forth in a corner of Paradise.
In 1856, Mr. Lincoln was disappointed by the dissolution of his beloved Whig Party (National Republicans) following the 1852 death of his political hero Henry Clay. For many years Clay’s National Republicans had joined forces with the Southern Democrat Party to oppose the populist appeal of the Jacksonian “Royalists” (hence the opposition became the “Whigs”). Rising sectarian tension over slavery created rifts and then a complete split in the uniparty resulting in party dissolution.
A uniparty opposing a populist uprising. Sound familiar? I don’t want to push it too far but history rhymes. The newly formed and rising Republican Party became home to those who opposed the expansion of slavery and wanted a pro-development, small government. Lincoln followed his former Whig Party colleagues into the new party and, almost immediately, stepped from there straight into history.
Kennedy alluded to the periodic and intense moments in American politics of multi-party alignment, subsequent dissolution, and the creation of new structures to carry new messages based on recycled worldviews. He is undoubtedly correct that the US political system is going through another of these cycles. The uniparty of the Democrats and Republicans, who have been running a very expensive grift for more than thirty years are finding themselves exposed and being eviscerated by new structures. The methodologies of change are different but the results will, in my view, largely be the same.
If I am correct, then, for good or for ill, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked onstage last Friday in Glendale, Arizona to endorse Donald Trump for the presidency of the United States, he accelerated the destruction of both the GOP and the Democrat Parties and walked straight into history. This election is now about a Kennedy and his issues. Trump is the vehicle facilitating those issues and the dramatic changes that will result if there is electoral success. The thunderous applause Mr. Kennedy was given came from the hearts and hands of people who were much less Republican and much more Jacksonian populists. Today they are known collectively as MAGA. The GOP exists as the shell into which this new hermit crab is crawling. The Democrat Party may or may not continue to exist in its present form. My money is on a dissolution and rebirth as something much different.
This makes for very exciting and very dangerous times. As Kennedy pointed out in his remarkable explanatory speech prior to joining President Trump, trillions of dollars are on the table. The European drug company that is manufacturing and marketing Ozempic is projecting trillions of dollars in sales. If Kennedy examines children’s health and removes the need for this drug is the manufacturer going to be happy?
“Oh good! Kids are healthy and we won’t make trillions of dollars pretending to make them better. But that is ok. We just love healthy kids!”
Not likely. Could the existential corporate risk represented by what I am now calling the “Kennedy election” be the reason for the millions and millions of dollars invested by the donors to the Democrat Party in finding “dirt on Bobby Kennedy”? Could this explain the illegitimate lawfare of the Democrat Party to prevent him from appearing on state ballots?
Kennedy is opposed to the proxy war in Ukraine due to the destruction of that country and the flower of its youth. He wants the guns to fall silent and the killing to end and is willing to tell NATO to back off and perhaps go pound sand rather than lubricate a one-sided annihilation that profits no one. Well almost no one. Will Black Rock, which is already buying up Ukrainian assets for pennies on the dollar, be happy to see their future profits end? Will Raytheon be happy when the orders for Patriot missiles dry up?
Remember… we are talking trillions of dollars.
Two things, in particular about Kennedy’s speech struck me. First was the sense of spiritual purpose which motivated his thinking. He felt that he would be held to account by Almighty God if he walked from the opportunity to make a change in these three areas of US governance (the third being freedom of speech). His overt reference to the spiritual nature of his decision attracted my attention because it is becoming a theme around the world in what threatens to be a general re-awakening.
I contend that only this kind of deep spiritual motivation could move him to openly defy his family in becoming an Independent voter and then endorsing President Trump. Those kinds of high stakes decisions are not made easily. It also says a lot about his wife who is willing to go along for the ride even as she disagrees with what he is doing.
Something metaphysical is happening. There is a disturbance in the force.
The second issue from Mr. Kennedy’s speech that struck me was the focus on children’s health. On the Thursday prior to Kennedy’s announcement, about six people in the world were talking about agrarian solutions to the decline in children’s health in the United States. Today it is front and center in the US Presidential election and will be a major platform in the Trump campaign. It may even be the issue that destroys the Harris team as they will have to run from it. That is beyond amazing and further informs my views about the spiritual nature of the Kennedy adventure.
In 772 AD one of the most remarkable people in history decided that enough was enough and took his brand of war to the Saxons.
Remember the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones was confronted by a sword swinging champion who was about to chop him into little pieces? Everyone in the theatre laughed when Indy pulled out a gun and shot the swordsman. Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight or you will be reduced to, “Hmmm… didn’t see that coming.”
Charlemagne did something similar. He marched straight into the Saxon forest and proceeded to chop down their Irminsul or Tree of Life. To the Saxons, the tree supported the universe and was worshipped for its assumed power. You can imagine their rage when this Frankish freak challenged that power. You can see the confusion and then disappointment when nothing happened to the immoderate and heretical, tree chopping Franks. I am sure that the Saxons looked at the impotent stump of their erstwhile god and thought,
“Hmmm… didn’t see that coming.”
It matters what you worship. Kennedy, I think, understands that. In the past month or two there has been a lot of “Hmmm… didn’t see that coming,” events. In the next couple of months we are going witness more events that cause us to think, “Hmmm… didn’t see that coming.”
This substack is predicated on the notion that debates and arguments are founded on differences in worldview and finding common ground starts with understanding the differences in these underlying worldviews. In my worldview, children’s health is an issue of enormous importance to God and I base this conclusion on the words of Jesus,
At that time the followers came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Jesus called a little child to him and stood the child before his followers. Then he said, I tell you the truth, you must change and become like little children. Otherwise, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The greatest person in the kingdom of heaven is the one who makes himself humble like this child. Whoever accepts a child in my name accepts me. If one of these little children believes in me, and someone causes that child to sin, it would be better for that person to have a large stone tied around the neck and be drowned in the sea.
There is not much room for ambiguity there. Those who mess with the innocence of childhood might be facing a world of hurt because that is the logical consequence of large stones tied around the necks of malevolents immersed in an aqueous environment. I think Kennedy understands that too.
I don’t know much about the impact of over-processed food on children’s health. I am beginning to wonder about the impact on children under two years old of 24 immunizations with up to five injections per visit. I look at empty school playgrounds and never see kids playing pickup football or soccer and wonder why this is.
Threats to children and their innocence go well beyond over-processed foods and if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is allowed to scratch below the surface of this investigation what sort of Pandora’s Box might he open? Will it open up a vast network of evil machinations that are designed to destroy children?
I think that, if his investigation goes forward, we are going to be astounded by what Mr. Kennedy finds. We already know that he has the courage to reveal whatever it turns out to be. That is why this has become the “Kennedy election”.
I will address its implications in my next substack.
What an interesting historical perspective of our present times. It is all so exciting , that I find myself holding my breath waiting for the next development.( there may be some fear involved)
Thank you for pointing out the potentially pivotal triumph of a Kennedy backed Trump win.
I've followed Kennedy through Children's Health Defense for the last few years. His stance on childhood health is no surprise and I think his entire presidential campaign was based on having that focus brought into the national view. Whether or not he won the election was secondary to his goal of getting people to see what is happening to all children in the US. I think he can be far more helpful to the nation in a role that focuses on environmental and health issues which are political bombshells. I disagree with a few of his views but he's way more informed and articulate than anyone else on these matters. I applaud his courage and moral strength.