To say that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is being negatively targeted by many in the left-of-center mainstream media would be an understatement. Not a day goes by that he is not vilified by a left-leaning news site.
The vitriol these outlets direct at Kennedy is often far more inflammatory than what they launch against the “hated” former President Donald Trump on a regular basis.
Why? Three main reasons.
First, for decades, RFK Jr. was considered a charter member of the Democratic/liberal/progressive community. His work as an environmental attorney won accolades, as did his book published in 2005, “Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy.”
If Kennedy was seen fighting for the environment or, better yet, trashing the loathed George W. Bush, he was embraced by the left with open arms.
“Stay within the parameters of our various narratives and we will love you,” the liberal intelligentsia seemed to be saying. “Stray from them, and we will seek to crush you.”
As he was part of that community for decades, it can certainly also be argued that, more than any Republican or conservative, Kennedy knows the shadowy inner workings of the Democratic machine well enough to expose any unprofessionalism, partisanship, curious financial relationships or outright corruption tied to it. That, in and of itself, makes him a threat to some on the left.
Next, we come to the onset of COVID-19. Kennedy strayed from the accepted parameters in a big and seemingly unforgivable way. For many on the left, it would be fair to say that any questioning or criticism of COVID policy and vaccines became an untouchable third rail. Kennedy not only dared to touch the rail but stomped on it continually.
Not only did he question — and criticize — the cruel lockdowns, the school closures, the constant masking of children and the efficacy of the rushed out in “warp speed” vaccines, but he spoke out in the defense of doctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters, pilots and members of the military who lost their jobs for refusing to take a vaccine they did not fully understand.
Kennedy next apparently crossed an uncrossable line with the publication of his 2021 book, “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health.”The book went on to sell over 1 million copies and has well over 20,000 five-star reviews on Amazon.
Sadly, like so many issues today, COVID policy and the mandating of vaccines became a highly partisan and polarized issue. While some on the left were for the implementation of draconian solutions, some on the right felt they were an infringement upon their rights as American citizens.
With his loud and connecting arguments against COVID dictates, many in the mainstream media and liberal intelligentsia felt Kennedy was not only giving too much aid and comfort to Republicans and vaccine “skeptics” from the medical world but was casting suspicion on their motivations and connections. Therefore, for some, his voice needed to be silenced rather than debated.
Last, we come to the subject of President Biden. While support for Biden among the entrenched elites of the Democratic Party seems to be waning, he is still — for the moment — the preferred candidate for them, the liberal intelligentsia and much of the media, academia and the entertainment industry. For that reason — as well as the two already articulated — all have been playing a very active version of kick Kennedy to the curb so he doesn’t make Biden look any weaker and confused than he already appears.
Feelings and allegiances can flip on a dime in life and in politics. As recently as 2018, Kennedy was not only still considered a dues-paying member of the Democratic/progressive club by many, but still acceptable by mainstream New York book publishers.
It was then that he published a semi-memoir with HarperCollins titled “American Values — Lessons I Learned from My Family.” I would submit that even with a cursory reading of the book, many might conclude that they were absorbing the thoughts of a serious, educated and concerned person seeking to give voice to the voiceless of our nation. Hardly the devil incarnate or Minister of Misinformation so many on the left work to make him out to be.
As Kennedy himself has stressed, if those on the left feel he is so dangerously wrong on what ails the Biden administration, draconian COVID policies or using Ukraine to fight a proxy war with Russia, why not debate him in a live setting and prove him to be the fool they claim him to be?
I suspect such live debates would be watched and heard by millions of Americans seeking added clarity on those subjects and more. Sadly, the left’s fear of Kennedy will prevent them from happening.
As such, for Kennedy, “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.