Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: A Kennedy, a Kook...a Candidate?!
His biography reeks of entitlement, among other putrid odors
ICYMI:
I was on Zerlina Maxwell’s Sirius XM show.
Last week, I was in Bryant Park with Kate Storey.
I’ll be making fewer public/media appearances (unless something unprecedented happens, like a president is indicted on federal charges) as I focus on the next book–as well as this newsletter and my fellowship at New America!
Over the last few months, several suitors have waved the most unexpected red flag in the form of a question: Would you like to accompany me to a fundraiser for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign?1
Kennedy is best known for two things: 1. Being an heir of liberal icons.2 2. A dangerous anti-vax stance and other conspiracy theories.
Kennedy, 69, has never run for public office, but it’s no surprise that he’s starting with the highest office. His biography reeks of entitlement, among other putrid odors. He was kicked out of three fancy boarding schools. He never passed the bar exam. He left Emily, his first wife, for his second, Mary, then six months pregnant. Four months after Mary hanged herself, Kennedy married actor Cheryl Hines.
The GOP will undoubtedly focus on another vulnerability: “I was functional while using and able to put down drugs for long periods of time,” Kennedy wrote, “but I always went back.” In 1970, he was arrested for marijuana possession. In 1983, he was charged with heroin possession, but because he was a white son of privilege, he received probation, did community service, and went to rehab. If this is mentioned, the time Kennedy allegedly fed LSD to a pet parakeet is, too, but surely there’s more to come.
Kennedy is a curious candidate for Democrats—but he fits right in with the modern Republican party. As Rebecca Traister wrote in an excellent profile for New York Magazine, he’s visited “every dark-web–cancel-cultured–just-asking-questions–anti-woke whistle-stop that’ll have him.”
Is this how a president should be? I pose that question with genuine curiosity. As a fellow at New America, I’m trying to understand how someone like Kennedy is polling at 20%, and what that means for the office. Paid and free subscribers, I hope you’ll help by taking the most unscientific poll below.
And if these questions spark more, or you have a comment to add, please do so below.
Yes, several.
He's getting so much attention because Republicans are pushing his candidacy as a spoiler to divide Democrats.
Connection to a political family DOES command my interest but only as a huge red flag.