Robert Kennedy’s Movement
6th May 2023
Up until a week ago, the 2024 presidential election campaign was by and large an uninteresting slog. The arrest of President Trump had shown some promise of injecting life into the race, but just a few short weeks later it is all but forgotten. Events that used to carry great significance which would be etched into the public memory for decades—like the investigation, prosecution, or impeachment of a president—have now been reduced to farcical shadow-play, gone in a moment. To generate lasting outrage or even attention, a story needs some element of surprise or departure from normalcy. But the new norm in politics is to destroy all norms. And since mainstream press catastrophizing has been dialed up to 11 since at least 2016, it rings hollower with every passing cycle. To anyone who has been paying attention, not even the most breathless histrionics on the part of professional observers makes a mark.
Yet America’s future really is in peril, facing existential threats both internally and externally. Flashpoints are erupting around the world. Our economy is dependent on the special status of our currency in the global market and the unquestioned military supremacy that backs it. Both the U.S. dollar and the U.S. military are hegemonic institutions in decline. Domestically, we are a population divided and unable to find a middle ground in which to establish any collective commitment to one another. Talk of national divorce or civil war was unthinkable a decade ago—now, it’s commonplace. We spend more on healthcare than any other advanced country, take more pharmaceuticals than any other first-world population, and still are sicker than all the rest. These are the elephants in the room of our current political discourse. Politicians prefer to talk about other things.
It is during such times that unconventional presidential candidates have caught wind in their sails. Jimmy Carter in 1976, Ronald Reagan in 1980, Patrick Buchanan, Ross Perot, and Bill Clinton in 1992, Ron Paul and Barack Obama in 2008, and Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in 2016. And now, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.