As interesting and crazy as the presidential race for 2024 has been already, it’s about to get a lot more so. It’s been a fun-filled year of indictments, investigations, and impeachments, and now, it seems a newly independent candidate is about to enter the ring.
RFK, Jr. Goes Rogue
On his website, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. posted a “Save the Date. Save the Country” landing page inviting voters to a “historic event.”
In the promotional video the presidential hopeful announced, “I’m going to be in Philadelphia on October 9th to make a major announcement at the very birthplace of our nation.”
He teased, “I’m not going to tell you right now exactly what that announcement will be. I can say though, that if you’ve been waiting to come to one of my public events, this will be the one to come to.”
It doesn’t take a member of the CIA to figure out that RFK, Jr. will likely be proclaiming his shift from the Democratic party to running as an independent candidate.
The nephew of one of the most revered presidents in American history, RFK, Jr. has been critical of both the party his family has heralded as well as the opposition.
“I understand the deeply felt concern that people have about the way corruption has overtaken our government. It’s in the executive branch, it’s in Congress, it’s in the leadership of both political parties,” Kennedy states in his video.
When the DNC Goes Low, Kennedy Goes High
The DNC has shunned Kennedy every chance they got. They refused him security for his campaign and attempted to change the primary rules in New Hampshire to wound Kennedy’s campaign.
He has been vilified in the mainstream media, called a conspiracy theorist, and canceled on major social media platforms for going against the progressive platform.
Despite attempts to completely decimate Kennedy, he continues to grow in popularity by focusing less on attacking what’s already there and more on building a coalition of Americans who want to create something new.
“We all recognize that there’s a genuine possibility of national transformation and its source is the goodness of the American people. Our government may be crooked, but our people are kind, brave, and caring.”
Indeed, Kennedy is appealing to the better angels of our nature that Abraham Lincoln so famously employed in his first inaugural speech, which he believes can overcome the division that the country is experiencing, much as it did in the days of the Civil War.
“That goodness is stronger than the divisions that are keeping us all apart.”
Can Kennedy Heal the National Divide?
Kennedy is attempting to bridge the gap. He wants to attract the voters who have fallen through the cracks, the ones who have identified as “politically homeless.”
Those who cannot identify with either the extreme woke policies of the far left that characterize the Biden administration or the often disconcerting obsession with Donald Trump the right seems to be embracing.
Those who have been extremely disillusioned and traumatized by the past decade or so of politics.
Those who are ready for something new, even if they don’t 100 percent agree with all of the candidate’s policy positions because, well, anything is better than the choices we have now.
Kennedy speaks directly to those voters.
“I’ll be speaking about a sea change in American politics and what your part and my part is in that change. A lot of Americans who had previously given up any hope that real change would ever come through the American electoral process have begun to find new hope in my candidacy.”
Kennedy sees the good-hearted nature of America, filled with good intentions, “every day on the campaign trail.”
According to the man seeking to unify our country, “… the more I see it, the more I trust it. And the more I trust it the more the path to victory becomes possible.”
But do enough Americans trust Kennedy? That’s the question voters will have to answer at the ballot box next November.
Jennifer Galardi is the politics and culture editor for 19FortyFive.com. She has a Master’s in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and produces and hosts the podcast Connection with conversations that address health, culture, politics and policy. In a previous life, she wrote for publications in the health, fitness, and nutrition space. In addition, her pieces have been published in the Epoch Times and Pepperdine Policy Review. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
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