Robert F Kennedy Jr speaks to a sick America
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Robert F Kennedy Jr unveiled his VP pick on Tuesday to the sound of crickets. He boasts between 2 and 15 per cent in polls; RFK’s spoiler effect could decide the election. So you’d expect a household name that keeps Kennedy in the headlines and momentum building. Instead he introduced us to Nicole Shanahan, a 38-year-old attorney and philanthropist, ex-wife of a Google co-founder and reported, by the Wall Street Journal, to have had an affair with Elon. She denies the allegations.
Shanahan met her current beau at Burning Man and they held a love ceremony last year. “We had a friend who believes in the magic of water lead a water blessing for us,” she told People Magazine. “It was beautiful”.
Isn’t the combination of tech money and paganism all a bit wokey-woo for the RFK anti-elite pitch? Nope. In response to the State of the Union address, Kennedy released an ad that was simply brilliant – perhaps the most powerful political communication since Obama’s “yes we can”. Sitting at his desk, looking more presidential than the incumbent, RFK contrasted the hope and achievement of the Kennedy-brand Sixties with the despondency of today: not just America’s material stagnation but the physical and mental health crisis that flows from it, particularly among the young. “Our children are drowning in a crisis of alienation.”
This has got to hurt Biden, who sees himself as the inheritor of the Kennedy tradition. But Joe’s attempt to heal the nation by shouting at it has failed. On the surface, Americans are doing ok; deep down, they are thoroughly depressed. The tawdry rematch of Biden v Trump adds to the sense that the country is stuck, and that the only release is via self-medication.
The sickness is cross-racial, cross-class. Working-class kids are hooked on fentanyl; wealthy liberals, like Shanahan, are worried about ecology and nutrition, about the quality of our food. Then there’s the pollution of fake news, hate speech, social media saturation and the confusion of AI, which again is very much Shanahan and RFK’s bag. The tech industry is in an introspective mood, half of it positive about remaking the world in its image, the other half inclined to apply the brakes. The new elites are their own biggest critics.
The names of those present at the VP unveiling was instructive: the former basketball star Metta World Peace; Kelly Ryerson, an activist against food toxins; Jay Battacharya, the Covid sceptic professor; and Angela Stanton-King, an ex-con who was pardoned by Trump. Critics say that RFK’s media attention disguises his inability to reach out beyond a right-left Venn diagram that includes an uncomfortable number of anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists, that he’s a fruitcake standing up for nutters.
The more imaginative interpretation is that the ripped 70-year old is running less a political candidacy than a lifestyle campaign. There’s an ad on his website for a supporters group in Kansas who meet to hand out “vegan food for the homeless” (haven’t they suffered enough?)
It’s unclear who RFK will hurt most in November. One Trump donor has started giving money to him, so must assume he’ll harm Biden, and the Democrats have created an office just for combating third parties. Even if his vote slips to low single figures, such numbers made a difference in 2000 and 2016, when Hillary lost Michigan by less than the Green Party drew. Paul Begala, a former advisor to Bill, has described RFK as a “cockroach in the kitchen... It’s not what they carry off that upsets you. It’s what they fall into and foul up.”
That’s an ugly insight into how much Democrats and Republicans feel they own the political process, an entitlement – particularly among liberals – that RFK is challenging. But he’s not simply a black sheep ex-Dem. Like any strong independent candidate, he’s somewhat left, a tad right, more zeitgeist than programmatic.
He’s had no problem getting exposure; the negative publicity about his vax views has only attracted and energised a base. His true challenge is structural. American democracy is designed to keep the people in check by limiting their choice, making it an uphill, mega-expensive effort for outsiders to gain ballot access. The Kennedy campaign estimates it’ll have to spend $15 million and collect nearly a million signatures to appear on the ballot in all 50 states. Thus far, he’s managed only Utah. And I can’t see the Mormons going for love ceremonies and magic water.
So maybe this is where Shanahan comes in: she is rich. She put $4 million towards his Super Bowl ad and can now contribute towards the forthcoming ballot battles and legal bills, making her a far sounder choice than any disgraced congressman or ageing actor RFK might otherwise have picked up for the sake of name value. Kennedy is the only name a Kennedy needs.
