By J Robert Smith
- Oct. 25, 2023
- 5-min read
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives some conservatives the willies. Kennedy is a vote stealer – from Trump more than Biden come autumn 2024, they claim. The fear was, is, and will be baseless. Kennedy just came out for reparations, which is a zany proposition. Even in whacko California, they’re having second thoughts about this fabulous free lunch justice measure for blacks or anyone who has Rachel Dolezal’s or Jessica A. Krug’s hutzpah.
Reparations, however, are adored by scads of affluent, progressive whites. This crowd is always looking for ways of relieving their perpetual white guilt. Kennedy’s call for reparations resonates with them. They’re mighty fine pickings for RFK Jr. That should give you a hint where Kennedy’s votes will come from. America First has nothing to do with it.
Kennedy won’t pull Trump’s voters, not many, anyway. His strategy of bestriding the ideological spectrum to gain support from the right and left is destined to fail. So, who should have the jitters? Democrats.
RFK Jr. will siphon off most of his votes from Joe the dementia sufferer. Joe, the frail, befuddled guy who a year from now – if he’s not pushing up daisies – is going to be even more feeble and witless. But if Joe is gone, you say, Democrats will move on to a more attractive candidate, say, Gavin Newsom. Surely, Newsom complicates things? He isn’t old Joe.
Au contaire! Newsom is no less a puppet – a cogent one, but no less than Joe. He has no intentions of “messing with the primal forces of [the establishment].” The moneybags will have their puppet.
Newsom, if he’s the nominee, will end up running a crimped campaign. His record as governor may appeal to California flakes and the bluest of blue precincts elsewhere, but voters who make up the broad middle will be appalled.
But Newsom has to scramble to the center. The establishment knows the game.
It may, and Newsom’s instinct will be to try, unless he has a suicide wish. But how far can Newsom stray from the weird mélange of globalism, woke, and racism that’s become orthodoxy among progressives?
Even if the string-pullers give Newsom wiggle room, he won’t venture to the middle in a void.
Unless they’re entirely lame – and they won’t be – the Trump and Kennedy campaigns will unload on Newsom as he tries to dance toward the middle. Super PACs aligned with Trump and Kennedy will weigh in. And Newsom needs to be made to own Biden’s awful policies and governance. Continue reading
