Nicely, after two dead animal scandals, some sexual assault allegations, a brain worm, and plummeting polling numbers, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s political marketing campaign is successfully over. Kennedy stated Friday that he’s “suspending” his marketing campaign however that stans will nonetheless be capable to vote for him in non-swing states. And, in what needs to be probably the most express shows of an individual overtly betraying their very own purported values to suck as much as political energy, Kennedy has determined to endorse Donald Trump within the presidential race.
Throughout a concession speech of kinds, Kennedy claimed that he felt referred to as to endorse Trump as a result of they shared widespread pursuits. These pursuits, so far as may be discerned, are “free speech, the warfare in Ukraine, and the warfare on our kids,” because the candidate put it. “These are the principled causes that persuaded me to go away the Democratic Occasion and run as an impartial, and now to throw my assist to President Trump,” Kennedy stated.
It’s true that each RFK and Trump have spent a whole lot of time yammering about these points and that, objectively, there’s a report of them expressing concern about them. However one might additionally make the case that the candidates’ curiosity in stated matters are, all issues thought-about, considerably new and, subsequently, not essentially proof of longstanding curiosity or values. They could possibly be—as is so usually the case in politics—politically handy postures that play favorably to needed voter blocs.
But throughout his speech Friday, Kennedy additionally ruminated on points which have inarguably been longstanding components of his model, points he claimed he nonetheless cares deeply about: healthcare, defending the atmosphere, abating America’s company regulatory seize, and offering People with wholesome meals. In his remarks, Kennedy wildly appeared to indicate that Trump would do one thing to advance these targets.
Onlookers are arguably left with solely two methods to interpret Kennedy’s Trump endorsement. The primary is to presume that Kennedy could be very, very silly. Solely somebody with the psychological schools of a tadpole would consider that Donald Trump goes to perform the issues that Kennedy apparently hopes Trump will accomplish. The opposite interpretive technique is to imagine that Kennedy is completely filled with it. In different phrases, Kennedy isn’t actually invested within the values (the atmosphere, People’ well being, and many others) that he says he’s—or, on the very least, is prepared to fully and totally betray these values to assist Trump.
To bolster each of those arguments, listed below are among the points that Kennedy claims he cares about, alongside Trump’s report relative to these points. Astute observers will word that the contrasts are stark.
Kennedy is stuffed with shit (or an fool) on defending the atmosphere
The kindest factor you may say about Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump is that it’s a betrayal of every part he labored for throughout his career as an environmental lawyer. Even when a lot of Kennedy’s complaints concerning the Democratic Occasion are true, one factor that’s inarguable is that the Democrats are light-years forward of the GOP in the case of defending the atmosphere. As such, endorsing Trump is unforgivable from the attitude of somebody who authentically cares concerning the pure world. Trump notably rolled again more than 100 environmental rules and rules and nominated a guy with dense ties to the Koch brothers and the oil foyer to move the EPA. Undertaking 2025, the coverage blueprint authored by the Heritage Basis and a small military of former Trump officers, has plans to gut the EPA, defund a number of climate companies, ban official use of the time period “local weather change,” and do an entire assortment of different horrible issues in the case of environmental safety. Trump has even proposed privatizing protected federal lands in order that they can be used to build “futuristic cities.”
Kennedy is stuffed with shit (or an fool) on healthcare
Kennedy additionally mentions healthcare loads and says he feels that America’s healthcare system must be fastened. Not solely did Trump try to kill Obamacare (the one authorities program making healthcare affordable for tens of tens of millions of People) a number of instances, however Undertaking 2025 would search to roll again client well being advantages that the Biden administration instituted, like negotiated drug costs. That very same challenge has been supported by lobbying teams that symbolize the pharmaceutical business, Rolling Stone has reported. Undertaking 2025 would additionally search to bolster Medicare Advantage, the privatized model of Medicare—a transfer that, as American Progress has put it, would symbolize a “multibillion-dollar giveaway to firms” that may additionally “restrict older People’ well being care decisions whereas placing Medicare’s future in danger.”
Kennedy is stuffed with shit (or an fool) on wholesome meals
Throughout his horribly lengthy concession speech Friday, Kennedy spent an on-godly period of time rambling about “persistent illness” and weight problems. In a transfer that ought to have made most onlookers upchuck their lunch from laughter, he went on to indicate that Donald Trump—a man who is, himself, reported to be obese—goes to repair each of those issues. If Trump’s previous insurance policies are any indication, Kennedy is improper right here. In 2018, it was reported that snack meals and corn syrup lobbyists had been put in command of meals coverage on the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA). Once more, why Kennedy thinks the man who filled the White House with Big Macs goes to assist low-income People break their habit to quick meals is past me.
Kennedy is stuffed with shit (or an fool) on “regulatory seize”
Most likely essentially the most mystifying factor that Kennedy stated on Friday is that he helps the tip of company “regulatory seize” and that he expects Donald Trump to do one thing about this. On Friday, Kennedy stated that he wished a pacesetter who would “clear company affect out of the federal government,” and that Trump had “adopted” this situation. Once more, the stupidity right here is rank. Throughout Trump’s first administration, he successfully tried to show the federal authorities into a corporate whorehouse, permitting an assortment of industries to successfully write the foundations by which they’re regulated. A 2019 investigation by ProPublica found a “staggering” level of Trump political appointees have been former company lobbyists, some 281 appointees—or one out of each 14. Appropriately, Undertaking 2025 gives a imaginative and prescient of a future presidency that’s like Trump’s first administration on steroids. Why, precisely, would Kennedy count on Trump to “clear company affect” out of the federal government when his major precedence appears to be maximizing it?
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