The retro Democrat
Joe Biden has an old-school challenger. Is this a repeat of 1980?
Where I come from, I grew up with the Democrat Party of old: one which was liberal in terms of helping out the poor with government money, but one which still shared most of the moral values of middle America.
It was a party that enthusiastically voted for candidates like John F. Kennedy and other Democrats who believed in continuing the governmental philosophy begun with FDR’s New Deal and continued after Kennedy’s death with LBJ’s Great Society.
It was a party that the union rank-and-file dutifully supported up and down the ballot, and one they worked for just as hard as I did the few Republicans who dared run for office in union-dominated Lucas County, Ohio.
And when I moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland I found a lot more old-school Democrats in that same JFK tradition. They weren’t as willing to vote for Norheast liberals like Mike Dukakis or John Kerry, though; in fact, since 1988 - the last Presidential election won statewide in Maryland by a Republican - the Shore has voted Republican except for three (of nine) counties for Clinton in 1996, one for Gore in 2000, one for Obama in 2008 and 2012, and two for Biden in 2020. Yet many of the counties still maintain registration advantages for Democrats.
The same is true here in Delaware: Sussex County has voted GOP in every Presidential election since Ronald Reagan carried it in 1980, while Kent and New Castle have mostly gone Democrat. So there’s a throwback element to many local Democrats, some of whom simply reside in the party because their ancestors did or because they want to make an impact in statewide races via the primary.
In the 2024 election, though, we’re getting a real throwback name. Few of those alive anymore (even Joe Biden) could have voted for John F. Kennedy for President, since you would have to be 84 years old to have done so. Those Democrats in certain states who are slightly younger (age 76 or more) could have voted for his late brother Robert before RFK was assassinated himself during the 1968 campaign. And then there are the Boomers who may have seen Ted Kennedy as a viable Democrat alternative to Jimmy Carter as our failed 39th president attempted re-election in 1980. (Wrong party and just before my time - part of the reason I identify more with Generation X.)
It’s the namesake son of RFK we’re concerned with here as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced last week he was making a bid for the Democrat nomination, a similar position to that his late uncle Ted took 44 years ago. (I haven’t heard Joe Biden say “I’ll whip his ass” yet, though.) And in looking at his platform, it’s clear Kennedy’s doing his best to thread a needle that keeps the interest with more regressive Democrats who have soured on Joe Biden and yet appeal to the old-school Democrats who aren’t down with the racial and gender pandering exhibited by the modern far left-winger.
And the conditions are somewhat similar to those in 1980: we have a Democrat incumbent who has the electroral headwinds of a weak economy, high inflation, and unrest abroad; in Joe Biden’s case, he’s a Democrat many believe should not run again.
The younger Kennedy, who isn’t all that young at 69 years of age, has made a name for himself over the years in two areas. One, which the Democrat elite stenographers seldom fail to point out, is that he’s anti-vaccine, and the other is his environmental work that he points to as an example of coalition-building.
But in looking at his platform “priorities” it’s clear he’s simply working at the language of political and economic regression a different way. Some examples:
“We will get money out of politics.” Money in politics is not the problem, money in an overbearing federal government is.
“In the case of race relations, reconciliation includes repairing the damage caused by centuries of bigotry. Our administration will take racial healing seriously through a program of Targeted Community Repair.” Is that the only criteria for repair? Compassion should be colorblind, too.
“(W)e will protect wild lands from further development, by curbing mining, logging, oil drilling, and suburban sprawl.” It sounds like you will protect big government from economic growth that could wean people off the system.
“Government assistance to the nation’s most vulnerable is a high priority, but even more important is to reverse the policies that have led to such poverty in the first place.” Could that be the government assistance that’s taught generations how to slide through life while contributing nothing? People care for the needy poor and indigent who are truly down on their luck, but too many simply exist to skate through life and game the system because that’s what the system taught them to do. Didn’t his uncle tell us, “ask not what your country can do for you?”
“America was once an inspiration to the world, a beacon of freedom and democracy. Our priority will be nothing less than to restore our moral leadership. We will lead by example. When a warlike imperial nation disarms of its own accord, it sets a template for peace everywhere. It is not too late for us to voluntarily let go of empire and serve peace instead, as a strong and healthy nation.” Forgetting, of course, that nature abhors a vacuum. But this idea will play well with the isolationist camp.
“We will also take special care to ensure the civil liberties of minorities and the poor.” Shouldn’t you just do that for everyone? This point overall is to be critical of the surveillance state, but I thought we were supposed to be all equal in the eyes of the law.
And so on and so forth. In essence, I think Kennedy is a slightly younger version of Joe Biden without the elective experience, and with policies couched in a language that will attract those disillusioned with both Joe Biden (for his deteriorating mental state and family issues) and Donald Trump (for his mean Tweets.) Remember, a significant chunk of Trump’s support came from these same working-class Democrats Kennedy is attempting to appeal to.
In one respect, Kennedy may be playing the Eugene McCarthy role from 1968, although in that race the circumstances were different - the nation was in the midst of a war that had lost its popular appeal. Yet McCarthy did well enough in the early-deciding states which held primaries to convince Lyndon Johnson he would not win another term, so he withdrew his name from nomination before most of the caucuses had begun. By that same token, Joe Biden could enter the race now, but if the polls suggest Kennedy has traction Joe could decide to withdraw for “health reasons” this fall, leaving enough time for a successor to emerge.
If the goal is to turn over a new leaf in the Democrat Party, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. may be just the guy to do it. But he’ll have to overcome an establishment to make it happen.