Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is Lucky He Didn’t Qualify for the CNN Debate

Kennedy Jr.’s campaign wants to make this out to be a media conspiracy—the press is colluding with the major party candidates to suppress an independent candidate who would be the people’s choice! But there’s no reason to believe that’s the case. Kennedy Jr. began the race as an unknown with a famous name that often (incorrectly) brings to mind a rosier, earlier period in American history. Voters have subsequently gotten to know Kennedy Jr., and it is abundantly clear that they do not like what they see. His support has steadily declined since the race actually began and voters started to actually consider who they wanted to vote for. 

That is not surprising. At all. Kennedy Jr.’s platform is a mishmash of ideas that hints at another big problem with his campaign: It is the deranged marriage of consultant-driven nonsense on one hand and the candidate’s own conspiracy-addled bullshit on the other. It is a pro-environmental campaign that also enjoys speaking ominously about the national deficit and the need to balance the budget. It is a campaign that is critical of America’s support for Ukraine but sees little wrong with Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza. At every turn it is overrun with strange conspiracy theories about vaccines, medicine, and public health. For every plank in his platform that appeals to a Trump supporter there are three that repel them; for every liberal point he makes in a stump speech he makes seven that would leave a potential Biden voter scowling or shaking their head. 

Despite his famous name, Kennedy Jr. is also a shockingly unpolished and uncharismatic presence. He’s prone to rambling on the stump and has a stodgy mien that’s hardly inviting—particularly given his tendency to get lost in the feverswamps. (I attended a press event with the candidate that was maybe the single most embarrassing political event I have ever attended—and I’ve been to several Trump rallies. In it, Kennedy Jr. and his campaign manager made the laughable, fantastical case that they would be leading in a two-person race and that Joe Biden should drop out so RFK Jr. could defeat Donald Trump.) Kennedy Jr. has die-hard supporters, to be clear—most of whom are conspiracy-addled, obsessed with his (dead) family members, or both. But he’s done nothing to attract anyone else—quite the opposite.