Posted on 08/25/2024 6:17:07 PM PDT by george76
Below is my column in the New York Post on the withdrawal of Robert Kennedy, Jr. from the presidential race and his endorsement of President Donald Trump.
Kennedy’s speech resonated with many long-time Democrats who have found themselves estranged from the party. While Kennedy remains an independent, it is a cautionary tale that is being missed in the “joy” theme of the Democrat National Convention. The fact is that new Republicans are often not the product of ideology and association but anxiety and exclusion. Democrats make Republicans.
Here is the column:
The withdrawal of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the presidential race and his endorsement of President Donald Trump was yet another extraordinary moment in an election that has been anything but predictable.
Only a year ago, it would have been unthinkable that a sitting president would be effectively forced off a ticket and replaced by a candidate who did not secure a single vote for president.
Now, the nephew of John F. Kennedy and son of the Robert F. Kennedy has not just withdrawn from the Democratic Party but endorsed the Republican nominee.
Amidst all of the claimed “joy” of the Democratic National Convention, there is a sobering reality that is being ignored by the ecstatic press and pundits: this is how Democrats make Republicans.
There is an old expression that “a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged.”
Irving Kristol explained the neoconservative movement was built by Democrats “mugged by reality.”
Kennedy has not become a Republican but rather joined the roughly half of Americans now identifying as independents. While this country is solidly under the hold of a duopoly of power in the two main parties, only 25% of the country identify as Democrats, and 25% as Republicans.
Kennedy’s departure from the Democrats has been mocked in the press. However, when he spoke on his withdrawal, many of us who have been lifetime members of the party identified with his remarks.
I come from a politically active liberal Democratic family in Chicago. I spent much of my life working for liberals since I first came to Washington as a Democratic House page in the 1970s. I did stints on the Hill or on campaigns with Democrats ranging from Rep. Sid Yates (Ill.) to Sen. William Proxmire (Wis.) to Mo Udall (Arz.). I even worked on the campaign and ran for delegate for RFK Jr.’s uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy.
Then the party changed. Where once they defended free speech, Democrats have rallied behind censorship and blacklisting of those with opposing views. They have sought to block dozens of Republicans from ballots, including President Trump. To make matters worse, they have done so in the supposed name of democracy.
Those actions were raised by Kennedy in his powerful and poignant withdrawal speech. He detailed how the Democratic party moved to stop him from running against President Biden in the primary, including efforts to block him from ballots. It was an ironic moment. After harassing candidates like RFK and Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, the Democratic leadership then simply installed their choice at the convention in an unprecedented bait-and-switch.
There could have been a substantive primary that exposed the diminished mental state of Biden and allowed for a democratic choice on the best nominee. Instead, the Democrats prevented such choices from being made and selected a leader with all of the transparency and deliberation of a party Congress in China.
Kennedy said that the Democratic Party has virtually shoved him and other voters into the arms of Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Kennedy observed that “I began this journey as a Democrat, the party of my father, my uncle, the party which I pledged my own allegiance to long before I was old enough to vote.”
He said that his party was the one that championed free speech, government transparency, and opposed unjust wars. “True to its name, it was the party of democracy.”
He said that the party has turned its back on all of the values that once defined it. For former Democrats like Kennedy, running on “joy” is no substitute for these profound changes in the party.
Indeed, the DNC bordered on the creepy as speaker after speaker sold the idea that, if voters could just swallow the Harris candidacy, they would immediately experience joy like some political prozac commercial.
It is not clear whether the red pill/blue pill pitch will be enough, or whether Kennedy’s endorsement will turn the critical votes in swing states.
However, the DNC showed how Democrats make Republicans. The unrelenting identity politics and claims of defending democracy (while opposing democratic choice) only reaffirmed for many that there is no longer a big tent in the party of Roosevelt and Kennedy.
There is a serious question whether John F. Kennedy would recognize or support the current Democratic Party. It now rejects many of his core, mainstream values.
His nephew highlighted the irony of how the party not only worked to block the ability of opponents to challenge President Biden but worked to “conceal the cognitive decline of the sitting president.”
Even the Washington Post recently admitted that “the 81-year-old had shown signs of slipping for a long time, but his inner circle worked to conceal his decline.”
However, the Post failed to note that Vice President Kamala Harris was part of that inner circle. Indeed, she has been touting her close work with Biden in her campaign.
There is little recognition that, if true, it means that Harris, the White House, and leading Democrats lied to the public about Biden’s mental decline for their own political interests.
For Kennedy, it was all too much “and, most sadly … in the name of saving Democracy, the Democratic Party set itself to dismantling it, lacking confidence in its candidate, that its candidate could win in a fair election at the voting booth.”
There is little “joy” in that.
I doubt JFK would even be welcome in the demonrat party today.
“I even worked on the campaign and ran for delegate for RFK Jr.’s uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy.”
Yikes, presumably that was before Dead Ted became a murderer.
Kennedy was anti-communist, pro business, believed in tax cuts, was a lifetime member of the NRA and kept us out of Vietnam. On the flip side, he was for universal healthcare, federal education assistance, increasing the minimum wage, and the beginning ideas (New Frontier) of what would later become LBJ’s Great Society. Kennedy would politically be an Independent today, maybe a conservative Democrat like they used to be, or a liberal Republican, but definitely not bat$hit crazy like the rest of the Dems.
Back in the ‘70’s politics was a big collective bargaining table.
Tories on one side, Labour on the other.
Republicans on one side, Democrats on the other.
Those days are long gone.
(Don’t tell Mitch or he won’t invite you to the croquet match at the country club.)
Of course, Republicans have also been duped by the Republicans In Name Only RINOs. They claimed they were for freedom and Constitutional order while stabbing the conservative voters in the back at every opportunity.
Donald Trump showed the uniparty can be beat. They are the party of the Deep State. They are terrified of another Trump Term.
Jonathan Turley is unwilling to admit the Democratic Party has always been corrupt and anti-democratic.....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah... who are you voting for, Jonathan?
Turley uses the terms “..liberal who has been mugged.” and “mugged by reality.”
but STUPIDLY, intentionally dodges the obvious : who is the insane fascist party here ?
Acts like it is a mystery but HE IS OK with it.
Steroids yay.
Vaccinations boo.
“Jonathan Turley is unwilling to admit the Democratic Party has always been corrupt and anti-democratic.....”
You are spot on with that observation my friends.
See that previous post from American Thinker: The Democrat Party was never democratic for a history of those evil bastards
It’s not just a difference of opinion.
And Smarty Pants like Turley should know better. But they can’t seem to ever open their eyes
Apparently he wasn’t accepted then. It was just something they could not control. Much like Trump n 2016. Both resonated with the majority of their respective party’s base. The Democrats, being the supposed party of free speech, Democracy, the little man, etc. had no choice but to allow JFK to win, even if it was by a stolen election. But then JFK began believing he controlled the government, and they had to eliminate him.
The old school Republican Party is at its very nature incredibly lazy. They would rely heavily on democrats being disaffected with their own candidate hoping they didn’t show up to vote to win elections.
It’s going around the democrat internet that for RFK, Jr to endorse and join with Trump is illegal. How could it possibly be illegal?
Gavin Newsom isn’t welcome today.
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