OPINION:
In this strange political moment in America, few things are stranger than realizing that the Democratic Party’s version of Donald Trump is named Kennedy.
For all his blue chip political pedigree, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is running an outsider, speak-truth-to-power, barbarians-at-the-gate campaign for president. His instant popularity among Democratic voters is proof that the same yearnings that gave rise to Mr. Trump in 2016 lie untapped inside the Democratic Party, too.
“I feel like my country is being taken away from me,” he told a reporter from Time magazine last month. “I want to restore in many ways the America of my youth, the America I was brought up in.”
If only there were a political slogan out there that could capture that sentiment. Something like, I don’t know, maybe “Make America Great Again.”
In one of the dumbest moments of these strange political times, Democrats attacked Mr. Trump in 2016 over his “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Not because he stole it from President Ronald Reagan. But because, they claimed, it was racist.
That Democrats automatically think that what really made America great back then was slavery, segregation and Jim Crow laws tells you all you need to know about today’s Democratic Party — a party that was built upon hatred of Blacks.
In his race against President Biden, Mr. Kennedy enjoys the same vitriol from the media that is directed at Mr. Trump.
Usually, that vitriol is aimed at Mr. Kennedy’s illegal thoughts about vaccines. His lifelong devotion to cleaning up chemicals dumped in rivers by big, greedy corporations under the lazy eye of government extends to chemicals dumped into the veins of children by big, greedy corporations under the lazy eye of government.
“I never saw anybody with autism,” he recalls of his youth back when America was still great.
It got him to wondering if his own child’s peanut allergy might be connected to the growing schedule of vaccines forced on children. And then there is his own vocal disorder, which he has suggested might be a side effect of the flu vaccine.
Questioning government-forced medications turns the obedient media into pure hysterics.
Another monument to the strange politics of our time is that it is celebrated today when a mentally ill person diagnoses his or her own gender contrary to all scientific evidence. But diagnosing your own vaccine injury using the scientific method gets you thrown in the political brig for the rest of your life.
And it’s not just crazed, left-wing media who become deranged over Mr. Kennedy’s musings.
Last week, the New York Post — normally among the few honest newspapers in America — accused Mr. Kennedy of being an antisemitic conspiracy kook.
“There is an argument that [COVID-19] attacks certain races disproportionately,” he was quoted telling a private dinner party in New York. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
Granted, this is not the regular political fare voters are accustomed to hearing from cautious, poll-tested, blow-dried politicians. But that’s what makes Mr. Trump and Mr. Kennedy unique and powerful.
And the media is always poised to distort and turn any off-script comment against the person who made it, reminding us once again why obedient politicians refuse to veer off the well-worn path of pablum and bromides.
But let’s consider more carefully Mr. Kennedy’s scandalous assertion.
First, he claimed that COVID-19 was genetically engineered as a weapon against certain people. If, as is becoming increasingly obvious, the virus was developed in — and leaked from — a lab in Wuhan, China, then Mr. Kennedy is correct. And kudos to him for talking about it.
Second, he made a scientific statement that a scientific study showed that certain genetic groups were spared the worst ravages of the virus. He specifically listed “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
Now, the Chinese have a lot of explaining to do since it was their lab that spawned the virus and they have fought every effort since the beginning of the pandemic to investigate and combat COVID-19.
But nowhere did Mr. Kennedy say anything about Ashkenazi Jews’ being responsible for creating the virus. It wasn’t their lab or their country.
He merely stated that they had — according to his scientific study — won the genetic lottery in avoiding the worst ravages of a genetically engineered disease.
But never let facts get in the way of a good story. The Post went on to print a quote from the left-wing Anti-Defamation League accusing Mr. Kennedy of something he did not say.
“The claim that COVID-19 was a bioweapon created by the Chinese or the Jews to attack Caucasians and black people is deeply offensive and feeds into sinophobic and anti-semitic conspiracy theories about COVID-19 that we have seen evolve over the last three years.”
If you are known by your enemies, then Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Trump are in the finest company.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor of The Washington Times.
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