OPINION:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a speech that was supposed to last for 10 minutes but wound up going on and on and on, ultimately taking 40 minutes from the lives of his listeners.
In his remarks, Mr. Kennedy, who is running for president, touched on topics as diverse as smallpox during the Revolution, Tucker Carlson’s high-pitched laugh and, of course, vaccines. Upon his conclusion, he received a standing ovation from a crowd that was populated entirely by people on the political right.
The reaction he received from the crowd was similar, although not as intense, as former President Donald Trump himself would have received, especially when Mr. Kennedy said that he would be proud to be in the foxhole with all of us.
That’s crazy — not quite as crazy as Mr. Kennedy, but crazy nonetheless.
In delivery, Mr. Kennedy is a lot like Mr. Trump is nowadays; sometimes entertaining, sometimes boring, always narrating his own version of his life and various grievances. Apparently, it isn’t easy being a rich, White dude.
The simple truth is that Mr. Kennedy is wrong with respect to many things he talks about. It is alarming that the audience was unable to discern that.
Almost all vaccines are remarkably effective and save and improve lives. That’s a fact. The lack of effectiveness of the COVID-19 shot — and other flu shots — as a vaccine is notable precisely because it is contrary to our experience with other vaccines.
Mr. Kennedy has advocated that we prosecute climate change deniers. Prosecuting people for having differing opinions seems a bit much.
He has said that the 2004(!) election was stolen from John Kerry and that his dad’s killer was not really Sirhan Sirhan.
There’s more, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters, at least to some on the right, is that Mr. Kennedy is as comfortable with unproven and unprovable theories as they are.
The other thing that matters is that he nurtures the same grievance mentality as Mr. Trump.
That makes sense. Their political power arises from the same social compost pile of disillusion with the ruling class. Fifty years of free trade made most richer but left some poorer. Fifty years of hostility to trade unionism by both parties. Fifty years of steadily worsening education.
All of that has left us with a significant slice of Americans who have lost hope and who gravitate toward any critic of the ruling class.
The difference between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kennedy, though, is that Mr. Trump — however haltingly — has tried to remedy some of what ails the disillusioned. His policies on immigration, trade and education were designed to limit and reverse the most egregious damage to the American working class.
Mr. Kennedy, on the other hand, is an agitator and a provocateur, and a fairly obvious one at that. The people who gave Mr. Kennedy a standing ovation should know better. For the most part, they are well-fed, well-credentialed and well-employed. They are not the aggrieved or the dispossessed. They should have remained seated and offered polite, reserved applause.
• Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, is the president of MWR Strategies. He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House.
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