HHS secretary Kennedy’s speech at the Republican Party midterm convention on September 10 was one of the most electrifying, statesmanlike, illuminating, and heroic political speeches in recent memory. Others have written about the speech itself — its clear-eyed analysis of the Democrats’ shift away from the party of the working class to the party of criminals and lunatics, from the party of FDR, JFK, Jimmy Carter, and Joe Manchin to the party of self-righteous buffoons (fill in your selection here) defending terrorists and murderers against U.S. citizens and the entire American legal apparatus.
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What has not been widely discussed is the self-sacrificing personal courage it took for Secretary Kennedy to make the speech, his willingness to hold fast against a withering onslaught of criticism, scorn, lawsuits, personal attacks, and a tidal wave of lies aimed at silencing a brave public figure whose only crime is to tell the truth.
It would be hard to think of a public figure more invested in the Democrat party than Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. At the convention, he delivered a desperately needed dose of tough love to Democrats. For his trouble, he has been pounded by the party and members of his own family not only as a turncoat, but as a danger to the survival of America.
Anyone who saw the September 10 speech saw a man who has absorbed vicious criticism for defending his position and, despite the pummeling, is fearless about standing his ground. There is almost no one on the public stage today willing to endure such blind, maniacal criticism as Secretary Kennedy has experienced. (Only Trump comes to mind.) To his credit, he shows no signs of wavering. His resoluteness, his resolve to defend the truth as he sees it regardless of the consequences, is a heroic act.
Like Trump, Secretary Kennedy could have avoided all this entirely. He doesn’t need a job. But like Trump, he stepped into the maelstrom because it gave him a chance to do what needs to be done. He says he prayed every day for years for a chance to improve the lives of American children. He jumped at the chance despite the inevitable fallout.
This is not the secretary’s first rodeo. He has long been on the record for holding to his views regardless of opposition or consequences. In 2001, he was arrested for protesting U.S. Navy bombing exercises on the island of Vieques off the coast of Puerto Rico. For years, his informed critique of mandatory childhood vaccines spawned a whole industry of lies and half-truths bent on silencing him.
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On the matter of Vieques, your correspondent (a Vietnam-era infantry veteran) did not come down on the secretary’s side of the question. However, on the matter of vaccines, the evidence — or rather the lack of it — is in his favor. Kennedy once offered $100,000 to anyone who could produce test results showing that the treatments were safe. So far, there are no takers. This is because although there are endless references to vaccine testing, there are no actual relevant original test results available anywhere. And if anyone out there can point to gold standard results — double-blind testing not funded by a party with any financial stake in the outcome — that the childhood vaccines in question are harmless, this writer will add a hundred bucks to the pot.
America owes Secretary Kennedy a huge debt of gratitude for the sacrifices he has made over a long career in the public eye. Against relentless opposition, he has raised the alarm over massive pharmaceutical and agricultural lobbies that have too much control over our lives. Now he has called out seismic shifts in the Democrat party he and his family supported for more than a hundred years but which is disappearing fast, being replaced by an anti-American whirlwind of fearmongering, subterfuge, and destruction.
The most grateful people of all should be Democrats who love their party and want to see it restored to greatness. The faithful few — John Fetterman, for one — refuse to give up. Whether the party can be pulled back from the brink of self-destruction depends on how much its leaders and members care about it and what they’re willing to sacrifice. They can stand strong like Secretary Kennedy and a smattering of others, or they can stand aside while their party is hijacked by ruffians who know everything about social media and nothing about American political systems, past failures and successes, leadership, economics, or anything else necessary to run the freest and wealthiest nation in the history of the world.
Mr. Secretary, on behalf of Americans of every political stripe, thank you for your statesmanship, your selfless service, and your dedication to what is right. In the unlikely event I should ever have the honor of thanking you in person, lunch is on me. Tallow fries, of course.
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Image: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.