RFK Jr.: Weighing the bad with the good
The intrigue posed by Donald Trump’s selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services is growing acute.
Kennedy, the namesake of a famous dad and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, began 2024 as a Democratic candidate for president. Denied a chance for the nomination as the party coalesced (surprise, surprise) behind President Joe Biden, Kennedy sent feelers out to the Kamala Harris campaign before landing with team Trump during the campaign’s final stretch
In the process, he reworked the former president’s tagline. “Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy proclaimed.
The 70-year old Kennedy rose to prominence in the 1980s as a uniquely successful environmental activist and lawyer.
On the side, he was on call for his uncle, the long-serving liberal “lion” of the Senate, Edward M. Kennedy. True to his family’s Democratic moorings, Kennedy endorsed both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for president.
In 2016, he called Trump “a threat to democracy.” Earlier this year, he disparaged Trump further.
After linking arms with the GOP nominee, however, he took everything back. He campaigned with Trump. Since the election, he’s nestled comfortably into the Trump orbit.
In announcing Kennedy’s selection, the president-elect encouraged Bobby to “run wild” at the Department of Health and Human Services.
That’s what’s worrying. The idea that Kennedy, if confirmed by the Senate, would be in charge of the department’s $1.7 billion budget while having oversight of such agencies as the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a five-alarm fire for many.
Recent headlines help tell the story: “RFK Jr. Would Be Beyond Dangerous” (New York Times); and “The Appointment of RFK has horrified public health experts” (The Guardian).
Even the Trump-loving New York Post has weighed, noting that RFK Jr. is “nuts on many fronts,” and his agenda is a ” head-scratching spaghetti of … warped conspiracy theories.”
In addition to believing that his uncle’s 1963 assassination was the result of a CIA plot, Kennedy had placed infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates in his crosshairs as “amplifiers” of the Covid pandemic “in order to promote their mischievous inoculations.”
Besides expressing deep skepticism of vaccine safety and of vaccines in general, Kennedy has vowed, among other initiatives, to halt infectious disease research at NIH. He’s told FDA staffers to “pack their bags.”
But here’s where the dilemma comes in: Kennedy has also pledged to launch a host of liberal-friendly reforms, such as eliminating prescription drug advertising on social media.
A long-standing public advocate of healthy eating, Kennedy has promised to take on America’s expanding waistline by attacking ultra-processed foods. Obesity, heart and liver diseases, diabetes, and the rest pose mortal risks for both individuals and the nation, he believes.
Kennedy has promised to “incentivize sustainable farming practices, improve soil health, reduce chemical usage, and increase biodiversity,” all of which sound like tasks for the Department of Agriculture. The FDA may provide the opening he needs, however.
Kennedy, through his Make America Health Again political action committee, has pledged to work toward the elimination of “toxins from our food, water, and air.”
Golly, taking on Big Pharma, Big Food, and Big Ag in a business-friendly second Trump administration. Imagine that!
For many, RFK’s vaccine skepticism is the whole ballgame. They cry, “Never Kennedy.” Others, however, may glimpse the possibilities his nomination presents for critical, hard-to-get-at reforms. Besides everything else, Kennedy has proven to be a tenacious fighter for causes he believes in.
Near the end of his life in 1968, Bob Kennedy “was the most original, enigmatic, and provocative figure” in American politics, according to Arthur Schlesinger. Kennedy senior was deeply skeptical of liberal orthodoxies.
Like father, like son? There are vast differences between the two men. However, the similarities may be intriguing enough to warrant giving Kennedy junior a hard second look.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail. com.