The “curse of the Kennedys” has entered American folklore due to the slew of premature deaths, assassinations, accidents and scandal afflicting the US political dynasty.
But with the rise of the conspiracy-touting family member, Robert F Kennedy Jr, there are suggestions the malediction may now extend to the political party with which the clan is so closely associated.
Robert Jr, 69, the fourth Kennedy to run for the US presidency, might not wrest the Democrat nomination from Joe Biden, but some fear he could still undermine his party’s chances of keeping Donald Trump out of the White House.
Robert F Kennedy’s outspoken support for conspiracy theories about Covid, vaccines, and the “Deep State”, have led to him being dubbed the “MAGA Democrat”. His close ties with alt-right figures like Joe Rogan, Roger Ailes, and Steve Bannon (on Thursday he declared he was “proud” to have been praised by Trump), have led to suggestions he is being courted and used to draw away conspiracy-minded Democrat voters.
Kennedy, the son of assassinated US attorney general Robert F Kennedy, has long fixated on what he claims is the CIA’s role in the killing of his father, and the assassination five years before that of his uncle, President John F Kennedy in 1963.
For decades the focus of Robert F Kennedy’s Jr’s campaigning was the environment. But this was eventually superseded by his campaigns on what he claims are the dangers of vaccination.
His profile was dramatically raised in 2021 with the publication of his conspiracy opus, The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health. The title might repel many. But it sold a million copies in the US.
He has promoted the notion that 5G alters human DNA, causes cancer, and is part of a vast surveillance program.
In addition to his less specific, but still highly dubious and dangerous claims about vaccines and shadowy government activities, Kennedy is prone to making particular statements that are shocking in their stupidity and inaccuracy. He posted the false allegation that the Gates Foundation had paralysed 496,000 children in India during a polio vaccine trial. As Politifact noted in 2020, the WHO has recorded 17 cases of vaccine-derived polio in India since 2000; not 496,000.
Recently, Fox News host Neil Cavuto had to correct him on air after he claimed that “we” – as in the United States – had “killed 350,000 Ukrainian kids”, during a statement criticising US support for Ukraine as it fights off a Russian invasion.
Right-wing broadcasters and pundits still court Kennedy, however.
Alt-right guru and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has hailed his political appeal.
“Populist left, populist right – and where that Venn diagram overlaps – he’s talking to those people.” Bannon told The Atlantic that the audience of his podcast, War Room, “loves” Kennedy.
“I think Tucker’s seeing it, Rogan’s seeing it, other people – the Tucker-Rogan-Elon-Bannon-combo-platter right … are seeing it. It’s a new nomenclature in politics,” he said. “And obviously the Democrats are scared to death of it … They want to pretend it doesn’t exist.”
There might be something in the latter claim.
Neither the Biden re-election team nor the White House seem keen to comment on RFK Junior.
In a town-hall style event last Wednesday, which was ignored by most of the mainstream media, Kennedy said that one of his main political objectives was “de-escalating all of the hatred and the poison and the vitriol” afflicting the US; he warned that polarisation in his country was “more dangerous than it’s been since the civil war”.
It’s been left to Democrat figures one step removed from government to dismiss Kennedy’s views and electoral credibility
“Democrats know RFK Jr. isn’t actually a Democrat,” according to Jim Messina, who led Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. He thinks Kennedy “is not a legitimate candidate in the Democratic primary” and adds that “his offensive ideas align him with Trump and the other GOP candidates running for president.”
But Kennedy has other high-profile backers.
Jack Dorsey, the billionaire founder of Twitter shared a Fox News clip of Kennedy saying he could beat Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis in 2024. “He can and will,” Dorsey tweeted. David Sacks, the tech tycoon, recently co-hosted a fundraiser for Kennedy, with his “PayPal mafia” ally Elon Musk. Another celebrity who chose to endorse him is the actress Alicia Silverstone best known, rather appropriately for her role in the film Clueless.
Given the controversy surrounding his views, Kennedy has been making some surprisingly good poll numbers.
A CNN poll late last month gave Kennedy with 20 per cent support against Biden. Pollsters found that the main reason voters liked him was because of the Kennedy name.
The Washington Post has noted that with Joe Biden consistently polling over 60 per cent among the three Democrat primary candidates (Marianne Williamson is the third contender – polling only around 5 per cent), the White House incumbent is cruising to the nomination.
But it is the effect that Kennedy’s populist rhetoric and conspiracy theories might have on the minds of floating voters and conspiracy-minded Democrats in the main election race next year, that concerns some people.
Professor Todd Landman, an American political scientist at Nottingham University, thinks the Kennedy name is still a draw for some voters.
“The Kennedy name is part of the dynastic history of US politics … which does draw increased attention to Robert F Kennedy Jr. as a person and as a candidate, he says. “He also has the physicality of a Kennedy and appears healthy and energetic, which will attract some voters.”
Professor Landman noted that Kennedy’s views “are counter to those of mainstream democrats and more aligned with elements of the political right”.
Kennedy has called for immigration policies that see the US-Mexican border sealed permanently. He has claimed that pharmaceutical drugs are responsible for the rise of mass shootings in America – and opposes a ban on assault rifles. These views are likely to repel many Democrats.
Nonetheless, says Professor Landman, “he in part undermines mainstream Democratic messages, particularly the vaccine and mask advice offered during and ‘after’ Covid”.
Another American academic, Harvey H Cohen, a cultural historian based at King’s college London, goes further. “The right is happy to have Kennedy attacking Covid vaccines and promoting crackpot conspiracy theories,” he says. “Of course, Steve Bannon and Fox love having him on their shows. It provides a veneer of respectability by allowing them to say they’re giving airtime to Democrat voices.
“I think he’s being used by them. And come election time, his views might be used by the right to undermine the mainstream Democrat message of Joe Biden. This is pure cynicism.”
