The only substantial challenger to the two parties, this presidential campaign season, has been Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The son of a presidential primary frontrunner in 1968, and nephew of the 35th President of the United States — both assassinated — has been an environmental litigator and vaccine skeptic for years, and, unlike Presidents Biden and Trump, has publicly and fundamentally criticized the handling of the
Though a Democrat for years, he was marginalized by the Democratic Party — an efficient machine for an astoundingly monolithic power center — and last October decided not to run as a Democrat.
So he’s gathering signatures, creating parties, all sorts of schemes to make good on his promise of being on the ballot in every state of the union.
As Ron Paul’s last-minute ballot access coordinator in 1988, I know how difficult that is. The two parties have only continued to tighten their grip on American election “rules.” If you were wondering why Bobby Kennedy made his Veep choice so early and picked wealthy Silicon Valley lawyer Nicole Shanahan, the reason is that many states require a Vice Presidential running mate to be on the petition before signatures
RFK, Jr., was forced to jump the gun. Plus, now a candidate, there are no campaign finance limitations on Shanahan putting her personal wealth into the effort.
Interestingly, RFK has formed a “national” political party, the “We the People Party,” which has established footholds in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Mississippi, and North Carolina. He has also formed The Texas Independent Party and is on the ballot as an Independent in Hawaii, Nevada, New Hampshire,
While in recent years there has been tremendous focus on how people vote, look at all the hurdles and walls still facing the who, if that candidate exists outside the major-party duopoly, a victim of all its silly, anti-democratic laws.
Maybe that’s one way Kennedy’s campaign can “do good,” by highlighting an issue neither party cares about: free and fair elections.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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3 replies on “The “We the People” Party Pooper”
In most cases, the anti-Trump vote that goes to Kennedy would not have gone instead to Biden, but rather to the Libertarian nominee (who will appear on the ballots of at least 37 states) or to Jill Stein (who will appear on the ballots of at least twenty states). Yet the Democrats have been especially venomous in response to Kennedy, perhaps because he challenges their self-perceptions.
Lack of venom not withstanding, Republicans know that Kennedy will draw some anti-Biden votes that would instead have gone to Trump while taking far fewer if any from Biden. Kennedy can therefore expect the Republican Party to do what it can to keep him off ballots and to make as expensive as possible his efforts to be listed.
After the coming General Election, Kennedy’s party is likely to stumble-around as has Perot’s Reform Party.
Controlled oligopolies abhor competition. The D’s and R’s most certainly agree in one principle, they, and only they, will run the government.
Gone are the days when there were vibrant ‘factions’ within each party. The differences between the parties are now so stark that most people are in one camp or the other. Even ‘independents’ have their first choice. The focus on third party presidential and congressional candidates does not address the makeup of Congress. We have two major parties. A parliamentary system wouldn’t appreciably change the situation. Independents, like Bernie Sanders and Kyrsten Sinema, or even the late Joe Lieberman, had to pick a side to caucus with. Their ‘independent’ pose is but a facade. RFK may run as an ‘independent’ but he is still far to the left of most Americans and voters know it.