In a Forbes Newsroom interview last week, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy assailed the DNC’s efforts to thwart his candidacy, citing rules they’ve put in place to make it virtually impossible to challenge, let alone defeat, Joe Biden. He told Forbes’ Diane Brady that he’s asked the Democrat hierarchy to reconsider the insurmountable handicaps they’ve crafted against him into a largely nonexistent primary fight. At the time of the interview Kennedy was waiting for a response to his request.
Asked what he’ll do if the DNC proves recalcitrant—which is likely given that they want no challenge to Biden and their hold on power—Kennedy said he’d have to “consider other options.”
There’s only one option: run as an Independent.
It’s time for the MAGA movement to hope the Democrats keep moving closer to defeat. It’s time for Trump supporters to come out for an Independent Kennedy run in 2024. He can’t beat Trump, but he could cause a Democrat Party intent on another four years of insidious America-Last policies and ideologies to bleed out.
If Biden stays in and Kennedy was given an even primary playing field, it would be a donnybrook, so invested are many progressive Democrats in preventing their subversive agenda to be quashed by a comparatively traditionalist moderate like Kennedy. If Biden were to stand aside, Kennedy would wipe the floor in debate and handily defeat Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris in any fair primary battle. What might stop him on is a last-ditch Michelle Obama nomination at the Democratic Convention.
Kennedy isn’t coming across as this cycle’s Bernie Sanders. The chances of him acquiescing to Democrat party leaders and dropping out for possible future favors seem nil. Trump’s troops may disagree strongly with RFK’s positions on many things, but they also should understand that he’s way too sensible and moderate for the contemporary Democratic Party—and a serious threat to a far-left in total control of the Biden administration. That’s why they’re attempting, and succeeding, to hobble his chances at the starting gate.
It’s far-fetched to imagine that an Independent Kennedy run wouldn’t suck tremendous energy out of an already-enervated Biden incumbency. The son of an American political icon, he’s drawing support for his common-sense positions from many Democrats and Independents, and even gaining approval among some Republicans fed up with anti-Trumpers and Trump alike.
But it’s equally far-fetched to imagine Kennedy—Democrat or Independent—beating Trump in a general election. This part of the DNC’s primary strategy to stop Kennedy is probably sound. But the way they’re squeezing him out is angering a large number of already pissed-off voters. These voters could spell doom for Biden in a Biden-Trump-Kennedy general election.