I was elated to find out that Joe Biden is all about my freedom, and while he didn’t have a lot of luck increasing freedom in his first three years, I’m sure that wasn’t his fault. He is running for a second term because he wants to save freedom.
Or is it democracy he wants to save – Biden interchanges the terms with abandon. I do have a small concern about the slurring of words, and the imprecise language, but come on, man! This is our moment.
I haven’t followed the GOP side of things, There are no republicans running so far, that I am aware of, with a basic and fundamental understanding of economics, and none that don’t secretly want to send my kids and grandkids to fight in some foreign country – and of course, Joe Biden wants war everywhere, right now. Funny how he didn’t mention that in his announcement.
It really does seem as if the country is polarized – but not in the way Joe said, with good people versus MAGA domestic terrorists. Believe it or not, we actually can still speak to one another, and find common ground. We do it every day – the alternative is indeed civil war, and we are not there yet.
But the polarization is real – the liberal elite corporate bureaucracy that rules the United States versus all of the rest of us who live our lives, work, produce and participate in mostly elite-orchestrated sham political action.
We worry about being able to retire at 65, and yet the two leading candidates for President at the moment are both well past that age. Biden looks like he’s got one foot in the nursing home, and one wonders at times about Trump’s blood pressure. The president is a figurehead, so maybe their mental health doesn’t matter – but we expect them to at least manage the people who do the damage. Trump, famous for being able to hire the best, and fire the worst, failed in his strongest selling point. He hired John Bolton for a stint as his national security advisor, and continued in this confused path by failing to fire Fauci, two of many, many bad hiring and firing decisions. Further, neither Trump nor Biden can lead their own party, or even remotely begin to unify it.
Inability to lead a corrupt party machine is not a flaw. No one can do it. Both major parties – captured by elite money and special interests, one of them currently being marketed directly to the people by state media – are out of touch and have no answers. When you don’t have answers, you hem and haw until you can think of something, or figure out a way to save yourself. We are being offered Candidate Hem and Candidate Haw.
The exception to this is the remarkable RFK, Jr. His 120 plus minute long presidential announcement speech, given live with no notes, was impressive, and stirring.
The presidential campaigns of Ron Paul, Ross Perot, and a few others, punched higher than their weight. Their messages became became topics of the national conversation. Trump, a lifelong democrat who connects with the populist center did this as well, and was elected because he was able to co-opt the GOP institution itself – normally an extremely reliable elite partner, just not in 2016. The treatment of Trump by our elite ruling institutions – impeached twice, targeted incessantly by both parties and the state media, disobeyed and misled by his own appointees – is a case study in what our elite rulers will, and will not, tolerate.
The populist center is the real counterweight to the elite, quasi-global, corporate interests that dominate most governments, and certainly the US government. This cannot be spoken – our rulers divide and conquer, pit interest and economic groups against each other like any other colonial master. Only when we get the odd outlier do we see the great power of Americans together – common sense, caring, with a nostalgia for freedom and a sense that justice is actually possible, and worthwhile.
This is why Biden’s 3 minute video, emotionally promoting fear and division while using language that appeals to the center, is what it is. It’s the secret of Trump’s political success as well – this outreach to that powerful well of the heart of the country.
Like Ron Paul, Ross Perot, and Lt General Smedley Butler, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. offers a thinking man’s perspective, authenticity of experience, and willingness to speak to us as if we are thoughtful adults.
His phrasing is memorable – he speaks of “strip mining the country,” how lockdowns served the large corporations while “hollowing out the middle class,” “people in authority lie.” “The media lies, and everybody knows it.” He explains “regulatory capture” and corporate capitalism and he puts America first. His description of the US activity in fomenting war in Ukraine, and sustaining that and other wars for the benefit of elites is both accurate and chilling. He talks about his father’s presidential campaign and Vietnam. He explains the disaster of the COVID lockdowns – a story every American intuitively knows, but cannot mention in polite company. No one speaks like this today – and we crave it, we’ve been starved for it.
RFK, Jr.’s entry into the race is a blessing for the country. We are going to learn a lot by hearing his voice. We will learn even more by watching how the political machine and our permanent rulers react to him. He is running as a Democrat, but he is really a stalking horse for the populist center, including many of those who were inspired by Trump’s populism and common sense prescriptions. May God bless and keep Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as he traverses very dangerous territory.
Reprinted with permission from LewRockwell.com.
