Caroline Kennedy is Why I Am No Longer a Democrat

What has become of a once-great political party is now nothing more than a mouthpiece for the establishment government.

Nothing has made me not want to be a Democrat more than “Sweet Caroline’s” letter to her cousin.

With the exception of RFK, Jr., I never want to have to listen to anyone in the Kennedy family ever again. They have been surfing on the Kennedy name for decades now in underserving ways, up to and including these baseless attacks—personal and ugly—against RFK, Jr. the day before his confirmation hearing.

Did it really have to go all the way to little pets in a blender? To talk of violence? To calling him a predator? Her hysteria mirrors the same hysteria shared by everyone on the Left now. There is no doubt that hysteria will play out tomorrow.

It is that hysteria, and that disconnect from the reality of everyday life in America, that has wrecked the once great movement of the Left and very nearly wrecked this country. And it is exactly the reason I left the Democrats and have done everything I could to take them out of power.

Did they care when children were being told they could choose their own gender and were sent down the path of puberty blockers and surgeries only to wake up with bodies that don’t work, mutilated by the so-called experts Caroline Kennedy has put so much of her faith in?

She might see Trump as a great threat to “democracy,” whatever that means anymore, but he did this today:

Where were the Kennedys on this issue? Oh, I know, hiding as usual. What politician before RFK, Jr., even cared about what was happening to the kids in schools and at the hands of a corrupt, too-powerful mental and medical health industry? Before he came along, many of us felt hopeless. There was nothing we could do. But great leaders rise because they inspire the hopeless not to give up that their collective voice can make a difference.

Like everyone else, I grew up madly in love with the Kennedys. They were, we thought, the shining example of what the Democratic Party could be. JFK and RFK were handsome, charismatic, progressive, brave, and intelligent men whose lives were cut short too soon. We all kept a place in our hearts for them and their whole family, especially Caroline and John John.

Now, as I watch Caroline Kennedy do what is required of her as a member of the elite ruling class: destroy Trump and his nominees, I see someone I no longer recognize, and certainly don’t admire. and that makes me reevaluate the place we’ve held for the Kennedy family overall for decades. Why would she do this to him and think it was the right thing to do? Her own cousin?

What are they so afraid of? That the people might have found, for the first time, the one Kennedy who actually gives a shit about them? Does she really think that it’s RFK, Jr. who will ruin the family name and not, oh, I don’t know, Uncle Teddy and that late-night drive that killed a young woman? How about how women were brought to her own father to be used and then discarded?

There is no Kennedy who has awakened the people more than RFK, Jr., a chip off the old block with his father’s ability to captivate a crowd and lead a movement. Caroline Kennedy should be proud of that instead of her condescending, dismissive wave meant to embarrass and weaken him to do what, save face among the other aristocrats?

Like so many in the MAGA/MAHA movement, RFK, Jr., is greatly flawed. This motley crew of imperfect heroes has lived messy, hard lives, made big mistakes, and struggled with drugs, alcohol, infidelity, and pain. But what they all have in common is that they have the stuff, the true grit, to stare down the powerful and speak up for us.

Robert F. Kennedy would be proud of his son’s strength of character to do whatever he could to do the harder job of making change. He certainly didn’t have to go this route. He could have done what all of the other Kennedys did, nestle comfortably in the arms of the establishment Democrats.

But he could see what so many of us could feel - that something was not quite right about how our government was going about its business with very little concern for the people of this country.

RFK gave people hope, too, and he did it in controversial, dangerous, and rebellious ways. His son echoes that spirit, no matter the cost to him. Imagine him waking up to what the Kennedy family is now—pillars of a bloated establishment that speaks only to those inside the rarified air of an insulated, isolated bubble.

Yet now, all we get from Caroline Kennedy is what we get from all of the Democrats: shut up and sit down and do what we tell you to do.

Why is this always the answer we get from our ruling class? What are they so afraid of? Why don’t they want to try something new, to break up the system we have in place now because it doesn’t work for the American people anymore?

I can’t tell you what is in the mind and heart of Caroline Kennedy. I wouldn’t even try. But I do know that we’ve lived with the truth of JFK, how women were brought to him to be used and then discarded. We’ve lived with the truth about Uncle Teddy and that awful night that left a woman dead and Teddy getting away with it.

We’ve lived with these facts about an imperfect family because we’ve always remembered the good they did, how they inspired us, and how they brought out the best in us. Well, I can’t say that is true anymore. It isn’t RFK, Jr. who has hurt the Kennedy name so much as those who have decided to use whatever value they still have in our culture to tear him down.

Perhaps Caroline might try to learn something from the MAHA movement. Not everyone in this country lives the kind of life she does. We feel like we have no control over what is happening to us at the hands of massive corporations that dump chemicals in the food, in the soil, in the water, in the atmosphere that are absorbed into all living things, including our children. The only solution is there’s a drug for this and a drug for that. To what end?

When we emerge from this moment, this Fourth Turning, nothing will be the same. No doubt, for many, especially the ruling class, that is terrifying. But for the millions of us who just voted for the dream ticket of MAGA/MAHA, it is the first sign of hope we’ve seen in a very long time.