The Status of the Local Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - MAHA Movement
with an aside on Trump’s Debate Performance
Now that the initial shock of the news of Bobby Kennedy suspending his campaign and fully endorsing Donald Trump has passed, it is a good time to reassess the movement.
It is taking time for the dust to fully settle and people are still trying to figure things out. New leadership is emerging at the local and state levels, based on who is most willing to fully embrace this new alliance.
There has essentially been a split of Kennedy supporters and volunteers between those willing to see the bigger picture and those that feel burned. There has been intense emotional vetting amongst the hardcore volunteers, with some not able to get over all the work that was put into specifically getting Bobby on the ballot only to see that work in their eyes be thrown in the trash.
I’ve sat in on many of these meetings and they’ve been painful at times. In addition, it is clear many are feeling completely lost as to what to do next. People want to continue helping but without a clear set of instructions and goals to achieve such as collecting ballot signatures, many individuals feel rudderless and simply do not know the best way to contribute. Everything is still all too vague at the moment, with folks having trouble conceptualizing general concepts such as MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) and how to turn that into action.
Finally, of course, there are some in the MAHA camp who cannot bring themselves to supporting Donald Trump. After all, a huge appeal of the Kennedy Independent for President movement was fully exposing and working against the corrupt two-party system and then suddenly overnight, Bobby Kennedy asked his supporters to fold back into the two-party game.
It’s a lot to chew on, but new “green shoots” are starting to emerge, as the initial hurt and raw emotion begins to wane.
Bobby Kennedy is human and is only one man. There is only so much one person can do against the Evil Empire. Just ask Donald Trump. Still, what Bobby Kennedy is doing is showing people how best to leverage what you have to keep moving forward in the most effective way possible. If Bobby would have remained in the race as an Independent, his focus would have been primarily on battling the DNC (playing their game) to stay on state ballots for November and conceivably working to build the necessary infrastructure to create a viable third party for the long term. This is a very different path from what Bobby chose to do, which is The Now and putting his full focus on the specific issues most important to him, namely: fighting for free speech and against censorship; our health and well-being (especially that of our children); and preventing World War 3 by helping to bring an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Donald Trump provides a path to do that most effectively right away. It is a bold calculation but everything about Bobby Kennedy is about taking bold risks and attacking challenges head on.
Still, the main question of this article is about what this all means for Kennedy’s supporters and volunteers? In short, it is a call for us to step up and take leadership roles in the endless array of tasks that need to be addressed in order to ultimately win this current iteration of the eternal war against forces of oppression.
Those that are having the hardest time dealing with this alliance have been unable to look at this bigger picture. In addition, they have taken things too personally and have completely underestimated the importance of the work that was put in to collecting signatures and spreading the word about Bobby Kennedy for President. This can easily happen when you have a tunnel vision view of things.
Bobby Kennedy now has a major platform to promote and fight for the principal ideas of his run for the Presidency in large part because of all the work and sacrifice volunteers put in to collecting all the signatures and spreading his message. Anyone who thinks all that work was a waste of time is looking at the situation from a purely negative point of view. Donald Trump and everyone else in the political world saw the tremendous power of this new independent political movement because Bobby was able to collect all those signatures and get to such a place of significance against all odds, which could not have happened without all that work put in by RFK Jr. volunteers.
The good news is new leadership in the Kennedy-MAHA movement is quickly forming. Those in previous leadership positions that primarily feel “burned” or cannot get over the idea of working with MAGA are being replaced by fresh voices that are more motivated than ever to spread the word about saving the Republic by any means necessary.
But what does that mean from a practical on-the-ground point of view? What is a believer to do now? Well, really, there are still plenty of traditional political grassroots campaigning a person can do. There is nothing stopping people from going door-to-door; holding signs; calling friends, neighbors, and family members; writing letters to the editor etc. Admittedly, though, many people simply do not feel comfortable acting on their own without clear guidance and a clear push from people higher up in a chain of command. This is the biggest challenge at the moment. There is no real chain of command, as the national Kennedy campaign is focused primarily on the immediate need, which is to get Donald Trump elected. Thus, while those in the grassroots Kennedy movement who are the most independent and driven at heart have no problems taking matters in their own hand, admittedly, there is a need for a rapid restructuring of the movement to make sure there is some sense of a strong organization and chain of command in place. Fortunately, this is now happening. In Massachusetts, for example, it is very promising to see Kennedy and Trump supporters and volunteers reaching out to each other and looking to cooperate. In fact, several gatherings and potluck meetings have already occurred in the state between the state’s Trump/MAGA organizational infrastructure and the nascent “ragtag” group of spirited independent Kennedy volunteers.
This is the critical first step and will likely lead to more organized and official joint events such as sign waving and banner drops, joint door-to-door canvassing between Trump and Kennedy supporters, joint letters-to-the-editor etc. I’m sure these events will be happening with more frequency in relatively short order.
After this initial round of in-person informal meetings and potlucks, a critical next step would be to organize weekly joint volunteer conference calls between Trump and Kennedy supporters/groups. These are the pieces that need to be put in place quickly in order to give the army of Kennedy supporters out there plenty to do over the final month and a half before the election.
Still, I suspect the deeper issue than feelings of wasted work or having trouble specifically supporting Trump is the dream so many have about the creation of a viable third-party option to take on the long-standing corrupt two-party system. As mentioned earlier, there is only so much one man can do and Bobby made the historic decision to change the way the game is played by using the leverage his movement has created via brilliantly showing Americans the beauty of unity between multiple populist movements--in this case, MAHA and MAGA joining forces. Nevertheless, RFK Jr. has indeed put the idea of a new official political party on the backburner at best. The good news is Bobby has sparked action and passion in countless people. He has opened people’s eyes to what is possible and now it is up to us ordinary citizens to continue building the movement at the local and state levels, with an eye towards creating the infrastructure needed for a third party. Everything needs to be put in place for that to succeed. We need new writers, podcast hosts, nonprofit organizations, people running for office at the local level, etc. etc. It will take new people being proactive and taking charge.
There has been an explosion of Kennedy-related Facebook groups being created for example, however, at some point, the movement will need a series of concrete plans and action. Scroll through any Kennedy-related Facebook group and 95% of the posts consist of memes and the simple forwarding of random national political news reports. We need more creators, as opposed to merely back seat commentators. We need people collaborating to create new Kennedy-MAHA focused nonprofits, news organizations, Podcasts, and local-level health groups/support organizations advocating on behalf of our children and our future on a whole host of issues such as toxic chemicals, local food, free speech, affordable housing etc. In short, we need people setting up the infrastructure for a new political way forward down at the grassroots local and state levels that Bobby Kennedy is working tirelessly at the national and international levels to create. There cannot be a long-term viable third-party political party/movement without a strong support network, with the local and state levels being led by a dynamic coalition of local leaders organizing and creating various ongoing initiatives.
Most importantly, we need a surge of independent-minded people running for elected office at the local and state levels. This is where it can truly all come together with a solid and clear mission that both natural leaders and more worker-bee type hard working followers can get on board and fight for. Perhaps the critical first step is for a small group of visionary leaders in each state creating a simple step-by-step set of instructions on how to run for local and state elected office as an independent. The problem though, is there is such a dearth of people in recent times that have run for office as pure outsiders, let alone independent candidates who have actually won local and state level elections, especially in ultra-corrupt uniparty states such as Massachusetts. In other words, is there significant enough knowledge in place to know how to set up this parallel local political system in place? Regardless, a guidebook and set of instructions to help newcomers run for office as third-party/independent candidates at the local/state levels absolutely must happen.
BTW, that is the idea with this new Substack page to be one spot for an ongoing series of writings supporting this exciting new movement generated by Bobby Kennedy’s historic run for the Presidency and now promising populist alliance between MAHA and MAGA.
Now, thoughts on what looks to be the only Trump-Harris debate. Per usual, my summary aligns with Bobby Kennedy’s assessment, which is that Harris “won” the debate on the surface level but Trump won on substance. Of course, mainstream commentators across the board jumped on the first part of Bobby’s statement, but not the second more important part.
First, Trump was the same ole Trump that we’ve seen consistently since he rode down the golden escalator in 2015. It is amazing how quickly people can forget things. Trump was his usual crass, blunt, and easily triggered self. That’s just who he clearly is. There are only two questions that matter though at this point. First, who do you trust more to actually follow through on their vision and be a strong leader? Second, what matters to you more: how polished a person is in their delivery of information or the ideas behind that delivery? At this point in our history--with the stakes so incredibly high, with so much that has gone on in such a short period of time, and our country at a significant crossroads--delivery style doesn’t mean anything anymore.
The people of America have been lied to and cheated so many times in recent years, it shouldn’t matter to anyone how “prepared” and polished a politician is, especially when the polished politician refuses to answer any actual questions. That was Kamala Harris in a nutshell at the debate, which happens to be who she is. She can be coached and look presentable in a highly orchestrated environment but has zero substance behind her words. Unfortunately, many people are attracted to this style, only focusing on this surface level performance of the debate. Thus, it is not surprising to hear so many “influencers” in the news feed singing Harris’ praises because they themselves are empty, surface level people. So many in the mainstream truly believe in style over substance and truly believe that all that mattered in the debate was how Harris and Trump “came across.” So many in the mainstream cannot fathom that typical ordinary Americans looked at the debate from a deeper perspective and were examining which candidate is more believable in their convictions and who actually has a pulse on what issues are most important to the lives of Americans. The clear answer is Donald Trump over Kamala Harris and behind that tsunami of crude behavior from Trump, the people can sense the actual substance of the debate much better than the talking heads in the news and their bubble-like, echo chamber view of things.
Behind all the bluster, Donald Trump was able to differentiate himself and convey what he would focus on if elected, which is preventing World War 3 by ending the Ukraine-Russia conflict (kind of important, don’t you think?), bringing order to our border situation, fighting censorship, and at a base level, completely upending the political order of things by relentlessly fighting and calling out the grifters that have fully taken over our government and our lives. This is, of course, why Trump has fully embraced Kennedy and the broader MAHA movement, as this is the language of the Kennedy populist movement as well.
What is important is for the MAHA-MAGA alliance to hold strong and not allow the supposedly bad debate performance to re-divide us. We can’t allow the usual mainstream games to throw us off both our short-term and long-term visions. We need to keep our eyes on the bigger picture and not get distracted by all the pointless noise. Stay strong, America.