By Andrea Widburg
I’ve been hearing from people worried that RFK, by endorsing Donald Trump and bringing over his voters, will damage the MAGA movement. No matter how well-intentioned these worriers are, they’re wrong. RFK’s endorsement and Trump’s willingness to embrace RFK and his voters can help MAGA win. They will not destroy MAGA. Here are three reasons:
One. The number of RFK voters is very small. They matter in this election because the race is so close. That is, even a small shift in the electorate can affect the outcome. However, given their small numbers, once the election is in place, while they can argue their cases as to matters about which MAGA and RFK voters disagree—because we still live in a free country—they cannot take over the party or the country.
Two. This is a binary election. Either Kamala wins or Trump wins. If Kamala wins, it’s all over anyway. Although Kamala tries to obscure her past statements and conduct, the Democrats have been explicit about their goals.
Democrats intend to begin with steps to achieve permanent dominance by getting as many illegal aliens onto the voting rolls as possible, packing the Supreme Court, ending the filibuster, and adding Puerto Rico and D.C. as states. (And no, it doesn’t matter to them that the Constitution prohibits adding D.C. as a state. Once they pack the Supreme Court, there are no brakes.)
Once they control the government, Democrats have a bunch of policy plans to implement: Prosecuting/persecuting political enemies on a scale well beyond Trump and his inner circle, unlimited federalized abortion, socialized medicine (all access, no actual care), control of all news and internet communications, the end of fossil fuel, bugs not meat, the end of Israel, the elevation of Islamic ideas within America, empowering Iran, ceding more power to the UN, open borders, a government system that hands out money based on race and “sexual identity,” increasingly high taxes, continuing to use the military as a social justice petri dish, etc. Again, they’ve been explicit about every one of these things.
That’s what the election means. I’m not ready to worry about RFK’s relatively small number of voters staging a coup against the Republican party when my first worry is just making sure Kamala doesn’t win. In times like this, you take the allies you’ve got, not the allies you wish you had. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Three. There’s no doubt that RFK is a Democrat who still likes some Democrat policies, as do his followers. These would include believing in climate change and supporting abortion. These should not be determinative.
Climate change is falling out of favor with people as they realize that the apocalypse is always threatened but never arrives (see, e.g., elections in Germany). Moreover, it’s possible that people are realizing that there are more pressing concerns than a climate change collapse that never happens, things such as Islamic terrorism and the Sharia takeover of the West.
Then there’s the abortion question. In the neighborhood where I raised my children, most families were conservative in their values: They wanted strong borders, low taxes, low crime, strong family structure, etc. However, the women wanted abortion to remain, and that was what led their voting decisions.
It’s these voters to whom Trump is speaking when he says he’s not touching abortion, not because he doesn’t care about it, but because it’s no longer a federal issue. For once, these conservative pro-abortion people can vote for their conservative values rather than abortion.
In other words, these people are me twenty years ago and Reagan sixty years ago. Remember when Reagan said, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me”? That’s how I felt by 2004. I’d become increasingly disaffected from the party in the 1990s and, a few years after 9/11, I was disgusted with the Democrats. I voted for Bush over Kerry and never looked back.
The Dumb-O-Crats and the Eco-Freaks must be upset with Kennedy they will call Him a Traitor
RFKjr saw that the democrat party had left him only after the party bashed him in the head numerous times.
Once aware, he left and saw that dem party double down on bashing him.
There are plenty of once-dems like him.
Many were called “blue dog democrats,” fiscally conservative but socially liberal.
They are most like the “compassionate conservatives” of the Bush era; also fiscally conservative but socially liberal.
If RFK jr can contribute to Trump’s agenda, that’s great. But I have no problem with Trump using and discarding him and any of his supporters. They can either get on the program or go to hell.