Was RFK, Jr. thrown under the bus to promote the new demographic order?

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., suspended his candidacy last Friday after sharing with his supporters his belief that he saw no path to winning the Electoral College votes necessary for winning the presidency. In a speech announcing the suspension of his campaign, Mr. Kennedy shared the observation that, “In the name of saving democracy, the Democratic Party set itself to dismantling it.”

Mr. Kennedy said out loud what critics on the right have been saying about the Democratic Party’s process for selecting Ms. Harris and what people who vote Democratic may have been saying quietly to themselves. How can a party that has been proclaiming as its mission the saving of democracy justify denying its supporters the chance to submit Vice President Harris to the vetting process of the vote?

In all fairness to the Democrats, state and federal laws do not require that a political party follow a majority vote process for selecting its candidates and becoming a party in a state. Some bloke with the blessing of a registered party goes out and knocks on enough doors to gather the signatures necessary for being placed on a ballot with a “D” or an “R” next to her name. A cursory review of the Democratic Party’s by-laws says nothing about a mandated voting process for selecting candidates. Hell. Unlike we members of the Libertarian Party, you do not even have to pay dues to say that you are a member. Simply declare that you roll with the party’s principles, and you can call yourself a Democrat all day.

It appears to me that the Democratic Party cannot afford to practice democracy when it is trying to placate its non-white demographics. I watched the DNC convention on CSPAN. Either their camera men were asked to showcase blacks and browns on the convention floor or white people are declining in population. The Democratic Party diss of Mr. Kennedy may have been about sending a clear message that white men need to ride second chair or need not apply at all for the big chair.

It could also be that both parties are clearing alternative pathways for selecting their respective presidential candidates. Republican Party nominee, former President Donald J. Trump, never held political office prior to his run in 2016. While vetted during that year’s primary process, he faced no such competition in 2020 or 2024.

Vice President Harris’ journey to the presidency, which started in 2019, saw her drop out before the 2020 Iowa caucus, never having picked up one delegate vote. Notwithstanding burning through campaign cash and bombing her campaign, she was picked as the VP nominee by a man she called a racist just a few months earlier. That same man, President Joseph R. Biden, again made another path for her by removing himself from contention for a second term.

We are stuck with two candidates who have avoided the traditional path to various degrees with one candidate representing more of how the party looks and the country’s demographic future. Bobby Kennedy may have been the victim of the new demographic order.

Alton Drew

24 August 2024

For more on my views on the American political economy, buy my book at amazon.com/author/altondrew.