This five minute clip from The Joe Rogan Experience sets the stage. What other campaigning US politician has ever spoke truth to power this fearlessly? To find anything remotely similar, you’d have to go back to the presidency of RFK Jr.’s uncle, John F. Kennedy, and that of his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
1. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, Jan 17, 1961
The former general was intimately acquainted with what he called the “military-industrial complex.” His successor would soon be confronted by this leviathan, but he outdid Ike by challenging it while in office.
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.”
Eisenhower warned against a corollary danger: the “domination of the nation’s scholars” by federal prerogatives “and the power of money.”
“Yet in holding scientific discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”
2. President John F. Kennedy’s “Peace Speech,” June 10, 1963
JFK entered the White House as a hawk, but serial betrayals by his spooks and generals transformed him into a dove - one that refused to sit quietly in a gilded cage. He was assassinated within six months of this speech.
“What kind of a peace do I mean? What kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and build a better life for their children — not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time but peace for all time…
For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."
3. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Presidential Announcement, Apr. 19, 2023
An extraordinary two-hour mix of American history, personal recollection and spiritual reflection, conducted without notes or a teleprompter. Although the Democratic Party machinery and corporate media are hellbent to sideline and demonize the nephew of JFK, poll numbers show his campaign catching on with voters across the red/blue divide.
(In a June 13 Economist poll of US adult citizens, RFK Jr. has a higher very favourable/somewhat favourable rating (49%) than the next leading presidential contenders, Joe Biden (45%) and Donald Trump (43%). By this early measure Kennedy is the most popular choice for US president, even without being the chosen Democratic candidate.)
“My mission over the next 18 months of this campaign and over my—throughout my presidency will be to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power. That is threatening now—that is threatening now to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism on our country, to commoditize our children, our purple mountains majesty, to poison our children and our people with chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs, to strip mine our assets, to hollow out the middle class and keep us in a constant state of war.”
Those were some very inspiring speeches, and a good choice to round it all off with David Bowie's "Heroes". You might also want to try the Simple Minds song "This Time" as an appropriate mood setter for such history in the making moments as this. Robert F Kennedy's words brought us a rare sense of clarity, cutting through the fog of an information war aimed directly our way.
Nice one!