I’m heartbroken over my brother Bobby’s endorsement of Donald Trump.
I believe typically about my father and the way he may need considered the politics of our time. I’m unsure what he would have thought of TikTok or AI, however this a lot I do know for positive: He would have despised Donald Trump.
Trump was precisely the sort of conceited, entitled bully my father used to prosecute. Robert F. Kennedy’s life was devoted to selling the protection, safety and happiness of the American folks. That’s the reason he would have so admired one other former prosecutor, Kamala Harris. Her profession, like his, has been all about decency, dignity, equality, democracy and justice for all.
Trump is the enemy of all that. The one factor he appears to be for is himself and, disturbingly, autocrats resembling Vladimir Putin, whom my father would have considered an existential menace to our nation.
But my brother now endorses Trump. To pledge allegiance to Trump, a person who demonstrates no adherence to our household’s values, is inconceivable to me.
Worse, it’s sordid. Earlier this month, as Harris surged within the polls, my brother supplied her his endorsement in alternate for a place in her coming administration. He obtained no response.
Now he has supplied that very same deal to Trump. His is a hole seize for energy, a strategic try at relevance. It’s the reverse of what my father admired: “the unselfish spirit that exists in the US of America.”
It’s all the extra tragic due to our brother’s title. To hold the title Robert F. Kennedy Jr. means a particular legacy inside a legacy. It could strongly suggest a need to hold on our father’s work. However Bobby’s alliance with Trump places this in jeopardy.
Let me undergo the file.
My father was an anti-racist who joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in frequent trigger, and cast a strong bond with African People in every single place he went in 1968.
Donald Trump is a lifelong racist whose whole profession has been formed by his dislike of individuals with a distinct pores and skin coloration.
My father believed in increasing authorized immigration as a result of he got here from an immigrant household and knew how a lot expertise and drive hard-working households carry if we open our doorways to them.
Donald Trump stirs up hatred of immigrants, whom he mischaracterizes as criminals and drug addicts.
My father believed within the rule of legislation, as a prosecutor, and because the legal professional common of the US.
Donald Trump has contempt for the legislation, as evidenced by his makes an attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and his ongoing authorized struggles. He’s the primary felon to run as a critical candidate for the presidency.
My father believed in bringing People collectively. He stated, “I don’t suppose that we’ve to shoot at one another, to beat one another, to curse one another and criticize one another, I believe that we are able to do higher on this nation.”
Donald Trump’s whole marketing campaign is about stoking division.
My father cherished the priceless inheritance of our land and water and absolutely was an environmentalist in his manner, even when the time period didn’t catch on till later.
It feels particularly hypocritical that Bobby, a real environmentalist, has thrown in with essentially the most anti-environmental president in our historical past, who guarantees to “drill, child, drill” if elected.
My father was towards the “senseless menace” of gun violence. Donald Trump is towards any significant type of regulating weapons.
My father believed in democracy. Donald Trump doesn’t.
My father believed within the reality. Donald Trump doesn’t.
On the College of Kansas, on March 18, 1968, my father stated, “[W]e as a folks, are robust sufficient, we’re courageous sufficient to be advised the reality of the place we stand. This nation wants honesty and candor in its political life and from the president of the US.”
The reality is crucial to democracy. And reality is crucial inside a household, too. For all of those causes, the reality requires me to set the file clear. I really like Bobby. However I hate what he’s doing to our nation. It’s worse than disappointment. We’re in mourning.
By no means in my wildest desires did I think about I’d be motivated to put in writing one thing of this nature. With a heavy coronary heart, I’m in the present day asking my fellow People to do what is going to honor our father essentially the most: Ignore Bobby and assist Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic platform. It’s what’s finest for our nation.
As my father stated, in a marketing campaign of his personal, “I need all of us, younger and outdated, to have an opportunity to construct a greater nation and alter the path of the US of America.”
Max Kennedy is an writer, an legal professional and the ninth youngster of Ethel and Robert Kennedy.
