Who's Damaging the Kennedy Legacy?

RFK Jr ... or the Kennedys Themselves

There’s a lot of hand-wringing in the media these days over what Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential run is doing to the Kennedy family name.

The Boston Globe recently ran a story under the headline, “RFK Jr. is running on the Kennedy name. What does that mean for the family’s legacy?” There’s a line in the piece that says that “Kennedy’s run could tarnish the lasting image of the closest thing America has had to a royal family.”

Politico’s has called RFK Jr. the “black sheep” of the family. Others have called him a “KINO,” a Kennedy in name only. And the South Dakota Standard said his candidacy “Will do harm, perhaps enduring damage, to a once-revered name.”

No, RFK Jr. is not doing anything to preserve the mythology that the Kennedys were the first family of Camelot. He was recently caught on tape saying that “Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people” and “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi [Eastern European] Jews and Chinese.” (He later clarified his remarks, saying he was only quoting a study.)

He has said that mass shootings are linked to prescription drugs. He believes that the 2004 presidential election was stolen by the GOP using hacked voting machines in Ohio. He’s no fan of vaccines (to put it mildly) and believes they can cause autism.

Are his views controversial? Of course. Are they just plain nuts? You could make that case.

As for harm to the Kennedy legacy, well, let’s just say it’s more complicated than a lot of Kennedy fans would have you believe.