Political Dharma: Kennedy suspends campaign

He’s been following third-party candidates for president on Political Dharma. As Kennedy suspends his campaign:

Alan Zundel (Political Dharma, Aug. 21, 2024): Hello, it is Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, and this is Political Dharma with your host, Alan Zundel.

[00:00:16] There was an interview posted with Nicole Shanahan, the vice presidential running mate of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She denies that they ever got into the race with the intention of spoiling the race for one major party or the other, but really were in it to win.

[00:00:33] And she said, that’s why she got in it. But that the Democratic Party-affiliated Clear Choice PAC was doing spending so much money in time harassing them and keeping them from being able to achieve very much or get very far that it really soured her on the Democratic Party.

[00:00:52] The Washington Post articles is where she said they’ve even planted insiders into our campaign, the Democratic Party put insiders into Kennedy’s campaign to sabotage it.

[00:01:04] So she gives some insight into why they’ve now considered joining forces with Trump in some way that they’re so disillusioned with what the Democrats have done and have been doing that they cannot abide the idea that his staying in the race would help them win.

[00:01:19] John Q: Three days later, on Political Dharma:

[00:01:21] Alan Zundel (Political Dharma, Aug. 24, 2024): Hi, this is Alan Zundel with Political Dharma and it is Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. By now, I’m sure you’ve heard the news that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has decided to suspend his campaign for the presidency and throw his support to Republican candidate Donald Trump.

[00:01:44] Before I launch into that, I wanted to say something to my many viewers who have been supporters of Kennedy to one degree or another. I know many of you have been strong supporters of Kennedy and you may find this change of events to be a disillusioning maybe, or feel a little confused or like the way forward is rather dark and maybe even losing some hope. And others have been maybe a little more skeptical of where Kennedy may be leading them, but wanting to hope, wanting to believe, and this may also set you back.

[00:02:21] And what I wanted to say is that: To be an idealist is to choose to hope, and hope does not mean believing that everything is always going to go the way you hope it does, or that each particular moment the best thing is going to happen in the limited perspectives that we have.

[00:02:42] No, hope is a choice to believe that things can be better if we contribute to that betterment. It’s always a choice and a leader like Kennedy doesn’t give you hope. A leader like Kennedy chooses to hope and to act on that hope by finding the best way that they can to move forward in being a force for good in the world.

[00:03:05] And what they do is they inspire you to recognize your own ability to choose to hope, rather than to choose to act out of cynicism or despair or to wallow in a sense of futility. They inspire you to recognize your own ability to choose to hope and to choose to do that and what that feels like. And that’s very important.

[00:03:28] The decision to choose to hope is something that enlivens our humanity. So I wanted to give you that message and hopefully give you more inspiration for choosing to hope. And as I discuss the possibilities for the future of the Kennedy movement, I hope to give you further illumination on things that may inspire you to continue your actions or to find ways forward.

[00:03:54] I will quote you a saying, which is that ‘It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.’ And in the same way, it’s better to light your candle, choose to hope, do the good that you can, rather than just dwelling on how dark everything seems to be. The more of us that choose to turn on our light, the less darkness there’ll be, the more clear the way forward will be.

[00:04:22] Alan Zundel (Political Dharma, Aug. 30, 2024): I want to start out today by saying how my feelings this week about Kennedy’s suspending his campaign and throwing support to Donald Trump are a little different than they were a week ago when I originally reacted to his speech. I think this week I’m feeling less generous towards Kennedy.

[00:04:42] I still think his speech was very sincere. I still think he gave good reasons for making the decision that he did and I think he was telling the truth about the overall political situation and the policy issues that he discussed.

[00:04:56] But what I think was missing was some contrition, really, an apology to many of his supporters and volunteers for the position that this put them in. Now he did give thanks to his volunteers and he said, ‘Don’t think that your efforts have been wasted because it helped me get our issues on the agenda.’

[00:05:15] But I think a lot of those volunteers were not working simply to get these items on the political agenda, especially not on the agenda of one of the major parties. They truly did want to see an independent force in this two-party system. They wanted someone they could vote for because they did not like either major party or the major party candidates and they are still not in that position.

[00:05:40] But there’s going to be a lot who just feel adrift and I think he owes it to them to apologize for betraying what he continually said during his campaign earlier which was that he was ‘in the race to win it’ and he did not give a hint of saying ‘Well, God willing if I still looks like I can win, I’m going to stay in it,’ and the same thing goes for saying repeatedly that he’s ‘going to be on the ballot in all 50 states’ and so people worked very hard to get him on the ballot and now he’s withdrawing from the ballot in some of those states.

[00:06:14] And especially Nevada—I thought of this especially in the case of those volunteers who went out and gathered enough signatures to get him on the ballot. And that petition was rejected by the Nevada secretary of state and then Kennedy had them go out all over again and collect enough signatures to get on the ballot in Nevada and now he has withdrawn from the ballot.

[00:06:36] So I think he owes those volunteers more than just an explanation. He owes them an apology. And I think he owes more than an apology to his volunteers and his supporters, especially those who are angry or disillusioned.

[00:06:48] John Q: A former political science professor, Alan also looked at the big picture.

[00:06:53] Alan Zundel (Political Dharma, Aug. 30, 2024): About every 30 years or so we see a migration of sets of voters from one major political party to the other sometimes even moving over to a new party, a minor party, such as at the time of the Civil War when the Republican party was fairly new, a lot of voters abandoned the old Whig party, moved over to the Republicans, and it created a new alignment which means how voters line up behind the various parties.

[00:07:20] So an alignment is an enduring coalition of voters who typically vote for a particular political party both in the Congress and for the presidency. And a realignment is one that gets shaken up.

[00:07:32] Now it happens about every 30 years because that’s about a generation and you have the older people who are dedicated to voting for a party who are dying off and you have new voters younger voters coming on the scene who are not as attached to either political party and are making up their mind which way they want to go. And of course over the course of 30 years, new issues are going to emerge that engage younger voters in a different way than older voters, which we saw happening this year.

[00:08:00] So is this a party realignment? Now if we see a realignment, what it means is that a lot of voters, especially younger voters, are going to be making a decision between one or the other of the major parties in this election. And that bond will be persistent across the next several elections so there may could be a big sorting-out of who’s supporting which party and which party has dominance.

[00:08:22] What we see is an enduring pattern. Now the New Deal coalition of the 1930s gave way in the 1960s to a new pattern after the 1968 election, in which there was a strong third-party candidate, George Wallace, and in the 1990s again you have a third-party candidate, Ross Perot, and you have a change in the pattern.

[00:08:43] John Q: Alan says Kennedy’s support for a Republican could be a sign of party realignment in 2024.

[00:08:49] Alan Zundel (Political Dharma, Aug. 30, 2024): We may be seeing a change to something new. It would be the time for it and we’re starting to see people moving back and forth and Kennedy’s movement here may be one indicator that something like this is going on, somebody from a major Democratic family very closely associated with the Democrats moving over to Republicans.

[00:09:08] John Q: With growing numbers of non-affiliated voters, more people do not feel represented by the two major parties.

[00:09:16] Alan Zundel (Political Dharma, Aug. 30, 2024): I think what democracy should mean for us is really to have more competition beyond just the two major parties. And I’m a dedicated person that thinks we need to change our electoral system in order to make it possible for third parties to run a competitive election. Doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to win right away or even do real well, but I think over time they can grow if they’re given space to grow.

[00:09:38] So this is what I think we need to do, is: Move in the direction of third parties finding a way to work together to change our electoral system or to create institutions, organizations that somehow consolidate their vote or have them work together to make change in the future.

[00:09:53] Folks like me feel like neither of the major parties is really that trustworthy when it comes to really allowing ordinary voters to have a big say in who the candidates are and who the president is going to be and what the government’s going to do with its power whoever gets into office. I think people really want to see more competition.

[00:10:17] John Q: Alan Zundel is covering third parties in the 2024 presidential election. Donate and support his work at PoliticalDharma.com.