[Peace-discuss] The Democratic Party sheepdogging continues—Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

[J.B. Nicholson]

Margaret Kimberley continues the legacy Bruce Dixon left in 
https://www.blackagendareport.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-sheepdogging-and-liberal-fantasy

> There is an understandable yearning for a progressive president. But like dreams
> of happily ever after endings, the fantasy is just that.
> 
> In 2015, Black Agenda Report co-founder Bruce Dixon coined the term “sheepdog”[1] to
> describe the role that Bernie Sanders would play in the 2016 presidential
> campaign. Dixon presciently said, “Bernie's job is to warm up the crowd for
> Hillary, herding activist energies and the disaffected left back into the
> Democratic fold one more time. Bernie aims to tie up activist energies and
> resources till the summer of 2016 when the only remaining choice will be the usual
> lesser of two evils.” The word stuck and since that time the question is rightly
> asked whether a particular democratic challenger is serious about getting the
> nomination or is merely a sheepdog who will herd supporters back into the hands of
> their party’s oligarchy.
> 
> That question arises again now that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.[2] has announced his
> presidential campaign. Kennedy obviously has the advantage of name recognition,
> and he isn’t shy about making frequent references to “my uncle” and “my father.”
> Yet he is attractive to leftists in the party because he is willing to take
> positions in opposition to its established orthodoxy. He does make the obligatory
> references to Russia’s “brutal invasion” of Ukraine but he also points out what no
> one in the Democratic Party will say, that the war was provoked[3] by U.S. actions
> and he calls the billions of dollars in allocations to the Ukrainian government a
> “money laundering operation for the military industrial complex.”
> 
> Yet Kennedy also falls back into line if pressured. He said that the CIA
> assassinated his uncle John F. Kennedy, and he points out the many CIA
> interventions around the world as a practice he would end as president, but he
> backtracks[4] if criticized, making a lie out of his pronouncements. “The majority of
> people working at the CIA are good, patriotic people committed to their missions
> and the law. My own daughter-in-law was a field agent, and she is among the
> bravest people I have known.”
> 
> He certainly got the zionist message about Israel[5]. Kennedy praised musician Roger
> Waters for his opposition to the war in Ukraine but then deleted his comment on
> twitter because Waters also opposes Israeli apartheid. For good measure he added
> meaningless blather about the “aspirations of the Palestinian people.” After being
> called out when he ran for cover, he then deleted his comments which rescinded his
> first comment.
> 
> There is another issue aside from Kennedy’s willingness to back pedal when
> criticized for taking the positions he claims to run against. Will his supporters
> end up like those who worked for Jesse Jackson, Dennis Kucinich, or Bernie
> Sanders, who believed in their candidate only to be told that they had to support
> Mondale or Dukakis or Kerry or Clinton or Biden? One must ask, what is the point
> of going out on a limb yet again when history gives a strong indication of how
> this campaign will end?
> 
> The selective amnesia of many Kennedy supporters indicates another problem with
> what passes for left politics in this country. People here have been so thoroughly
> indoctrinated about the value of electoral politics that they believe it is the
> only way to bring about the changes they want to see. The end result is the search
> for a savior, the belief that we can vote our way out of a situation created by
> the oligarchy which controls both wings of the duopoly. It is comforting to think
> that the right president would end capitalist exploitation and imperialism but
> such a belief, while understandable, doesn’t hold water.
> 
> Would the military industrial complex suddenly disappear if Kennedy were
> president? Would the democrats and republicans who are bought off by big oil, big
> pharma, big agriculture, big healthcare, and other powerful interests suddenly
> throw off the shackles they happily accepted? Would their patrons allow them to do
> so even if they were so inclined? The answer to all of these questions is a
> resounding, “No.” Both parties are run by capitalists who have not gone to a lot
> of trouble to maintain their hold on the system only to give it all up because
> some democrats can’t end their habit of engaging in wishful thinking.
> 
> Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes positions that need to be heard. It is good that a
> presidential candidate opposes U.S. interventions around the world and pledges to
> end the censorship that the state and big tech carry out. But there’s no savior,
> just the hard work of mobilizing left movements. Kennedy speaks of the need for a
> "peaceful revolution." It isn't clear that revolutions can be peaceful, but they
> certainly won't come from U.S. presidential politics.
> 
> The question is the same. It doesn't change every four years. How do we mobilize
> against interests that won't be placated, whose imperatives are antithetical to
> human needs? They don't care if leftists want to believe that Robert F. Kennedy,
> Jr. can win the Democratic Party nomination and become president. They won't be
> wished away.
> 
> Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the
> Presidents[6]. You can support her work on Patreon[7] and also find it on the Twitter[8]
> and Telegram[9] platforms. She can be reached via email at
> margaret.kimberley(at)blackagendareport.com.
[1] https://www.blackagendareport.com/bernie-sanders-sheepdog-4-hillary
[2] https://www.kennedy24.com/
[3] https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1661478810926317568?s=20
[4] https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1655672647852630023?s=20
[5] https://twitter.com/jewssf/status/1663209225177251844?s=20
[6] https://www.blackagendareport.com/bit.ly/3fnaWYU
[7] https://www.patreon.com/margaretkimberley
[8] https://twitter.com/freedomrideblog
[9] https://t.me/MargaretKimberley
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