There is stepping into a lion’s den, and then there is the much more dangerous option: stepping into a congressional hearing before a pride of attention-seeking senators looking to rip a fellow human apart for a multitude of self-serving reasons.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. chose the much more dangerous option this week, and has the rhetorical scars to prove it.
Kennedy appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, and it went as expected for anyone with even a day of experience in Washington. Although he took some bipartisan heat, it was mostly Democratic senators who went out of their way to smear Kennedy, brow-beat him, interrupt him incessantly whenever he did try to answer their questions or defend himself, and preen before the cameras.
There is only one other person who brings out a greater unhinged reaction among Democrats and the far left: President Trump. Over the last decade or so, the rage directed at him has accurately been described as “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Over the decades — and especially as president — Trump has been correct about multiple issues and has done great good. Most of the left will acknowledge none of it.
Much of that irrational hatred and denial of basic facts for partisan advantage has now seemingly been directed at Kennedy. Many who watched Democratic senators’ vicious and relentless attacks on Kennedy might surmise that some are now afflicted with “Kennedy Derangement Syndrome.”
Ironically, it is Kennedy himself who can offer them the cure for what ails them: a fair and reasoned discussion regarding the health of the American people, free of partisan histrionics.
Soon after hearing about the gauntlet Kennedy had to run, Trump defended his HHS secretary at a luncheon at the White House, saying, “he’s a very good person … He means very well … I guarantee a lot of the people at this table like RFK Jr., and I do … I heard he did very well today. It’s not your standard talk, I would say that, and that has to do with medical and vaccines. But if you look at what’s going on in the world with health and look at this country also with regard to health, I like the fact that he’s different.”
Trump may like “different,” because he and Kennedy share many of the same traits when it comes to a positive interpretation of that word. Three years ago, I authored a book, “The 56: Liberty Lessons From Those Who Risked All to Sign the Declaration of Independence.” I wrote it to defend those men from being smeared and “canceled” by leftists during the woke era, and also to inform readers of the immense courage, vision and sacrifice of those Founding Fathers.
While doing research, I learned that many of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence would have been considered quite wealthy by today’s standards — just as I learned that the vast majority of the wealthy in 1776 chose to side with the tyrannical British crown rather than risk their money and status. Not so among the 56, who instead asked themselves the two most critically important questions of their lives: “If not now, when? If not me, who?”
Those Founding Fathers could have remained in the shadows, like so many of the wealthy of their time, enjoying the good life while remaining out of harm’s way.
The same applies today to Trump and Kennedy. Both men knew that if they dared to step into the political arena to fight for their values, they would be mercilessly attacked by entrenched elites and special interests whose policies and grifts they threatened. And so they have been — Trump most of all.
Attacking Trump and Kennedy is great for fundraising and appeasing the radical left, but the name-calling, the smears, the lawfare, the partisan raids and denial of facts do the American people no good. This is especially so for those who may be sick or teetering on the edge of major health issues.
For decades, the chronic disease epidemic in our nation has mutated unchecked, costing millions of Americans their lives. To that greater point, during the hearing and after being harassed and insulted by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Kennedy decided he had enough and fired back. “Senator, you’ve sat in that chair how long?” he asked. “Twenty to 25 years while the chronic disease of our children went up to 76 percent. And you said nothing. You never asked the question why it’s happening. Why is this happening?”
Again, like Trump, Kennedy needed none of this. He could have been living the good life in peace. Instead, he shoulders ever-increasing insults and accusations each day because of his quest to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Like it or not, the government-created and government-run health agencies have become bloated, politicized, massively bureaucratic and wasters of trillions of tax-payers’ money.
Trump and Kennedy want to reverse that so those agencies can once again focus entirely on the mission of making Americans healthier. The people’s representatives need to climb out of the sandbox and help them achieve that desperately needed goal.
Cooperation instead of defamation. Just what the doctor ordered.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.