The efforts of some on the Right to elevate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a sane and laudable Democrat may now be backfiring, an entirely predictable turn that most people could have seen coming.

Kennedy was initially propped up by some right-wing pundits as a challenger to President Joe Biden, as Kennedy had thrown himself into the thus-far nonexistent Democratic primary. It was indeed newsworthy, as Kennedy was pulling a significant minority of Democrats in polls. Yet many on the Right began promoting Kennedy for his views on the COVID vaccine (which stem from his embrace of conspiracy theories against vaccines of all types) and his more centrist stance on immigration.

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That led many on the Right to claim, for example, that Kennedy is “principled and understands the Constitution and its guarantee to protect the rights of Americans.” GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy floated Kennedy as a running mate, and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) entertained the idea of putting him in charge of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Now Kennedy has apparently decided that he will drop out of the Democratic primary and instead run an independent campaign. That campaign would not harm Biden, as many on the Right hoped his Democratic primary campaign would. In fact, if it takes votes from anyone, it would be from Republicans, who have a far more favorable view of Kennedy (plus 28 points, according to an average of July polls) than Democrats (negative 5 points).

At best, this amounts to nothing as Kennedy fails to make the ballot in most states and disappears from the political scene. But if he does do any damage to a presidential nominee, it would likely be to whoever it is that the GOP nominates and not to Biden or whatever Democrat ends up at the top of the ticket.

All of this was unnecessary given that Kennedy is not some sane, reasonable, centrist Democrat. Aside from being a conspiracy theorist regarding all vaccines, Kennedy is a climate zealot who has called for the government to shut down “climate-denying” companies like ExxonMobil and Koch Industries. He also supports abortion up to birth.

Kennedy was never worthy of praise from the Right. The decision to promote him, by both politicians and pundits, was always foolish. He was always a conspiracy theorist and climate zealot who was the product of a political dynasty that should have been discarded decades ago. He may have been the enemy of the Right’s enemy, but he was never going to be a friend to the Right.

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