Jeff Danziger lives in New York City and Vermont. He is a long time cartoonist for The Rutland Herald and is represented by Counterpoint Syndicate. He is a recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons, a novel and a memoir. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The same coalition of groups that drove center-right group No Labels to abandon its efforts to run a 2024 presidential candidate has now identified its next target: Anti-vaccine activist-turned independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
According to Politico, a collection of outside groups and super PACs are now mobilizing to educate a specific subset of voters about RFK Jr. through a coordinated information campaign. Matt Bennett, who is president of the center-left group Third Way, said they're specifically zeroing in on younger voters they call "double haters," who dislike both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. And they're specifically aiming to engage with voters in swing states where the son of celebrated former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy has met qualifications for ballot access. This includes Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire and North Carolina. RFK Jr. has also qualified for ballots in California, Nebraska and Utah, though those states are seen as less competitive.
"One of our biggest concerns is ensuring that this subset of voters absolutely positively understands who this person is and who he is not," Bennett said.
"He is not his father. His numbers reflect his dad’s popularity," he added. "He is a right-wing crank. People really do not understand that yet."
Democratic-aligned group MoveOn, which has 10 million members on its list, has shifted resources aimed at stopping No Labels toward its anti-RFK Jr. campaign. Another group taking part in the effort is Clear Choice, which is a super PAC focusing on driving down voter turnout for third-party candidates like RFK Jr., along with Jill Stein and Cornel West, who are running on the Green Party and independent ballot lines, respectively. Pro-Democratic super PACs Future Forward and American Bridge have also joined in on the campaign.
The groups are running on the message that, according to a League of Conservation Voters (LCV) official, "a vote for RFK is a vote for Donald Trump." LCV senior vice president of campaigns Pete Maysmith told Politico that he wants to reach out to "voters who aren’t paying full attention yet and reminding them that "voting for Kennedy is throwing your vote away."
"What we’re seeing so far is that when voters hear even just a little about his extreme positions, they are a lot less interested," Maysmith said.
However, Democrats aren't the only ones who want to turn voters away from RFK Jr., In April, a Quinnipiac poll showed that former President Trump's narrow lead over President Joe Biden grows when RFK Jr.'s name is removed from consideration. After that poll was released, Trump tore into the environmentalist-turned-conspiracy theorist and alleged he was only running to help Biden.
"His Views on Vaccines are FAKE, as is everything else about his Candidacy," Trump said. "Let the Democrats have RFK Jr. They deserve him!"
As for RFK Jr.'s campaign, his New York state director, Rita Palma (who previously canvassed for Trump in 2016 and 2020), previously suggested that their main goal wasn't to win, but to "get rid of Biden" and "block Biden from winning the presidency."
"Two hundred seventy [Electoral College votes] wins the election," Palma said in April. "If nobody gets to 270 then Congress picks the president, so who are they gonna pick if it's a Republican Congress? They'll pick Trump, so we're rid of Biden either way."
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
Former President Donald Trump and Gen. Mark Milley, retired
According to the New York Times' veteran political reporter Peter Baker, the number one topic of discussion at Washington dinner parties and receptions these days is “Where would you go if it really happens?”
“It” being Donald J. Trump’s return to the White House following the November 2024 election.
Canada, some say. Others mention Portugal, Australia, even the United Arab Emirates. “The range and seniority of people who talk about it is striking,” Baker writes. “They include current and former White House officials, cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, agency directors, intelligence and law enforcement officials, military officers, political strategists, and journalists.”
Trump’s vows of retribution against his political enemies he has called “vermin,” his stated intention to prosecute pretty much everybody who has offended him, and his loose talk about disobedient generals deserving the death penalty have got a lot of people wondering if it can indeed happen here.
“It” being an overt fascist dictatorship.
One former Trump administration official turned critic told Baker, “People are feeling that it’s very obvious if a second Trump term happens, it’s going to be slash and burn.”
As for me, to put it in Arkansas vernacular, “I ain’t going nowhere.” First, because I’m too old to think about relocating to a foreign country, which is a difficult thing to do—even if you can afford it. Second, because while I yield to nobody in my contempt for Trump, I’m too obscure to persecute.
Besides, my wife and I could never agree about where to go. Chances are, for example, that I could qualify for an Irish passport, given that all eight of my great-grandparents were born there. Not long after we married, Diane was surprised to see tears in my eyes for the first time at the tomb of my great literary hero Jonathan Swift in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. (Swift died in 1745, but lived on in my imagination.)
I have always felt at home in that country, which welcomes immigrants unlikely to become a burden on the public. The Irish are great talkers and listeners. They want to hear your story and tell you theirs. Now that they’ve quit killing each other over religion, the Republic of Ireland is one of the most peaceful countries on earth, and among the friendliest.
I’ll never forget how emotional I got seeing that rapscallion Bill Clinton with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on TV from Belfast announcing the Good Friday Accords. I thought I’d left all that Irish business behind when I followed an Arkansas girl home from school all those years ago. But no, there it was, deeply embedded.
But here’s the problem. I’ve always been a weather-maven. So here’s my summary daily weather report for Dublin over the next ten years: High, 56; Low, 42. Rain. At least 250 days every year fall within those parameters. Chilly, wet and windy. I don’t think I could fool myself into being happy with that.
The Arkansas girl’s people emigrated from France into South Louisiana by way of Cuba. (Her parents met at Louisiana State U, where he was a ballplayer.) She thinks France is the most beautiful and fascinating country in the world, with the best cuisine. The food is great even in the airport. When we’ve visited there, she’s frequently been stopped on the street by people asking directions. She has to haltingly explain that, appearances notwithstanding, she doesn’t actually speak the language.
So France is out. Even if we could afford it. Besides, she’d never leave Arkansas unless the entire Gang of Four—her closest girlfriends for forty years—agreed to come too. Me, I don’t know how I’d get along without my daily Boston Red Sox broadcast, or Arkansas Razorback basketball for that matter. Somebody’s got to load up the pack for their daily outing at the dog park, and it’s pretty much got to be me.
No matter. Because while I fear that the several months following the November 2024 election will be filled with turmoil and foreboding—Trumpist loudmouths have made it clear they will accept nothing but victory and will resort to violence if denied—I believe that Trump is not going to be inaugurated come January 2025.
The exact sequence of events is impossible to predict, but in terms the former Apprentice star would understand, the Trump Show is about to be cancelled. He has zero chance of winning the popular vote. None. The public is heartily sick of him. Just seeing his scowling face and listening to his endless boasting and whining have become almost unendurable.
For that same reason he has little chance of running the table in the so-called “swing” states. Also, this time around no amateur insurrection will take the authorities by surprise. Trump’s attempts to summon a mob to disrupt his New York trial have fallen flat.
So never fear, it’s almost over.
Gene Lyons is a former columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a winner of the National Magazine Award, and co-author of The Hunting of the President.
