Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is Donald Trump’s choose to steer the Division of Well being and Human Companies within the new administration. The concept of Trump, a Republican, appointing Kennedy to his cupboard would have been stunning only a few months in the past.
In any case, Kennedy started his presidential run final 12 months as a Democrat and is the scion of a Democratic dynasty. Nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and the son of former U.S. Legal professional Common Robert F. Kennedy, Kennedy spent most of his profession as a lawyer representing environmental teams that sued polluting companies and municipalities.
But Kennedy, 70, has lengthy held positions that put him at odds with the Democratic mainstream. He pushes public well being misinformation round vaccines and HIV/AIDS, opposes U.S. army involvement in overseas wars, together with in Ukraine, and claims that the CIA assassinated his uncle.
Kennedy’s ideologically blended politics are onerous to categorize in conventional left-right phrases.
My political science analysis finds that Kennedy’s journey from left-aligned skepticism into Trumpism is a part of a broader pattern of up to date left-to-right populist transformations occurring throughout the US.
Rise of the populist various media
Populism is a political story that presents the great “people” of a nation as in a battle in opposition to its “elites,” who’ve corrupted democratic establishments to additional their very own egocentric pursuits. It cuts throughout the ideological spectrum, typically combining left-wing financial critiques with right-wing cultural ones.
Based mostly on my analysis, I discover that Kennedy makes use of a populist type of speech that matches the rhetoric of right now’s on-line various media, often known as the “alternative influence network.”
‘Manosphere’ podcast host Joe Rogan obtained a private shoutout as ‘mighty and powerful’ at Trump’s victory celebration on Nov. 6, 2024.
Cindy Ord/Getty Pictures
If populism cuts throughout the ideological spectrum, so does the choice media.
This community of politically various unbiased podcasters, YouTube hosts and different creators connects with younger, politically disaffected audiences by mixing politics with comedy and popular culture, and presenting themselves as embattled defenders of free pondering – in opposition to mainstream media and mainstream events.
Prime-rated exhibits embody “Breaking Points,” “Stay Free with Russell Brand,” “The Joe Rogan Experience,” The Tradition Battle with Tim Pool“ and ”This Previous Weekend w/Theo Von.“
Whereas many of those exhibits have been round because the 2010s, the community expanded all through the Trump period. Their reputation skyrocketed in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, when public mistrust in authorities, anger over pandemic restrictions and vaccine skepticism surged.
These exhibits hosted Kennedy continuously all through his presidential run in 2023 and 2024. He was notably targeted on a category of male-dominated various exhibits generally referred to as the ”manosphere.“
Kennedy finds his viewers
I analyzed a set of Kennedy’s appearances for this story. Each Kennedy and various media hosts declare to care about “the actual points” dealing with People equivalent to warfare, company and political malfeasance and financial troubles. They condemn the “mainstream” for selling frivolous “culture war” subjects associated to race and id politics.
Kennedy and the choice media hosts additionally mix left and proper arguments in a usually populist means. They declare that companies management the federal government and that liberals and companies censor free speech.
For instance, on a Could 2024 episode of “Stay Free with Russell Brand,” Model asserted that corrupt establishments are backed by the “deep state.” He requested Kennedy how he would struggle these highly effective pursuits.
“The major agencies of government have all been captured by the industries they’re supposed to regulate and act as sock puppets serving the mercantile interests of these big corporations,” responded Kennedy. “I have a particular ability to unravel that because I’ve litigated against so many of these agencies.”
My analysis discovered that Kennedy typically bonded along with his various media hosts over his notion that liberal media sources – allegedly managed by the Democratic Nationwide Committee or the CIA – have been censoring his marketing campaign.
‘This little island of free speech’
In a June 2023 episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan defined that he now not identifies as a liberal due to the “orthodoxy it preaches” round points like vaccines. He then cited YouTube’s elimination of a few of Kennedy’s vaccine-related movies for violating its COVID-19 misinformation coverage.
Kennedy had simply spent 90 minutes outlining his journey towards vaccine skepticism, which began with assembly a mom who believed vaccines brought about her son’s autism.
“If a woman tells you something about her child, you should listen,” he stated.
Kennedy additionally described being satisfied by a set of research that public well being officers had ignored.
“Trust the experts is not a function of science, it’s a function of religion,” he stated. “I’ve been litigating 40 years; there’s experts on both sides.”
Afterward, he thanked Rogan for sustaining “this little island of free speech in a desert of suppression and of critical thinking.”
Kennedy reiterated this level within the Aug. 23, 2024, speech that ended his presidential marketing campaign. The “alternative media” had saved his concepts alive, he stated, whereas the mainstream networks had shut him out regardless of his traditionally excessive third-party ballot numbers of 15% to twenty%.
“The DNC-allied mainstream media networks maintained a near-perfect embargo on interviews with me,” Kennedy stated.
Talking on to the reporters within the room, he added, “Your institutions and media made themselves government mouthpieces and stenographers for the organs of power.”
Kennedy ended that speech by endorsing Trump for president, a transfer that reportedly prompted Trump to vow his former rival a task overseeing well being coverage in his administration.
The political energy of different media exhibits is now inconceivable to disregard.
bsd studio by way of Getty Pictures Plus
Left-to-right pipeline
Belief in a variety of U.S. establishments is at historic lows. People on each the appropriate and the left are skeptical of energy. Because the 2024 election outcomes confirmed, they crave radical change.
Various media hosts tapped into this want, serving to to push some disaffected listeners rightward. The identical left-to-right pipeline landed Kennedy in Trump’s orbit.
Trump and his allies have been adept at harnessing the ability of the choice media ecosystem. Through the 2024 presidential marketing campaign, Trump appeared on male-centric exhibits like “The Joe Rogan Experience,” and “This Past Weekend w/Theo Von,” and lots of media critics see this as an enormous consider Trump’s success successful over younger, male voters. Each Rogan and Von have been personally thanked by title at Trump’s victory celebration.
Trump and his inside circle even type a part of the choice media themselves. Trump based the choice social media platform Reality Social and his adviser Steve Bannon hosts an influential podcast referred to as the “War Room” on one other MAGA various media platform, Rumble. Identified for its fiery populist rhetoric, the “War Room” broadcasts dwell for an astonishing 22 hours per week.
Bannon, who was briefly jailed for contempt of Congress in mid-2024 and now faces trial in New York for monetary fraud, used his present as a soapbox to advertise Trump’s candidacy. He additionally praised Kennedy on the air, boosting the Democrat’s profile amongst his far-right listeners.
For Kennedy, aisle-crossing is a part of the answer to partisan polarization.
“Step outside the culture war!” he tweeted in July 2024. “Step outside the politics of hating the other side!”
This story has been up to date to replicate the result of the 2024 election and Kennedy’s probably nomination to Trump’s cupboard. It was initially printed on Oct. 29, 2024.