The un-American disenfranchisement of RFK Jr. voters

Every election cycle, we hear Democrats and Republicans complaining about “disenfranchised voters.” We have been told incessantly for years and decades that “every voter should be heard.”

That is correct. Except, it seems, when those votes may benefit a populist independent candidate, who, counterintuitively, is gaining in popularity while being ignored or smeared by much of the mainstream media, as well as the two major political parties.

That candidate being Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

It is fair to say that millions of Americans now support Kennedy for president. Just on X — formerly Twitter — he has 2.6 million followers and growing. Logic and basic math tell us his support would be much higher than those willing to take the time to sign up for X.

Do those voters — from every political ideology, color, faith and sexual orientation — have the right to be heard? Should they be allowed to vote for the candidate of their choice?

Obviously, the leaders of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee would prefer that their eventual nominees for president have no competition. They are partisan organizations entrusted with the task of getting their party’s nominee elected president. 

Fair enough. But the last time I checked, they were all still American citizens. Surely the leadership of the DNC and RNC — and maybe even some journalists — don’t want to purposely disenfranchise millions of Americans. Or do they?

Counterintuitively to many, as former President Donald Trump has been bombarded with “lawfare” strategy by certain Democratic judges, prosecutors, district attorneys and state supreme court justices in what many view as a partisan attempt at election interference, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — rightfully — has condemned the practice.

Wrote Kennedy on X: “I’m no fan of President Trump; that’s why I’m running against him. But the American people deserve a fair fight. Denying a U.S. citizen the right to run for president without ever charging him not only seems to violate due process; it’s just plain wrong.”

Kennedy amplified that belief when appearing with Martha MacCallum on Fox News, by saying the “lawfare” strategy against Trump “violates due process” and is “un-American.”

As a quick sidenote, Kennedy would have been thrilled to make that same argument on NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN or MSNBC. They just won’t have him on. Much like CNN and MSNBC refusing to show Trump’s victory speech from Iowa, these networks are seemingly morphing from journalism to partisan political activism.

Back to Kennedy’s remarks. If Trump hasn’t seen them, then someone on his staff should make him aware of it. In the past, Trump has called RFK Jr. a “very smart guy.” To that, he should now add “and he has the right to be on every single ballot in our nation.”

Not only would Trump be returning Kennedy’s favor, but it would be the fair thing to do.

Of course, Trump — as well as Biden — might look at the latest favorability polling from Gallup and say “Wait a minute. No way I want to be fair to Kennedy. He’s becoming too popular.”

According to that recent Gallup survey, RFK Jr. leads every single candidate — Biden, Trump, DeSantis and Haley — in favorability, with 52 percent. Trump was next at 42 percent, followed by Biden at 41 percent, Haley at 33 percent and DeSantis at 32 percent. Those numbers — and Kennedy’s substantial lead in that category — are telling and meaningful, as they directly reflect the voice of the people.

People who, if they hope to vote for Kennedy in November, are being disenfranchised by a system rigged in favor of the two main political parties. And yet there is next to no political, media or public outcry against this injustice.   

All the opposite in some cases. To be sure, the Biden White House and its supporters in the media have gone after Kennedy hammer and tongs since he first announced his run for president — then as a Democrat — in April 2023. Kennedy has been more than happy to remind all that the DNC and the Biden backers did the exact same thing to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders back in 2020.

It may be “hardball” politics, but it’s wrong. 

To circumvent the obstacles being deliberately put in their way, this week the Kennedy campaign announced that it had created the “We the People” party. Paperwork for the party is being filed in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Mississippi and North Carolina. In Texas, the campaign filed paperwork for the “Texas Independent Party.”

Why? Because it makes it somewhat easier to get around the obstacles that disenfranchise voters. As the Kennedy campaign outlined in a press release, “with these political party filings, the number of signatures needed to get Kennedy on the ballot in every state has been reduced by about 330,000, a third of the total needed nationwide.”

That is progress, but the campaign should still not have to waste precious time and resources fighting partisan provisions enacted to deny American citizens the right to vote for the candidate of their choice. By any measure, RFK Jr. is beyond a legitimate candidate who is not only growing his popularity in the face of media censorship, but outraising “major” Republican candidates.

Biden, Trump, the DNC and the RNC should speak as one in condemning this injustice. It truly is un-American.

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.