Kennedy can’t win but we all can lose

When your initials are your main, possibly only, qualification for running for president, you should find another hobby. Maybe shoplifting in an upscale department store or playing cello in a prep school marching band or selling unread Donald Trump Bibles to unsuspecting minors. My thoughtful advice: If you can’t make it in one of our two major parties, if you’re rich enough, create your own. It may not be democracy at its best, but what difference does that make if you’re a K.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. has somehow taken my advice without our ever meeting. Until this year, he was a Democrat, but he has created a third party out of thin air, a diminutive mass movement with millions of other peoples’ dollars.

Surprisingly, in several three- way polls, he draws about 14% of the vote, more of it from Trump than Biden. He can’t win the presidency with those numbers, but he might affect who does.

I once worked in a campaign for a third-party presidential candidate. He was more qualified than Kennedy Junior or Donald Trump Senior. Farrell Dobbs was a truck driver who could walk and chew gum at the same time, something I am not sure little Bobby can. Farrell also had helped run a historic truck drivers strike in Minneapolis. He was a man of character and real concern for others. He got about 13,000 votes out of 48 million cast in the 1948 election, but, ultimately, not mine. I voted for Harry Truman when I decided that a vote for Farrell, who was a friend, was wasted.

If I had voted for Dobbs, it would have made no difference. Votes for third party candidates — feel good votes — never have in my lifetime or yours. You may remember their names: Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, Jill Stein, Henry Wallace, George Wallace, but not much more.

Unfortunately, this time, Robert Kennedy, Jr. may be a threat to President Biden’s re-election by getting a few votes in swing states, enough to give electoral votes to Trump. Even though he has done little in public service, he carries the family name that is honored for its lives and deaths. Both his uncle John and his father Bobby had a public service record when they ran for office. Junior has virtually none.

Our current Robert has some distinction. He was expelled from two boarding schools before heading off to college. Smoking marijuana was not rare in his time, but neither was it legal or acceptable in high schools. Today, without smoking pot, he embraces crackpot theories about vaccines. For 20 years, he has encouraged anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories: vaccines likely cause autism and are undoubtedly connected with transgender choices. If he were poor or if his name was Sherman, God forbid, he would be dismissed as a crackpot, con artist, or fool. His name may honor a martyred father, his words and actions do not.

Ego overcomes family tradition in his case, and we may all suffer the consequences. It is possible that his few votes may be enough for President Biden to lose.

I think his grandfather, father and uncle would shout, “Shame.”

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary.