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How RFK Jr. Made Me a Trumper
For this old leftist, the 2024 race had been a depressing choice between two bad options. Bobby Kennedy tipped the scales for Trump.
I had pretty much made up my mind to vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party, as she is the only candidate in the race that is willing to oppose the genocide in Gaza and stand up for Palestinian rights. In reviewing her positions on various issues, I had decided that Stein and the Greens had the platform that was most aligned with my personal stance on the issues, and so I was going to “vote my conscience”.
That was then. This is now. I now believe that the move by RFK Jr. to support Trump heralds a nascent trend in modern American politics — one which I want to support as much as possible.
That trend is the merging of the “Populist Left” with the “Populist Right”.
How I got here
I came of age at a time when the United States still had two discernibly different parties. While there was broad agreement on issues like foreign policy, the two parties differed radically on issues such as economics, civil rights and the environment.