Can everyone at least understand my confusion?
This is a shorter version of what has essentially been the real-life evolution of many on the right’s views on health care and medical ethics:
“We must have a pro-lifer in Health & Human Services who will vigorously fight for the unborn. Only Donald Trump can bring us that!”
“Ummm, Robert Kennedy is a radical pro-abort who has never wavered in his commitment to abortion on demand covering all three trimesters?”
“Well, we must have a staunch advocate of liberty in Health & Human Services who resists the government takeover of health care that ObamaCare advanced! Only Donald Trump can bring us that!”
“Ummm, Robert Kennedy is a staunch supporter of single-payer, which takes Obama Care to a whole another level?”
“Well, we need someone who was against the COVID vaccine!!”
And there you have it. From abortion to government control of health care to a culture warrior in the COVID messaging moment, the latter trumps the two former points in this age of populism.
Of course, government mandates for the COVID vaccine and ignoring of natural immunity in their post-vaccine policies were shameful, and RFK can be commended for calling that out without being treated like a saint despite a career of bat-sh&%ery. Is it really true that outspokenness on the COVID vaccine trumps the sanctity of unborn life and the entire government control of health care when it comes to public health policy? And a quick question for my friends whose goal in life is to never take a medication the government talks about: If we go to single-payer, as RFK desires, will there be a GREATER chance, or a LESSER chance, of the government dictating what medications you take? Just wondering.
“Well, it is not just the vaccine! America is addicted to junk food, and only RFK will get rid of unhealthy snacks and make America thin again!”
I am sorry. Do we actually need a federal government cabinet secretary to tell us not to eat too many potato chips and candy bars? Why did we mock this when Michelle Obama played footsies with it, and now all of a sudden attach “big snack” to “big fast food” and “big pharma” in the new unholy trinity of conspiratorial evil? If we need RFK (or, most humorously, Donald Trump) to tell us that french fries in excess are not a nutritious diet, we may have bigger problems than I thought.
But what I thought was exactly the problems we had. Right-wing populism is the kissing cousin of left-wing populism, and it lacks first principles. I fully understand that RFK talks bad about people that many on the right have decided to hate, and I don’t have the time to unpack the futility of pretending there is a “big” conspiracy out there to deprive you of your health and happiness. What I do know is that the right has stood for the life of the unborn, a limited role of government in health care, opposition to a nanny state, and individual liberty when it comes to soda pop for most of my life. Now, we are celebrating someone taking over the largest department in the federal government who is deeply opposed to all of these bedrock principles.
So, can you at least see why I am confused?