When Joe Biden and Donald Trump made their decision to run again for office, I was thinking “This is no good.” In fact, I was certain it was a terribly awful, horribly bad predicament we were facing. How had it come to this, that we were looking at a rematch of the aged – men who had long ago stopped putting in a full, hard day’s work, if ever, and who had clearly chosen to ignore what millions of us were thinking about their severely diminished fitness to hold that powerful position.
I know I was not alone in criticizing their febrile campaigns and divisive messaging.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was in that mass of millions who agreed with me that enough was enough. He showed up with the grandest of fanfare to announce his candidacy as a Democrat. Anyone who was not living under a rock could actually feel like the tectonic political plates were starting to shift. Instead of an anemic libertarian or third-party politician, who only quivers themselves into a frenzy, like a bird delighting in a bird bath, the American voting public was actually being presented with the possibility of an alternative.
This one was a younger man who came with a storied family legacy. How refreshing that all looked only a few months ago when I, and several others from the 7th district of Colorado, stood on a major highway overpass, waving “Kennedy for President” flags like frenzied bird bathers ourselves.
Our motley group of disgruntled Democrats, Republicans, Unaffiliated, and Independents had gleefully come together weeks before to prepare to collect signatures to get RFK Jr. on the Colorado ballot. In a couple of months we succeeded beyond many people’s, even RFK Jr.’s, wildest hopes.
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We were not heated political cultists, but we for sure were chilly on that windy morning above Interstate 70. It warmed us every time an 18-wheeler, car or van passed underneath us and their drivers honked and waved. It looked like the movement we were now an active part of had real traction.
Our activity was at the time many of us were wondering what might happen to either Biden or Trump before election day, in terms of their declining health: Biden’s fragility and slew of senior moments; Trump’s struggle to complete a coherent sentence and concerns about obesity. There were too many unknowns, we thought, about what might happen to them, like a stroke, seizure or heart attack or even short or long Covid episodes.
Our concerns of the what-ifs and what-thens had nothing to do with assassination attempts.
Some of us in the group, like many across the nation that had joined the campaign to get RFK Jr. on every state ballot, simply were refusing to reenact groundhog day. Yes, some were doggedly resistant to giving any help to bring Trump and his minions back into the White House for more of their chaos and cultural division, but some looked at Biden and saw their beloved, heavily medicated grandparent rightfully placed in a nursing home, or living at home with caregivers afoot.
Me, I just wanted to open up the conversation to be about the pressing issues of here and now. Some of these topics RFK Jr. was willing to put before the American public, despite being censored and denied a welcoming media landscape for a rigorous debate.
Issues like tax money that could be better spent on improving our education system, or to cleaning up our environment and restoring our soils, but instead goes to policies that limit freedom of choice and negate peacemaking. These expenditures have ballooned our debt to over $35 trillion, and our deficit each year is closing in to $2 trillion. Is there any doubt now how this two-party system has failed to bring us the honest democracy many of us still want to hold true to?
I once held the position that we ought to shorten our political campaign period. But after seeing what has been happening with RFK Jr. over the past months and days, and with what has been happening in North Carolina with a governor’s race scandal that ought to equally shock most everyone with a heart, the idea of a shorter window for political campaigns has proven that it is another pretty terrible, horribly awful, bad idea.
Had the campaigns not gone on this long we would not have known about what is looking like the appearance of conflicts of interest in journalism coverage. We would be ignorant of lawfare and the use of a convoluted and slow-moving judicial process to abort real justice. And let’s not ignore some of the alleged mistreatment of sentient beings we have learned about – from dog to bear to whale to women.
It is not a stretch to see how massive is the addiction this country has to prurient headlines. Some content providers, and the consumers of said media, are having a field day with these public figures, who day after day offer up, sometimes unwillingly, the opportunity to spread lurid, bawdy or scurrilous tales.
And the kicker here is this: we might not have become privy to any of it had there been a much shorter campaign period.
After this grotesque political period ends, we actually may need even more time to vet future leaders. So, cheers to all the gumshoe journalists who take time to seek out the dirty details that matter most. Even the repulsive behaviors, like the debasing sexual addictions, digital or physical, and the racist and fascist megalomaniacal tendencies. Knowing this junk is now assisting many of us to be able to make informed/better choices when we vote.
Speaking of better choices, I made up my mind quite some time ago I will not vote for RFK Jr., nor support his cohort. My decision has nothing to do with any particular alleged sexual/controversial scandal or litigated corruption. But I want my readers to know I do apologize, sincerely, to those who may be confused by the upheaval with the ballot choices before them. I believe RFK Jr. is the one most responsible for manifesting that with his flips and flops.
I will advocate now to keep an exhaustingly long campaign season, and be open to considering that ranked choice voting may actually be a partial remedy.
Giselle M. Massi is the author of “We are Here for a Purpose: HOW TO FIND YOURS” and the novel “Just Dance the Steps.” Giselle was a journalist with The Denver Post for 16 years and writes the newspaper advice column TELL GISELLE. Contact her at www.gisellemassi.com
