Constitution
Hard times for the Republic
This Republic has fallen on hard times, and one candidate (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.) who might be able to lead it, faces long odds.
![Hard times for the Republic](https://cnav.news/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Hard-times-for-the-Republic.png)
Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 15th day of September in the year of our Lord 2023. I will be talking about the state of presidential politics and what that state means for the Republic. Who can and who should lead this nation in either the death throes of corruption, or back to the days when the country was a moral leader and respected for its strict adherence to the rule of law?
First challenge for the Republic – the Donald Trump indictments
In the world of presidential politics, we face many dilemmas today, most, or all of which we have faced before. For example, what if Donald Trump is convicted of at least some of the 100 or so felonies for which he has been indicted? Don’t get me wrong, because I’m not saying he is guilty of any of the charges. (Most of these don’t even make sense as criminal charges.) The trials, however, will all be conducted in heavily Democrat cities and courts. There, the prosecutors, judges, and juries have one thing in mind and that is destroy Donald Trump.
Whether I supported Donald Trump as president or whether I still might be a supporter is irrelevant to me in his current struggle. I am a lawyer and I have a respect for the law. And I am very opposed to how it is being abused in the cases against Trump. Most of the election interference charges appear to be just examples of free speech woven into racketeering by a very biased prosecutor. In the January 6 case he urged peaceful protests but evidence or lack thereof is irrelevant in New York.1
Precedent – Eugene Debs’ candidacy
What if he is convicted on at least some charges, as seems likely, but is out pending appeal, which also seems likely? He would then be a convicted felon and the presidential candidate of a major political party. The election could then turn on whether the voters thought him guilty or whether they would prefer his election whereby he could pardon himself. In that case he might be the only convicted felon elected president. But he would not be the only felonious president and that’s for sure.
That situation has happened before as a matter of fact. In the presidential election of 1920, Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs ran from a jail cell and got 3,4% of the vote. Mr. Debs was a five-time presidential candidate, first as a Democrat, then as an open, not a closet Socialist. In 1920 he had been sent to prison for stating what turned out to be the truth about financial reasons being at least somewhat to blame for the U.S. entry into World War One. My point is that he was a third-party candidate and still got 3.4% of the voters to choose him while he was in prison.
A sad spectacle for the republic
The likely Democrat candidate in 2024 is not without problems of his own. President Joe Biden stands accused of corruption with foreign governments, bribery, extortion, possibly even treason. Accordingly the Speaker of the House announced this week that an inquiry into impeachment would be filed against him. Quoting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy:
These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption. They warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives. That’s why today I am directing our House (committees) to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
These things take months, of course, sometimes even years. So the House is not expected to vote on whether to impeach until February 2024 at the earliest. If the Republican House votes to impeach, which seems likely, then the Democrat Senate would try him and most likely vote to acquit.
The process I just described is accurate, but the results I predicted are obviously speculation on my part. Nevertheless, it is possible that we could have a Democrat candidate awaiting trial in the Senate, or one who has been convicted and removed from office leaving the nation to be led by Kamala Harris running against a convicted felon. That would just be the most wonderful face to put on this republic for the world to see. I must say, though, that it sums up what has become of the country that I love. I love what this country is supposed to be, what it once was, and with God’s blessing what it could be again.
How Biden will handle it
The President of the United States has not and will not take this impeachment inquiry lying down. No, he will handle it in his usual, carefully thought-out respect for the nation’s history, tradition, and rule-of-law way. I’m just kidding, of course. Because what he decided to do was send a letter to “top news executives” urging them to intensify their scrutiny of House Republicans.
Quoting CNN:
It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies.
That, according to CNN, was a draft letter sent to them by a spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office. The letter went on to say that an impeachment inquiry with no supporting evidence should set off alarm bells for news organizations.
That’s blatant attempted control of a once free press. As such it’s an indication that the Democrat Party assumes it owns the press. The other assumption is that this letter could be made public with no concern or fear of a popular outcry against it. I suppose that is a fine example of the status of the press in America. The press is supposed to watch the government and report on its corruption to the people. It is not supposed to serve as the ruling Party’s lapdog. I make note, though, of the chutzpah of White House lawyers writing directives to the so-called free press as if they work for the White House as well.2
Can anyone lead this republic back to moral standing?
Is there anyone out there who might be qualified to lead this nation back from the brink of total moral collapse? By qualified, I don’t mean he or she went to all the right schools, and vows to keep the neo-con war machine rolling right along. I’m talking about a person who has spent much of his life in the service of the victims of the U.S. public health system and its true owners in the pharmaceutical industry. A man who founded Children’s Health Defense for the purpose of ending childhood health epidemics. I’m talking about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and his campaign for president within the Democrat Party.
What are the chances that he could gain in popularity and win the Democrat nomination? The chances of that are close to zero, but not zero. Things could fall a certain way with the Biden impeachment inquiry that would cause the Democrats to dump the president. Which might open the process to a legitimate primary season and a debate. Recent polls indicate that Kennedy has a favorability rating higher than any other Democrat. So, maybe. Things just don’t seem to be going well for the country right now. And counting on the Democrat Party to do the right thing is a lost cause.
Kennedy as counterrevolutionary
Perhaps the press got a letter like the one sent to them about impeachment. Or maybe they don’t need a letter. They just instinctively know that this candidate is a counterrevolutionary. For the good of the country, counterrevolutionary reforms are going to be needed to reverse the decline before it’s too late. It may already be too late, but we can’t know that unless a sincere effort is made. The transformation and fundamental changes enacted by Obama and continued by Biden have appealed to the worst instincts of humanity. Reversing that will not be easy.
I hate to see the country led by the same old appeal for the same old politics as usual. We need someone who knows the people inside government and knows who can be trusted within the agencies. Someone who will not appoint heads of agencies who get money from big pharma. And someone who knows that the pharmaceutical industry owns the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, the FDA, etc. because our health and the health of our children depend on it. He’s been litigating against those agencies for many years and he probably knows them better than anyone else, certainly better than any other candidate.
Kennedy and Trump: incompatible
I’ve heard it suggested that he would make a good addition to the Trump campaign with him as head of Health and Human Services if Trump were elected, but I just don’t see it. That talk started because he said he was proud that Trump likes him. The problem: to him, the Constitution is absolute and therefore could not be violated on the whim of Tony Fauci. Personality wise, I just don’t see him as compatible with Donald Trump. My guess is that if he accepted a position in a Trump cabinet, he would not survive more than about three months.
I am sure of one thing: he cares deeply for the country and is very concerned about its future. He refers to himself as a Kennedy Democrat. But he says that the Democrat Party has lost faith in its own traditions, but also in democracy. If he believes that, and he has said that he does, perhaps he is running for the wrong party’s nomination. He seems a lot more liked and respected by Republicans than Democrats. And I don’t believe that is because he will hurt the Democrats. He has testified before a house committee on censorship. In fact many Republican candidates have said they would like to have him in their cabinets.
Will any Republican save the Republic?
I don’t see any Republican candidate who will do what needs to be done when elected. What about Donald Trump? No, he had his chance and he failed miserably in many areas. The most obvious failure was his handling of the so-called Covid Pandemic. The country needed real leadership not juvenile shouting matches with Democrats. The border wall was a complete failure and blaming Democrats for not funding it was cowardly. I will admit that his handling of the border was George Patton in Germany compared to Joe Biden’s refusal to notice the invasion.
Trump had and still has one great success that he can and should be proud of. He is hated by every low life, vile, wicked member of the Democrat Party who holds office. About 75 million people voted for Trump. Furthermore, he is right when he says they are coming for you, I am just in the way. Democrats hate him and they hate the middle class and every American who wants traditional values to prevail. Their hatred for Trump is passionate and so much so that they are willing to cheat, lie and subvert law and justice to “get him.”
Kennedy as a Republican?
That is the political party that this honorable and principled man I have been describing seeks to lead and to take him to the White House. I just don’t see it folks. I don’t see him getting the Democrat nomination, but if he does then great. My question, then, is what if he switched parties before the primary season began. If he were in a real primary debate, he would have to clearly state his views and he would have the opportunity to do so. Right now, he is a bit of an enigma. Because he just criticizes without a clear statement as to how he would handle certain problems. I don’t think he would have any trouble holding his own in debate, and I would certainly tune in for it.
So, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as a Republican candidate for president. No, folks I just can’t get my head around that one. Which puts him in a real dilemma because the values he believes in no longer exist in the Democrat Party. That leaves a third-party option, so what about that? Here’s what he said recently in an interview with Forbes:
If the DNC is gonna make it, it is gonna rig it so that it is simply impossible for anybody to challenge President Biden, and you know I need to look at other alternatives. Because I can’t go back to the people who support me, to my donors, and say you know, I’m just going to, I’m just in this to make a point, I need to show them a road to victory.
Conclusion
Finally, folks, could that road to victory run through a third party and if so which one? The Greens already have a candidate named Cornel West. The Constitution Party, never—he’s pro-abortion. What about the Libertarian Party? He is committed to liberty especially in healthcare and to a more peaceful world, so maybe.
At least that’s the way I see it.
Until next time folks,
This is Darrell Castle.
Editor’s Notes:
This article appeared originally at CastleReport.us and appears here by permission.
1 Actually, that case is in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, not any district of New York. The case pending in the New York State Supreme Court is about honey-trap blackmail, not “insurrection or rebellion.”
2 But for chutzpah, yesterday’s application for a stay of an injunction against threatening of social media companies takes all prizes.
Darrell Castle is an attorney in Memphis, Tennessee, a former USMC Combat Officer, 2008 Vice Presidential nominee, and 2016 Presidential nominee. Darrell gives his unique analysis of current national and international events from a historical and constitutional perspective. You can subscribe to Darrell's weekly podcast at castlereport.us
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