The Speech RFK Jr. Should Deliver to Be Worthy of His Name

Two months before his murder, Robert F. Kennedy delivered brief remarks in Phoenix, Arizona, while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president.

“If there is one overriding reality in this country, it is that we must resist any erosion of a sense of national decency,” the March 30, 1968, speech began.

“Make no mistake: Decency is at the heart of the matter—and at the heart of this campaign. Poverty is indecent. Illiteracy is indecent.”

The Vietnam War was at its bloody height, and he continued, “The death or maiming of brave young men in the swamps of Asia, that is indecent.”

But the rest of what he had to say would also apply to our present-day troubles.

“It is indecent for a man to work with his back and his hands without hope of ever seeing his son enter a university. It is indecent for a man in the streets of New York or Portland, Detroit or Watts, to surrender the only life he will ever have to despair. It is indecent for the best of our young people to be driven to the terrors of drugs and violence, to allow their hearts to wither with hatred.”

And the remedy was the same then as now.

“This is a time to create, not destroy. This is a time for men to work out a sense of decency, not bitterness. This is a time to begin again. And that is why I run for president, and that is why I ask for your help.”

On Friday, 56 years after those remarks—and a day after the Democratic convention in Chicago that affirmed anew the principles Kennedy avowed—his son and namesake is scheduled to make a speech regarding his own candidacy for president.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appearance was preceded by a grandiose press statement headlined “Kennedy to Address the Nation.”

“Independent Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will address the nation live on Friday about the present historical moment and his path forward,” the release said.

The younger Kennedy is expected to announce his withdrawal from a race where he has never been more than a spoiled spoiler. He is a reckless anti-vaxxer given to conspiracy theories who has gone against much of what his father championed. The ultimate betrayal began two months ago, when he began discussions with the least principled major figure in American politics, someone who is an ongoing affront to national decency.

As reported by CNN and others, Kennedy and Donald Trump together weighed trading an endorsement in exchange for a high-level position in a new administration. Trump made clear that he was open to what he termed a “deal” with Kennedy.

“I like him a lot. I respect him a lot,” Trump told CNN. “I probably would, if something like that would happen. He’s a very different kind of a guy — a very smart guy. And, yeah, I would be honored by that endorsement, certainly.”

Kennedy, who did not respond to a Daily Beast request for comment, is said to have also approached Kamala Harris with thoughts of a similar deal. He was met with silence.

But Trump remained open to a deal and the two men’s schedules suggest it is at least close to being finalized. Kennedy is set to speak at 3 p.m. MT in Phoenix. That is 20 minutes away from Glendale, Arizona, where a Trump rally is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.

A Kennedy endorsement—with him near enough to perhaps deliver it in person—would give Trump a much-needed boost after the all-encompassing drama of the Democratic convention in Chicago.

But the proximity to that gathering and its historical context also make the younger Kennedy seem all the more an apostate son.

Five days after the 1968 speech by Kennedy’s father in Phoenix, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Kennedy was campaigning that day in Gary, Indiana, and as riots broke in other cities, he proved able to calm a restive crowd by quoting his favorite poet, Aeschylus: “In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”

Kennedy had continued with his own words, “What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.”

With the power of that decency, Kennedy went on to win the California primary in June. He delivered a triumphant victory speech in a packed ballroom at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles

“Now, it’s on to Chicago and let’s win this!” he exhorted.

Kennedy then stepped away from the podium and began to exit through the kitchen, where a 24 year-old assassin waited with a stolen revolver. Kennedy never made it to the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, but he was prominent among the better angels at this year’s gathering.

More than a half-century after his death, the elder Kennedy’s passion for social justice was as alive as ever, particularly in the speeches by former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. But neither they nor anybody else at the podium uttered the great man’s name.

To have said “Robert F. Kennedy” would have raised the disgraceful specter of his son. RFK Jr. could prove himself worthy of his father’s name on Friday by using his father’s words and sticking to his vision: decency.

Instead he will seal his disgrace by throwing in his lot with an enemy—not just of the Democratic Party, but of decency itself.