A Kennedy is primarying Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Should Massachusetts rejoice at that news?
No. Absolutely not.
Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will challenge Biden for the Democratic nomination. While some conservatives may have a positive view of Kennedy given his skepticism of coronavirus vaccinations and vaccine mandates, Kennedy’s entry into the race is nothing worth celebrating.
He has a problematic anti-vax worldview that puts people in danger.
Kennedy has no chance of getting the Democratic nomination for president, but he will have a platform, connect with potential voters, and possibly change some minds.
That’s bad. Kennedy’s primary focus since 2005 has been promoting anti-vax propaganda. He is the president of the Children’s Health Defense, an organization that falsely claims a link exists between vaccinations and autism.
No credible evidence exists of such a link and his worldview is anti-life for two reasons. Getting vaccinated can protect people against viruses and many vaccines are highly effective. For example, vaccines against polio and chickenpox, plus measles, mumps, and rubella, are highly effective. In 1952, for example, polio killed more than 3,000 children. Thanks to vaccinations, the last case of polio happened in the United States in 1979.
Let’s not get that confused with liberals like MSNBC’s Rachael Maddow falsely claiming in March 2021 that the coronavirus vaccine was a silver bullet. Maddow said that if people got the coronavirus vaccine, they would not be infected with the coronavirus. That was obviously a lie. But let’s focus on the main issue here since objections to the coronavirus vaccine generally had nothing to do with supposed links to autism. Those concerns dealt with the effectiveness of a vaccine that was rushed to market and forced on people without compelling evidence that it worked.
When people like Kennedy falsely link vaccines to autism, it stigmatizes people with special needs. There is nothing wrong with being autistic or having special needs. Our society should embrace all people and value their lives from conception to natural death, but it does not. Some people are aborted because they have special needs, particularly unborn children with Down Syndrome, which, unlike autism, can be diagnosed before birth.
That is not to say that people cannot have good-faith opposition to certain vaccinations. It’s not a view I take, but some people oppose vaccinations for moral, religious, and health reasons. As a Catholic, I agree with my church’s official position that getting vaccinated is an act of love. However, I understand that the links to stem cells from aborted babies make some hesitant to take vaccines, including other Catholics. That’s not Kennedy’s point of contention, however; he has supported legal abortion since the 1970s, according to The Washington Post.
If people want to have an honest discussion about the efficacy of the coronavirus vaccines and about hesitations they have about certain vaccines, they are free to do that. However, Kennedy’s spreading lies about vaccines and autism, and effectively devaluing people with autism, is not only horrible, but it’s also anti-life.
Hopefully, the next president of the United States is someone who respects the sanctity of life – which is to say our next president will most likely need to be a Republican, because Biden, Kennedy, and Marianne Williamson are no friends to life – and Kennedy might be the most dangerous of them all.
New to NewBostonPost? Conservative media is hard to find in Massachusetts. But you’ve found it. Now dip your toe in the water for two bucks — $2 for two months. And join the real revolution.
