Robert Kennedy visits Tuscaloosa

Independent Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. visited Tuscaloosa last month. Kennedy, the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy Sr. and the nephew of former President John F. Kenney (D) is an environmental lawyer and former Congressman.

Kennedy spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of approximately 180 college students at the University of Alabama.

Kennedy previously lived in Alabama when he ran a presidential campaign for his Uncle Senator Teddy Kennedy (R-Massachusetts).

As most of his audience were young and still in school, Kennedy hammered on economic issues heavily – the $33 trillion national debt, the trillions in credit card debt, and the rising cost of home ownership which he said is now about $400,000 up from $210,000 just a decade ago.

Kennedy repeatedly blamed much of the woes in the nation, not on Democrats or Republicans; but on the investment firms of, "Black rock, State Street, and Vanguard."

The three largest investment firms in the world manage $22 trillion in combined assets.

Kennedy said that the three benefit from wars and conflicts, the national debt, and suggested that the three were harvesting the wealth of the American middle class for their own enrichment and postulated that the American people were being reduced to serfdom.

Kennedy said that the GI bill and America's industrial might following the Second World War meant that average Americans were able to buy homes and build equity. That equity allowed them to start businesses and improve their lives. That has all changed for this generation.

"I have seven children – the oldest is 39 - he owns his own home, the other six do not. They can't even begin to think about buying their own home and they all had excellent educations and have good jobs," Kennedy said.

"Half of the nation's homeless population live in California even though California has just 12 percent of the nation's population," Kennedy said.

Kennedy said that more and more Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and don't even have a thousand dollars in savings for an emergency.

"If the check engine light come on in their car it is cataclysmic to them," Kennedy said. "If they lose their transportation they can't get to their job. If they lose their job they lose their home and become homeless."

Kennedy said that after three days of living on the street their mind begins to go from the pressure. Kennedy predicted that what is happening now with homelessness in California because of that state's high cost of housing is spreading to the rest of the country.

Kennedy also expressed concerned about Americans' declining health. Kennedy claimed that autism, food allergies, Crohn's disease, auto immune disorders have all dramatically increased in the generation of the college students versus his own generation.

"I must have seventy cousins, none of them had food allergies, It was unheard of back then; but my children have food allergies."

Kennedy said that the U.S. had the poorest outcomes during the COVID global pandemic because Americans have so many chronic health conditions.

"The average American who died from COVID had on average 3.2 other chronic health conditions. The next question to ask is why is that?"

Kennedy blamed former President Donald J. Trump (R) for the response to COVID saying that Trump knew that hydroxychloroquine worked as a treatment for COVID and knew that all of the shutdowns were wrong; but let Dr. Anthony Fauci and the experts in his own team make him back down. He compared Trump's unwillingness to stand up to his own advisors unfavorably with his uncle's handling of the Cuban missile crisis where President Kennedy, heeding the advice of Robert Kennedy Sr. overrode his senior advisors and chose not to bomb the missiles in Cuba, potentially provoking the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and starting World War III.

Kennedy said that the Cares Act, which passed in the Trump administration, added over a trillion dollars to the national debt.

Kennedy blasted President Joseph R Biden (D) for the border chaos and said that 7 million persons have walked across the southern border while Biden has been President as well as contributing to the fentanyl crisis which is killing over 100,000 Americans a year to drug overdoses.

Kennedy also criticized the Biden administration for the war in Ukraine which he claimed could have been avoided before it began by negotiations. Kennedy claimed that the war has added over a hundred million dollars to the national debt while getting 500,000 Ukrainians killed.

Kennedy said that he supports massive cuts to defense.

"We were promised a peace dividend in 1992 after the Berlin wall fell and that never happened," Kennedy said.

Kennedy, an environmental attorney, said that 80% of the songbirds in this country have disappeared since he was a boy as well as most of the frogs and salamanders and that the college students are not even aware of it because they never experienced that biological diversity.

He was asked how he can win as an independent.

"All I need is 34 percent, if each of the other two get 33 percent," Kennedy said.

Kennedy said that he would need 5,000 ballot signatures to get on the November 5 general election ballot in Alabama; but wanted about 8,000 to be safe in case some signatures were rejected.

To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com