Jacked, Whacked RFK Summer!
Dear Wags,
The Theater of Vigor is a strangely persistent feature of politics. We refer to macho performances in which The Fearless Leader demonstrates that he (it’s a he thing) has What it Takes. Throttling a grizzly bear has little to do with taking charge of a fractured modern society, but we have an old habit of falling for strongmen over more subtle paragons of wisdom and fortitude.
And, the more complicated things get, the more humanity seems drawn to the Cro-Magnon. How else to explain that video of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 69, doing push-ups and pumping iron in jeans on Muscle Beach? The glistening torso was an ad for a testosterone supplement and the policy platform taps a clogged artery of disgruntlement. Never mind about thimerosal, Kennedy is swoll! The point of the cartoon is to underscore that the sitting president—no spring pterodactyl— is not so hale.
This sort of exhibitionism is associated with goose-stepping nations (though shirtless Putin is making himself scarce lately). Still, America has a long history of he-man kabuki. Given the choice between a stammering Claudius and a strutting Caligula, the crowd knows what it likes.
Kennedy is basking in his pectoral moment. Let’s not swoon into vaccine conspiracies again. They’ve been gone over in many dense, unsettling paragraphs. Spend time with the guy, and you’ll find he can’t avoid the topic. When we had lunch years ago, he had us half-convinced there was plutonium in the Caesar’s salad. Sunny isn’t a word one would use to describe this fellow, but he’s gotten this far by sidestepping the old gatekeepers: “I’m not going to win this by winning the sympathies of the mainstream media,” he told a rapt Joe Rogan. “I really think these podcasts have the potential to change politics in this country.”
They already have! Kennedy is on the radar in spite of being cold-shouldered by what’s left of legacy media. He’s relied on heterodox podcasters and righty pundits to go after the old hobgoblins — Fauci, Wall Street, the military-industrial complex, rapacious corporations, clueless elites. His poll numbers shot up and he just did a town hall on something called News Nation. It matters not that Jake Tapper will have nothing to do with him; Rogan has a far bigger audience.
Now CNN, the snotty New York Times, and the rest must pay attention. In July 2023, RFK drives traffic, which draws media desperados like moths to the zapper. Does it matter if much of the coverage is withering? See: Trump, Donald J.
The operating strategy here is Made You Look. Kennedy points out how his uncle, JFK, manipulated a new medium, television, to eke out an electoral victory in 1960 and how Trump deployed Twitter trolling to devastating effect in 2016. He’s betting that alternative media will do the same for him. It seems to be working.
Ultimately, Kennedy is unlikely to be the Democratic nominee for Brookline dog catcher. He will not pry Trump devotees away from El Jefe (though he does need a running mate) or dislodge partisans from Biden, no matter how many Methuselah jokes are made. He does appeal to plenty of the jumpy and disaffected. Lately, our elections are decided by them.
This is a constituency. The idea that it is entirely composed of crazies in need of a stern lecture is foolish. Human beings are prone to conspiracy theories because actual conspiracies are not unknown to us. Mistrust of authority, exhaustion with overseas adventurism, hatred of big tech, big pharma, big finance, and big scolds—one needn’t swallow a red pill to understand why these sentiments exist.
They are rooted in legitimate anxiety, but American politics is not a game for serious people. It’s a performance space, in which players jolt the listless by saying and doing nutty things. People are bored — let’s hit the bench press! Who knows, maybe it will matter when more of us start paying attention.
Meanwhile, buckle up for a multi-partisan carnival of crunches, spray-on hair, orange skin, hair plugs, and veneers. There’s something poignant in all that masculine preening. Another show of strength won’t fix what’s broken. It is, in the end, just another show.
Yours Ever,
Joseph Frady
