[Mb-civic] Bobby Kennedy Jr.

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

The Next Bobby Kennedy - Could be 
Bobby Kennedy Jr.

By Knute Berger for SEATTLE WEEKLY
In 1968, a generation of progressive political leadership in this 
country was wiped out when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and 
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were gunned down. In a series of events 
as effective as a Baghdad car bomb, we were deprived of what 
could have been a combined 60 or 70 years of their leadership. 
Think about it. RFK, had he lived, would be about the same age 
today as Ronald Reagan was when he left office. 
The day after the November election, I dug around in the Mossback 
archives and found my Bobby Kennedy poster from the ill-fated year 
of his presidential campaign. It sits in my office as a reminder that 
once upon a time, Democrats weren't wimps. They could be tough, 
hard-nosed crime and commie fighters, and at the same time, they 
could talk to America in a way that appealed to the best in us. 
Such is the power of hope. Such is the power of bighearted politics 
that is also driven by guts. And such is the power of charisma. 
Watching old footage of Bobby's 1968 campaign on PBS recently, I 
was struck by the cross section of people who flocked to his banner: 
young, old, blue collar, white collar, intellectuals, migrant workers, 
African Americans, the middle class—people who responded to the 
dreams Bobby embodied and encouraged. 
But in Bobby, people also saw a ruthlessness that was necessary to 
win a great cause. While we might look back and think of the high-
minded ideals of work, sacrifice, compassion, and justice that Jack 
and Bobby both called us to, we also remembered that Bobby was 
the guy who said, "Don't get mad, get even."
Anyone can have a dream, but as the Kennedys and King both 
knew, you have to be tough to make that dream a reality.
When I first sat down to write this column, I was reluctant to talk 
about the older Kennedys because the occasion for it is the 
upcoming visit to Seattle by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Bobby's son (for 
details, see SW This Week, p. 39). I didn't want to spend time 
writing about the huge shoes he has to fill. But the fact is, for my 
generation, his name demands that we check him out and inevitably 
ask: Is hope alive?
RFK Jr. is an environmental advocate who says he intends one day 
to run for public office. He is a vocal and harsh critic of the Bush 
administration, and during my phone interview with him last week, I 
was very impressed. A friend who has spent time with him remarks 
about his smarts, his passion, his dedication to environmental 
causes, and his focus. Also, how he clearly comes from a world you 
and I don't inhabit: We don't go fly-fishing with foreign leaders, don't 
have a name, legacy, or bank account that commands attention. 
These are assets that many of the privileged have turned into 
burdens (RFK Jr. himself has a drug conviction in his past), but at 
51, Bobby Jr. is using them to make a difference. His book Crimes 
Against Nature is a tough look at what the Bush administration is 
really doing to the environment, and refreshingly, his eco-rhetoric 
isn't the schoolmarmish mush that made you want to snooze when 
Al Gore talked about the planet.
During our interview, I asked him mostly about the property-rights 
movement. It is making new headway in Oregon and resurging here 
in Washington as Tim Eyman and the development lobby consider a 
new ballot initiative, similar to Oregon's recently passed Measure 
37, which would compensate property owners if the value of their 
land goes down as the result of zoning and land-use laws. 
"It's a propaganda campaign to deceive the public," says Bobby Jr. 
flatly. "There has never been a right to use your property in a way 
that injures your neighbor's property." The property-rights 
movement, he says, wants to exploit public assets for private gain. 
"The property-rights advocates have turned property rights on its 
head....If government had to pay you not to put toxics in the air, 
not to dump sewage in water, the government couldn't print enough 
money to do that. They're about destroying the whole notion of 
community." They are asserting a constitutional right to pollute, he 
says. "Look around at the communities that are the wealthiest, and 
they have the most controls....If we all agree as a community to 
obey these laws and guidelines, we'll all get richer."
He sees the media as the biggest hindrance to progress. The 
consolidation of ownership of newspapers, TV, and radio stations 
into a few corporate hands has pushed news executives to be more 
concerned with the needs of shareholders than the public. As a 
result, instead of substantive reporting, we get "sex, celebrity 
gossip, and hawking pornography." The media-savvy right wing has 
successfully painted environmental groups as tree- hugging 
weirdos. But there's nothing more mainstream, Bobby Jr. says, than 
wanting clean air and clean water for communities. Again, the 
message has been turned on it head. "The left," he says, "needs to 
start capturing the discourse of mainstream America." 
Amen to that.
No politician is, or can offer, a panacea, but Bobby Kennedy Jr. 
seems to have some of the qualities that liberal leaders need right 
now. A gift for straight, tough talk and a knack for reminding us that 
America isn't a collection of special interests, but people with many 
common interests. As his father once said, the future will belong "to 
those who can blend passion, reason, and courage in a personal 
commitment to the great enterprises and ideals of American 
society."
I sense that RFK Jr. has taken his father's words to heart.
kberger at seattleweekly.com



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