Opinion
By Judge John Marshall Meisburg, Jr., 8-24-24
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has now suspended his campaign for President in the 10 battleground states and endorsed President Trump. That is really good news for Trump on so many levels.
First, Kennedy is polling at least 5% in the battleground swing states, and his votes will mostly go to Trump. This may well put Trump over the top in those key states, which are very close in the polls. He may well get Trump re-elected President.
Second, the fact that Kennedy did not just suspend his campaign, but actually endorsed Trump may well persuade many of his independent followers to vote for Trump, because they greatly admire Kennedy and value his political recommendations.
Third, the strong language that Kennedy used against the Democrat party can only help Trump and the Republicans. Kennedy said that the Democrat party of his father Senator and Attorney General Robert Kennedy and his Uncle, President John F. Kennedy, no longer existed. He said that the current Democrat party “has become the party of endless war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big Tech, big Ag and big money.” Kennedy said that the Democrat party has “waged a continual legal warfare against both President Trump and myself and ran a sham primary”. He said the Democrats had conducted an undemocratic campaign to stop his campaign, and the campaign of Trump. Kennedy also said that the Democrats had “colluded with the media to censor political speech, an attack on our most sacred right of free expression,” much like Putin has done in Russia. I believe that these strong words will encourage many moderate Democrats to leave their party like Kennedy and vote for Trump.
Fourth, the Kennedy name is still greatly revered in America, and many people love the Kennedys. As a result, they will listen to his speech intently, and may well move to Trump as a result. During high school, I was captivated by President John Kennedy, and he inspired me to a 50 year legal career in government. In college I was President of Kentucky Citizens for Robert Kennedy for President, and supported his call to end the war in Vietnam. In 1975 I joined the U.S. Department of Justice as an Attorney and was given an office overlooking the Great Hall of Justice in the Robert F. Kennedy Main Justice Department building on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. Many people in my generation still love and respect the Kennedy family and will listen to RFK Jr. and carefully consider his opinions.
Fifth, Kennedy said that he was aligned with President Trump on many important issues: censorship, government corruption, endless wars, and chronic illnesses. Kennedy said that the War in Ukraine is a catastrophe. He said that America enraged Putin by encircling Russia with NATO, by putting nuclear weapons in Poland and tearing up a draft peace treaty. He said that this has nearly ruined the nation of Ukraine and killed 600,00 of its men. He said we have now squandered more than $200 Billion in that war which he blamed on the “neo-Cons” in the Democrat party. Like Trump, Kennedy says that this war must be settled quickly. Kennedy said that this issue alone would cause him to vote for Trump. It should be noted that Trump also has more in common with Kennedy than most people know. The Biden-Harris Secret Service outrageously refused to give Kennedy Secret Service protection even though his father and Uncle were assassinated. And we all now know that the Secret Service was so negligent in protecting President Trump that it looks like willful negligence or even intent that he was shot.
Sixth, Kennedy also used his speech to the nation to highlight some very important issues that no other candidate for President has even addressed. I believe that Kennedy is brilliant and very insightful on many of these issues, and President Trump has now decided to highlight some of these issues as well. Kennedy said he “prayed every day that God would put him in a position to end the calamity of chronic disease in our children and adults.” He devoted almost 30 minutes to the chronic illness crisis in America that has been spawned by the FDA, big Agriculture, and big Pharma and the toxic processed food in the American diet. This health and medical crisis is also threatening to bankrupt America because the cost to our government in health care is 4 trillion dollars per year. Trump fully agrees with Kennedy on this issue. We must make America healthy again!
In regard to the chronic illness crisis in America, Kennedy said that “nobody has a disease burden like we have. And during the Covid epidemic, we had the highest body count of any country in the world. We had 16% of the Covid deaths and we only have 4.2% of the world’s population. And CDC says that’s because we are the sickest people on earth. We have the highest chronic disease rate on earth.
Kennedy said that “two thirds of American adults and children suffer from chronic health issues. Fifty years ago, that number was less than 1%, so we’ve gone from 1% to 66% in America. About 74% of Americans are now overweight or obese and 50% of our children. Some 120 years ago when somebody was obese, they were sent to the circus. They were literally, there were case reports done about them. Obesity was almost unknown. In Japan, the childhood obesity rate is 3% compared to 50% here. Half of Americans have pre-diabetes or type two diabetes. When my uncle was president, I was a boy, Juvenile diabetes was effectively non-existent. A typical pediatrician would see one case of diabetes during his entire career, a 40 or 50 year career. Today, one out of every three kids who walks through his office door is diabetic or pre-diabetic and the mitochondrial disorder that caused diabetes also causing Alzheimer’s, which is now classified as diabetes and it’s causing this country more than our military budget.”
Kennedy also said that America now has the worst chronic disease problem in the world: “Every year there’s been an explosion of neurological illnesses that I never saw as a kid. ADHD, speech delay, language delay, Tourette syndrome, narcolepsy, ASD, Asperger’s, autism. In the year 2000, the autism rate was one in 1500. Now, autism rates in kids are one in 36 according to CDC nationally, and nobody’s talking about this. One in every 22 kids in California has autism, and this is a crisis that 77% of our kids are too disabled to serve in the United States military. What is happening to our country and why isn’t this in the headlines every single day? There’s nobody else in the world that is experiencing this. This is only happening in America. “
Kennedy said that ultra processed food is killing the children of America and that the toxic school lunch program is partially to blame: “About 18% of American teens now have fatty liver disease. That’s like one out of every five. That disease when I was a kid only affected late stage alcoholics who are elderly. Cancer rates are skyrocketing and the young and the old young adult cancers are up 79%. One in four American women is on antidepressant medication. Forty percent of teens have a mental health diagnosis, and 15% of high schoolers are
on Adderall and half a million children on SSRIs. So what’s causing this suffering? I’ll name two culprits. First and the worst is ultra processed food. About 70% of American children’s diet is ultra processed. “
Kennedy said that the financial cost of the chronic disease crisis to our country is staggering: “When my uncle was President of our country (John F. Kennedy) we spent Zero dollars ($0) on chronic disease; today, government healthcare spending is almost all for chronic disease and it’s double the military budget and it is the fastest budget growing budget item in the federal budget. Chronic disease costs at least $4 trillion, or five times our military budget, and that’s a 20% drag on everything we do and everything we aspire to or in minority communities suffer disproportionately.
Finally, I predict that Trump will appoint Kennedy to an important post in his new administration. I would suggest Secretary of Health and Human Services, Attorney General, or Chairman of the Food and Drug Administration. In any of these posts, Kennedy could root out corruption in our government, attack the chronic illness epidemic and help to make America healthy again.
I believe that the Kennedy endorsement of Trump was a turning point in this campaign and will result in the re-election of President Trump to be the 47th President of the United States.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR- JUDGE JOHN MARSHALL MEISBURG JR.
Judge John Marshall Meisburg, Jr., was a U.S. Administrative Law Judge with the Social Security Administration for 26 years in Jacksonville, Florida. He retired as a judge in 2021 and is now living in Fernandina Beach, Florida with his wife of 43 years, Dr. Denise Meisburg. They have six children and 11 grandchildren. Prior to being a judge, he was a lawyer with the Federal government for 23 years, serving in all three branches of the government, with the U.S. District Court, EEOC, Justice Department, Congress, FDIC and Office of Special Counsel (MSPB). He was in private law practice one year in Washington, D.C. and filed the lawsuit that became the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case on sexual harassment. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Kentucky, and a Juris Doctor law degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law. He is a lifelong Christian, being raised in the Baptist faith in Louisville, Kentucky. He was an Elder at New Life Christian Fellowship in Jacksonville where he taught Sunday School, the Jewish Roots of the Faith and the Christian Heritage of America. He was a leader of both the National Day of Prayer and the House of Prayer in Jacksonville for over ten years. He has published ten books relating to Christian and legal issues. He is now a member of Living Waters World Outreach Center in Fernandina Beach, where he serves in the prayer and home group ministry, and is a member of the Board of Directors for Faith Christian Academy.
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida
