RFK Jr. and Systemic Change
I’m not very concerned with the outcome of the 2024 United States Presidential Election. I can’t control it and my ability to affect the outcome is nearly non-existent. I’d like to focus my attention on things within my sphere of influence.
What I am concerned with, is the extent to which my friends and fellow citizens can reason systemically about important issues facing our country. That’s why this week I’d like to share Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr’s “State of the Union” address.1
In the nine-minute long video, Kennedy draws a sharp contrast between the America he grew up in, where “working Americans could provide for their family on a single salary,” and the America of today, where household debt is at a record high of $17.3 trillion and climbing and most are struggling to get by.
I believe this video is important because the focus is on highlighting systemic issues at the root of our country’s dysfunction. They can’t be blamed on a single politician or party. They are the result of decades of policies consistently championed over the decades by nearly all Presidents and members of Congress. They are the characteristics of a collapsing empire, not a constitutional democratic republic.
A few issues highlighted include:
We’ve printed 9 centuries worth of money in a little over a decade and spent 8 trillion dollars on regime change wars.
Most newly created wealth of the past generation has gone to billionaires and transnational corporations. Meanwhile the middle class, along with our infrastructure, and industry have been hollowed out from the inside.
We have the worst health outcomes in the “rich” world.
From most other candidates I'd write this sort of messaging off as opportunistic, non-genuine, or meaningless. But Kennedy isn’t like other candidates. Many older voters look back with fondness on his uncle, President John F. Kennedy Jr. and his father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy. These men proved their capacity to help our country achieve great things. His message is resonating with younger voters across the spectrum who are sick of being asked to settle for the “lesser of two evils” and can clearly see that “our nation has become artificially divided by political forces that can only survive when we the people are at war with each other.” Recent Gallup polls show that Kennedy’s favorability ratings easily top those of Biden or Trump.2
Donnella Meadows argued that the most powerful leverage point for intervening in a system is the power to transcend paradigms. The second most powerful place is “the mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, power structure, rules, its culture — arises.”3
Kennedy can help facilitate a paradigm shift in American politics by placing these issues into our mainstream political discussion. He can “win” not by getting the most votes, but by helping Americans focus their attention on root causes rather than the individual politicians and dysfunctional dynamics which are the inevitable outputs of our current political paradigm.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Director). (2024, March 7). RFK Jr.: How I See The State Of Our Union. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0yvc2Qhn5E
Inc, G. (2024, January 9). Biden and Trump Evenly Matched in U.S. Favorable Ratings. Gallup.Com. https://news.gallup.com/poll/548138/american-presidential-candidates-2024-election-favorable-ratings.aspx
Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System. (n.d.). The Academy for Systems Change. Retrieved March 12, 2024, from https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/