RFK Jr. and the peaceful revolution
The road to sustained power to the people
In a May 2 interview by Freddie Sayers, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. declared that we need a “peaceful revolution.” Kennedy made the comment in response to a question near the end of the interview, and the declaration of a peaceful revolution is not central to his political discourse. Indeed, the content of the Kennedy campaign Website (www.kennedy24.com), the trajectory of his impressive career as an environmental lawyer and reformer, and the subject matter of his several books indicate that he has not given extensive thought to the question of what a revolution actually is.
The history of revolutions teaches us that they involve an underdog class taking political power from the hands of a political-economic elite. Successful revolutions, those that take political power and sustain themselves in political power, generally have included the emergence of a leader who possesses an exceptional understanding with respect to the structures of domination and exploitation, and regardi…