Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent interview with James Howard Kunstler began with an insight few political figures have recognized ……
“If you want to break it down into ideological categories, one way of looking at this is that there is a rising populism that is coming from both the left and the right and I think that left-right coalition is the only thing that can save America.”
Kennedy hesitated as he searched for those words, and his statement’s navigational guidepost – “populism” – is a confusing term of unclear meaning. Nevertheless, his assessment contains the seeds of a long overdue course correction in America’s governance.
So …… does RFK understand the political spectrum in sufficient detail to help guide the country toward a better paradigm? Does he believe it deeply enough to withstand the body blows he’ll receive from the Establishment? Or is “left–right coalition that can save America” merely another idealistic phrase like “end world hunger” or “no more war” that falls short of its lofty goal because it can’t address the underlying realities?
It will be months before we can judge whether RFK holds a workable understanding of the partisan landscape, but his recent speech at Bitcoin 2023 was a solid first step toward building a Coalition of Citizens.
In the keynote address, he outlined a concise, realistic policy on Bitcoin governance. He also framed its importance effectively by juxtaposing cryptocurrency against the Canadian trucker protests. But …… while his lawyerly approach was well-crafted, it was also of secondary importance.
The effort to speak to the crypto community at all – to address them as a legitimate political constituency – reflects the more important action: a recognition that those who support decentralized currencies can form the partisan “base” of a new political movement. Bitcoiners (and yes, gold holders too) represent the logical lynchpin of any strategy seeking to unite the interests of citizens …… whether those citizens reside on the left or the right. Kennedy just might have recognized that crypto can combine common concerns into a cohesive coalition.
However …… if Kennedy wants to build a movement that will elect him president, he’ll need to make some significant shifts in his use of political language. The current lack of precision simply won’t do. A term like “populism” doesn’t contain enough meaning for people to rally around. “Left” and “Right” carry their own connotations of confusion. Concerned Americans need to hear well-crafted language that causes them to say “that represents my views” or “that describes my predicament”. Only well-conceived words will spur people to action.
Here’s the rub: the necessary changes in language can only be understood after a simple framework of the political landscape has been visualized.
For example, cryptocurrency advocates are generally agnostic on the Values Question (liberal versus conservative) but passionate in their views on the distribution of power in society. (They favor citizen agency over concentrated controls). This places Bitcoin at the bottom pole of the political circle ……
Crypto and other decentralizing forces stand in diametric opposition to the authoritarian tendencies of those who manage fiat currencies – the Central Banks, governing financial agencies, and their Wall Street allies. These entities seek to concentrate power in the hands of a credentialed few ……
As you can see below, a comparison of two other adversaries – the Canadian protesters and the Trudeau administration – exhibits a similar distance on the political circle. The diametric opposition of those groups is merely shifted a few degrees counterclockwise from the Bitcoin-vs-Fiat conflict. The contrast in world-views is similar……
The examples diagrammed above are just two of countless top-versus-bottom battles being waged today. If we were to place all of those examples on the circle, political positions (points) representing a concentration of control would include CBDCs, vaccination mandates, expansion of the IRS, no-knock warrants, woke corporate policies, indefinite January 6 incarcerations, and the like. Those positions would also include political players like Joe Biden, George Soros, Mitch McConnell, Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, Jamie Dimon, legacy media, Washington lobbyists, and globalist NGOs ……
The policies and political figures noted just above are opposed by entities who reside at the bottom of the circle: the “anti-vaxxers”, Bitcoiners, Austrian School investors, small business owners, local communities, New Urbanists, family farmers, alt-media, and dissidents like Julian Assange or Edward Snowden ………
The visual shown just above presents a more concrete description of the “left-right populist coalition” referenced only vaguely by Kennedy in the Kunstler interview. This low quadrant horizontal alliance represents the core constituency necessary to construct a broad partisan movement in the conflict between Self-empowering Citizens and a muscular Establishment which seeks to subdue them.
RFK correctly identified those activated citizens as the only thing that can save America. But their common interests must be accurately mapped before they can be knitted together and inspired toward effective political action. If the underlying conceptual understanding of a potential coalition is sloppy, the leader’s use of language will be imprecise and poorly descriptive …… and “the people” will fail to organize themselves effectively.
The elites will continue to gaslight anyone who opposes their agenda – anyone who stands in the way of top-down initiatives to control the country’s activities. They will redouble their efforts to make Americans believe that political disputes only orient Left-Right, in an effort to distract the citizens from the crucial questions of our time. They want us to believe that top-versus-bottom conflict is a figment of our imaginations.
For a candidate to successfully build a working coalition that can thwart such top-of-circle efforts, he or she will need to fill both lower quadrants with highly-engaged citizen-empowering voters ……
Does Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have a clear enough understanding of the political landscape to pull this off? Will he engage Americans with insightful and inspiring wordcraft? Can he develop the strategies necessary to build a Coalition of Citizens? Does he have the fortitude to withstand the inevitable, underhanded, unfair attacks launched by entrenched interests? Could another candidate bring more skill and understanding to the task?
Only time will answer such questions. But RFK’s early outreach to the Bitcoin community was a good first move. We will soon find out if he can navigate more complex challenges ……
The Great Conflation 