Travel back with me in time to July 19th, if you will.

Ebullient Republicans were leaving Milwaukee. They’d wrapped up an enormously successful convention less than one week after Donald Trump had miraculously survived an assassination attempt.

They were giddy. They smelled victory.

Meanwhile, angry Democrats were working furiously behind the scenes to stab Joe Biden in the back, while Kamala Harris secretly plotted to become her party’s nominee without ever securing a single vote in a Democratic primary. 

Democracy, Democrat-style. Sigh.

By Sunday afternoon Biden had been bullied into quitting the race, Democrats were celebrating, Kamala was plotting and the wind had gone out of the GOP sails just three days after they’d hoisted the spinnaker and were riding on fair seas.

Worse, the assassination attempt and Trump’s gallant reaction to it was right where Dems wanted it: Memory holed.

Today, as Democrats pack up and scurry home from Chicago, aglow from their weeklong lovefest, there could be a news event to remove any rosy afterglow from their convention:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is slated to give a speech this afternoon in Phoenix. As it happens, Trump is scheduled to do the same. Rumors are rampant that RFK will drop out of the race and throw his support to - gasp - Trump.

If that happens, the news cycle will stomp all over the joyous leftovers from Chicago.

And the press needn’t act as if an RFK endorsement of Trump is a big nothing burger. It’s a very big deal. In a presidential race that could be as tight as a tick by November 5th, even a bump of 1 or 2% from Kennedy supporters could be enough to hand the victory to the GOP.

That would be a just reward for the Democrats who did their best to smear and destroy a wayward member of the Democratic Party’s royal family.

From the days of Honey Fitz in Boston and old Joe Kennedy in the FDR administration to the present, the Kennedys have been nothing if not loyal Democrats. Shoot, cousin Caroline is ambassador to Australia and nephew Joseph Kennedy III is Biden’s special envoy to Northern Ireland.

But RFK Jr. seems to have had enough of the party’s shenanigans. He’s ready to shiv them the way they shivved him, by keeping him off Democrat primary ballots, refusing to give him secret Service protection, blocking his request to be part of the June presidential debate and trying to get his name removed from Novembers ballots.

You know, all in their phony attempts to “save Democracy.”

However, it looks like they may have fooled with the wrong Kennedy. 

If this transpires the way it promises, Republicans should pipe down about RFK’s positions that are too far left. Sure he’s concerned about climate and supports abortion rights. But he was dead on about civil rights violations during covid and the covid vaccines. In fact, he’s better on those issues than Trump.

He’s also a smart and skilled lawyer whose lawsuits against New York polluters cleaned the Hudson River. 

Best of all, Kennedy shares Trump’s distrust of the administrative state. You know, those unelected bureaucrats who run the federal government.

When it comes to the widespread dictatorial reaction to covid, RFK Jr. was on the mark from the beginning. He certainly agrees with Trump who this week announced that once he’s president he’ll not only reinstate any member of the military who was dismissed over a refusal to take the covid vaccine, but he’ll give them back pay. 

Excellent. 

If Republicans really want to win the White House they’ll embrace RFK’s endorsement.

It’s unknown how many votes that would bring to Trump, but in a close election they could make the difference. 

If nothing else, the announcement will stomp all over the DNC after-party.

Hey Dems, Karma’s a you-know-what.

Thumbnail photo by Gage Skidmore.