Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the assassinated US Senator and Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, has announced his plan to protect and restore fundamental American civil liberties.
In a position paper on his website, Kennedy outlined his administration’s commitment to safeguarding the freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
“Our administration will make it a top priority to protect and restore the fundamental civil liberties, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, that hold the essence of what America can be,” said Kennedy, the nephew of America’s 35th President, John F. Kennedy, and the son of his Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who each lost their lives to an assassin’s bullet.
The Democratic challenger to President Joe Biden and progressive rival Marianne Williamson also highlighted the constant assault on these liberties for the past two decades, starting with the Bush/Cheney War on Terror and accelerating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kennedy emphasized the importance of freedom of speech, stating that it is the capstone of all other rights and freedoms.
“The free flow of information is the sunlight and water and fertilizer for democracy,” said Kennedy.
He also pledged to dismantle the censorship-industrial complex that allows Big Tech to censor, deplatform, shadowban, and algorithmically suppress any person or opinion the government asks them to.
Kennedy’s plan also includes ending mass surveillance of American citizens, stopping the abuse of civil asset forfeiture, and ensuring that the COVID-era suspension of the right to assembly, trial by jury, and freedom of worship never happens again.
“We will stop manipulating the public with propaganda and targeted leaks. We will never weaponize the law against political opponents, nor hold our own officials above the law. We will return the intelligence agencies to their proper role as protectors not violators of liberty,” Kennedy said.
In addition to protecting the civil liberties of all Americans, Kennedy promised to take special care to ensure the civil liberties of minorities and the poor.
He plans to end the War on Drugs and grant amnesty to nonviolent drug offenders, shut the school-to-prison pipeline, and transition prisons away from a punishment paradigm to a rehabilitation paradigm.
Kennedy’s proposal also includes transforming the police by incentivizing them to prevent violence, not make unnecessary arrests. He plans to train them in de-escalation and mediation skills and partner them with neighborhood organizations.
“No longer will their relationship to the public be adversarial. They will focus their attention on serious crimes, not harassing ordinary people,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy’s plan has garnered mixed reactions from politicians and the public. Some have praised his commitment to protecting civil liberties, while others have criticized his approach to policing and his stance on drug offenses.
As the election approaches, Kennedy’s proposal is likely to be a central topic of debate among candidates and voters alike.
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