Erick-Woods Erickson
It is a truism that does not get talked about enough, but is innately part of being a conservative, or really a person of any ideological conviction — world view matters.
Those of us on the right have long understood this.
If, for example, a person is an atheist who believes there is no eternal judgment, Heaven, or Hell, their convictions about life and public policy related to lives will matter. Among secular progressives, we regularly witness the advance of public policy that would bring out a supposed Heaven on earth. From climate change to wealth policies, progressives believe this is all we will have and they will reorder the world whether we like it or not.
World view matters.
Likewise, those of us on the right have long, long understood that the world view of someone who is pro-life versus someone who is pro-abortion matters. If one believes that life begins at conception, social policy for expectant mothers matters. So too does tax policy, planning for future educations of the children, etc. A pro-life person and a pro-abortion person will value people differently and make different decisions more often than not.
Likewise, a pro-life person is vastly more likely to value the individual over the collective. The pro-abortion person will value family planning for the better ordering of society in their minds — encouraging, for example, women in the workforce with abortion rights that, without them, could hinder their career advances due to the, in their view, burden of a child.
World view matters.
World view matters because we are regularly thrust into unexpected situations and our values, upbringing, and character will filter through our world view to inform our decision making. That affects both the staggering ordinariness of decisions in our daily lives and the irregular and unexpected curveballs life gives each of us.
Our world view matters because of the daily grind and how we see choose to proceed — the world view shapes the choice that defines the moment.
We all know world view matters. This is precisely why the United States Senate should reject the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
There are plenty of individuals as committed as Kennedy to making America healthy again, without the world view of a privileged, hedonistic, serial adulterer, abortion advocate whose overall world view is progressivism tinged with hedonistic contrarianism. Kennedy is not a skeptic. He is a professional contrarian. His views on vaccines overall are not grounded in science. He has repeatedly been caught lying about vaccines and medicines to advance his views. His views were, not that long ago, heralded by the Hollywood left, with a privilege that allowed them to escape the consequences of their actions and decision making — a privilege Kennedy has time and time again used to get out of his poor decision making.
He is to healthcare what Al Gore is to global warming and shares Al Gore’s environmental alarmism. In fact, Barack Obama considered making Kennedy the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Kennedy is not just a progressive pro-abortionist. He is also not a good person. His sexual escapades are widely attributing to his second wife’s breakdown and ultimately to her suicide. Before she hanged herself, Kennedy’s wife found his journal documenting his sexual escapades with 37 women. He had a reputation of sending the nude pictures of his sexual conquests to friends. Because the divorce, though filed, had not been finalized before her suicide, Kennedy had a judge give him control of her remains over the objections of her siblings.
[O]n May 16, 2012, Richardson, 52, committed suicide by hanging herself in an outbuilding on the couple’s Bedford estate.
Kennedy’s cheating had become a huge issue in the marriage.
Richardson told a friend that her husband noted the names of his romantic conquests on pages in the back of his journal under the preprinted heading “cash accounts.”
The journal begins with word that Richardson is pregnant with the couple’s fourth child.
This is not some past issue either, but one that regularly resurfaces in this Kennedy’s life and, seemingly all the other Kennedy lives, including on the campaign trail this year.
People on the right have regularly, of late, been making the mistake that because someone agrees with us on one thing, they must agree on most things. But Kennedy does not. He is a progressive environmental activist who has strung together both truth and fiction related to food and healthcare who had the active attention and support of the left until Kennedy challenged Joe Biden.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services plays a larger role than the one people on the right would prefer Kennedy to administer. He will be shaped by the world view of a privileged scion of the Kennedy family steeped in progressivism, gun control, and abortion rights. He will have power over a vast portion of our lives and his moral character, long held progressive agenda, and world view should disqualify him for a position of such power and importance.
We cannot trust the man in the moment to make the right decision and he, not his underlings we are assured will protect us from Kennedy’s excesses, will make many decisions.
Anyone who is concerned about the Second Amendment or life should be deeply concerned about giving Kennedy the keys to the Department of Health and Human Services. There are others who share Kennedy’s views on health, food safety, and medicine who do not come from his world view. President Trump undoubtedly has better options.
The Senate Republicans should reject Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
