On my journey toward the presidential general election 2024, I’ve noted similarities between being an independent author and being an independent political candidate. Without the support of the Big Five or the Red and Blue, staying on the course must be a labor of love. One might even say, being a little bit crazy is a must. Anyhow, here’s how I chose what box to check for POTUS in November.
I asked myself, where is the sportsmanship in the political parties? What happened to healthy debate, where all candidates receive invitations to the stage and there is intelligent discussion about America’s issues? What happened to the tv news that used to report real journalism, not personal gossip? I saw no light in the stalemate. I was so disillusioned that I almost decided not to vote this year. Then someone mentioned to me that there were independent candidates running. How had I not heard about them? I wondered.
Then I did my due diligence. I telephoned and emailed my State Department of Elections. I turned to books, because what better way is there to get inside presidential candidates’ heads than to read hundreds of pages of their thoughts? I listened to hours of podcast interviews. I discovered presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr had written an array of nonfiction literature.
After reading two of his books, I learned what he values: quality education, affordable housing, renewable farming, and government transparency. And he is against the broken two-party system, forever wars, unregulated industrial practices, and corporate capture of government agencies. He wants to secure America’s borders. His words sparked my desire to vote. There is a brightness and raw honesty in his writing. And in all his podcast interviews, he does not insult other presidential candidates. He has courage, curiosity, tenacity, and a wealth of scientific knowledge from four decades as a trial lawyer taking on the world’s most powerful corporations, holding them accountable for harming people and the environment. He received TIME Magazine’s Hero of the Planet and the Sartisky Peace Award for his work with the River Keepers. He cleaned up the pollution in the East River in New York. I know some folks say he is a little weird. Shrug! I have never met anyone formidable, who isn’t.
His running mate Nicole Shanahan is an attorney, a mom, and a regenerative farmer. She's articulate and authentic and committed to the campaign. She's got an informative podcast on Twitter. To learn more about the #kennedyshanahan24 campaign, visit kennedy24.com, follow their Instagram accounts @theshanawow and @robertfkennedyjr
To voters who say they do not think independent candidates can win: Consider this. When Ross Perot ran in the 1996 presidential election, there was a post-election poll taken. The results indicated that if all the voters, who had said that they would have voted for him if they thought he could win, had voted for him, he would have won. To those who say, a vote for RFK Jr. is a spoiler: Just to be clear. A vote for RFK Jr. is a vote for RFK Jr., and no one else.
The November election is around the corner. Do your research. Get your voter registration in position. Voting is not meant to be about predicting the future or assuming a winner. Casting a vote is supposed to be our right to choose the candidate who best represents our values. Settling for anything less defeats the purpose of having the right to vote in the first place.
-D.S. Marquis, Author of creative nonfiction book Of School and Women and
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