THE INHERITOR

What does Robert F: Kennedy, Jr, actually want?

- CLARE MALONE

In December of 2021, the pollster Jeremy Zogby began designing a national survey to capture the radical changes that he believed were under way in American life nearly two years into the pandemic. Zogby, who is an avid reader of the psychologist Carl Jung, was especially curious about the kinds of people that Americans considered "heroic," and he came up with a list of archetypes. There was the spiritual leader, the Pope; the female entrepreneur, Oprah; the rogue pundit, Tucker Carlson; and the philanthropist-scientist, Bill Gates. Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as the presumptive Presidential nominees of the major parties, were also included. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the nephew of John F. Kennedy and a prominent opponent of vaccine mandates, struck Zogby as the quintes sential COVID protester. When the results of the poll came back, Zogby was shocked to find that Kennedy topped the list. "What it told me was that the name still meant something in the political landscape," he said.

Zogby flew out to California, where Kennedy lives with his third wife, the actor Cheryl Hines. At the time, leaders in the anti-vaccine movement were encouraging Kennedy, who has long expressed the widely refuted belief that vaccinating children can cause autism, to consider a Presidential bid. Kennedy was skeptical. "I thought about it a little, but I just didn't want to run if I couldn't win," he said. "I knew that Cheryl would never go for it."