Cesar Chavez’s family backed President Joe Biden on Friday, after RFK, Jr said the civil rights leader would vote for the Independent who is flirting with the Libertarian ticket’s candidacy.
“Fernando and Paul Chavez, the sons of the late co-founder of the United Farm Workers, are supporting the president on Friday, the Biden campaign told CBS News. The family already has close ties to the campaign as Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Chavez’s niece, serves as the president’s campaign manager,” Ed O’Keefe reported for CBS News.
“’The bonds of affection and respect for a president who through his character and actions consistently reflects the genuine legacy of my father, Cesar Chavez,’ Paul Chavez said in a statement.”
The Biden-Harris campaign manager is actually Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who is the granddaughter of the late civil rights leader. She told CBS: “Today, my grandfather’s bust stands in the Oval Office—a reminder that President Biden understands the power of organizing and putting people to work and recognizes the impact of my grandfather’s legacy to continue to mobilize”. our communities in action. In an election that will determine the fate of organized labor, our Latino community, and our democracy, I could not be more honored to accept my family’s support as one of many who will lead us to victory in November. !â€
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hopes to achieve whatever victory means to him through the power of his name, which evokes Camelot for many American voters, but his own family does not support his candidacy.
However, the Chavez family was outraged after RFK, Jr’s campaign used a photo of his father sitting with Chavez in 1968.
“When we saw Bobby Kennedy start using images of my father, and then when we heard about this event in Los Angeles, it really pushed us to take a stand and make sure people understood that the Chavez family does not support his campaign ,” Paul Chavez, Fernando’s brother, told the LA Times. “We have never seen anyone go to the point of using that image for political gain,” Andres Chavez, Paul’s son, said of the invitation to Kennedy’s campaign event.
The Libertarian Party and RFK, Jr. have discussed his candidacy, something they say they consider “mutually beneficial.”
Libertarianism, however, is opposed to civil rights and is not as oblique a position as they have tried to disguise it.
In 1991, the libertarian economist who co-founded and named the Institute while complaining about protections against sexual harassment noted that “the beginning of the evil can be pinpointed: the monstrous Civil Rights Act of 1964, especially Title VII, prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, sex and other possible characteristics.”
It is impossible to reconcile hostility to any type of legislation that protects against civil rights violations with avowed support for civil rights. The only reason we need laws to protect civil rights is because the people traditionally in power (rich white men – the face of the beneficiaries of libertarian political positions) abuse and violate these fundamental freedoms without laws prohibiting it.
Libertarianism is about “freedom” for those who already have it. It’s about maintaining the status quo and protecting the wealthy elites behind it from having to be responsible for respecting the freedom of others. But it sounds great on the surface and is an easy sell especially to young white men and women who haven’t faced personal adversity.
From the basement of your parents’ house in the suburbs, wearing a cowboy hat to celebrate freedom can be part of growing up. But at some point, most people’s growth includes learning about history and experiences outside of their own that open their eyes to why laws protecting civil rights are needed.
Those reasons, that compassion, and that growth are why people of integrity support laws that protect the freedoms of ALL, not just those currently in power.
“The family of Cesar Chavez has endorsed President Biden, sending a clear message to voters that only one candidate in this race embodies the compassion, respect and integrity with which Cesar Chavez led. In keeping with the legacy of Cesar Chavez, President Biden has shown unwavering support for workers’ rights and civil rights – this support confirms that,” the Biden campaign said in an email.
President Biden has earned the support of those who value civil rights and defend workers’ rights through decades of advocacy, which he has continued as president. And that’s really the point. Anyone can use an image to sell themselves to voters as some sort of civil rights hero, but do his actions support that? Do their policies protect these rights?
If not, voters should ask themselves why they are trying to mislead people.
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