FWIW: It's Hard to Argue with 'Make America Healthy Again'

Kindly keep this in mind when you head to the polls.

If the United States were a reality show, it would be called “America’s Got Chronic Disease.” Roughly sixty percent of US citizens have at least one major, debilitating illness (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis), and 40% suffer from two or more. A staggering seventy-four percent of Americans are overweight or obese. A recent study ranked health care in ten high-income countries on everything from access to care and administrative efficiency to overall outcomes and preventable deaths. The good old Land of Opportunity ranked last or near last in every single metric except one—the category that includes vaccines. [*dramatic eyeroll*] As a nation, we are fatter, sicker, and more sedentary than every single other industrialized nation on the planet (not to mention countless third world countries).

This statement is not political, and it certainly shouldn’t be controversial: We need to make America healthy again.

Enter Robert Kennedy Jr., the environmental lawyer and activist, notorious “anti-vaxxer,” and former presidential candidate turned surprise Trump supporter. With a promised cabinet position in a second Trump term, RFK Jr. has vowed to reduce the chemical additives in our food, address the environmental toxins assaulting us from every angle, expand access to alternative and holistic health treatments, demand transparency and safety in vaccines [if the latter is even possible], and finally, address the big, fat elephant in the domestic room: the chronic disease and obesity epidemic that is—without being hyperbolic—destroying our country.

What’s not to love? Well, if you’re the captured corporate media who gets the majority of its funding from Big Food and Big Pharma, apparently, a lot.

The Forbes article above, whose title boldly suggests it is about to offer a practical alternative to RFK’s plan, actually contains this paragraph:

“Harris, throughout her career, has protected our families from the chemical industry, supported and protected farming families and expanded organic and regenerative farming, expanded access to nutrition and exercise programs, and invested in education campaigns to empower consumers with the knowledge to make healthier food choices.”

She has? Has anyone run across one of these empowering educational campaigns, ever? Do any of you know even a single “farming family” who feels supported and protected under the current administration? (Should we ask some of the hundreds who’ve been shut down for ostensibly environmental reasons while Bill Gates scoops up farmland by the hectare?) Who exactly is enjoying “expanded access” to these wonderful nutrition and exercise programs I for one have never seen or heard of? (Oh, wait. Does Michelle Obama’s less-sugar soda company count? Or maybe the exercise program they’re referring to is the stampeding away from sports so many women have been forced to do now that biological men can compete in their arenas. Is there another program I missed? Do tell!)

The Forbes piece ends with this unironically vague and quasi-virtuous alternative to MAHA:

“Health and wellness are also economic justice issues. Good paying jobs with good healthcare. Freedom from fear of deportation. Lower grocery prices and subsidized healthy options cheaper or free at point of sale. Such bread and butter policies could truly make America healthy again.”

Freedom from fear of deportation and good paying jobs are what will make America healthy again? Has journalism really become this obsequious, this oblivious? (Rhetorical questions.) No, Forbes, the path to wellness is lined with jobless big industry lobbyists who are no longer in a position to prioritize profits over people. It’s dotted with trash bags filled with the ultra-processed frankenfoods so many Americans are addicted to. Its rest stops don’t feature soda machines and ashtrays but integrative medicine clinics and organic produce stands. This is the path that will Make America Healthy Again not just in rhetoric, but in reality.

To be fair, some skepticism is warranted. Kennedy would be part of an administration led by a guy who brags about knowing the Micky D’s menu inside and out and just staged the world’s most controversial—albeit hilarious and some might even say heartwarming—campaign coup at the very same fast food joint. (Can you imagine the pre-stunt discussions? Trump: “I’m gonna work the Golden Arches drive-through and give out fries!” Kennedy: “Seriously, Don? How about a farmer’s market appearance? Whole Foods? Chipotle?”) And outlets like the woebegone Washington Post are quick to point out that the MAHA movement’s ambitions are big—as in “far more aggressive than policy makers typically propose”. Certainly, Kennedy’s ideas for completely overhauling our three-letter “health” agencies would require public and legislative support, something WaPo calls “maybe not feasible.”

But then again, maybe it is feasible. Maybe wanting to fix our food and reverse our declining life expectancy and rebuild systems we can trust to actually safeguard our collective health is the single issue that can bring both sides of our bitterly divided nation together. An impossible optimist can dream.

Tell me what you think in the comments. :)

You deserve a treat.