“Millions of people have gone out and said, ‘Stop, don’t do that.’ And that is a wonderful thing.” — Peter Edelman

We are in Washington DC this week, in search of America’s heart. And there may be no better guide than Peter Edelman — one of the few remaining members of the Bobby Kennedy braintrust. Edelman was a close Kennedy aide from just after JFK’s assassination through the 1968 presidential campaign. He watched Bobby find himself after his brother’s death — grow from a man defined by serving JFK into the last progressive populist able to unite Black and white working-class Americans.
Edelman’s personal and political stories are inseparable from Bobby. In Mississippi, on the 1967 senatorial trip where Kennedy saw firsthand what he called the “third world” poverty in the Delta, Edelman met Marian Wright — the civil rights lawyer who would become his wife. They married a month after Bobby’s assassination, only the third interracial couple ever to marry in Virginia.
“Let’s do something good,” Marian and Peter said to each other when they decided to get married.
Everything Edelman did afterward was connected with Kennedy’s vision of ending poverty in America. Especially when he worked in the first Clinton administration. But when Clinton converted federal poverty aid into block grants and the number of Americans receiving help dropped from seventeen to three million, Edelman very publicly resigned. Clinton needlessly and cruelly threw low-income people overboard, Edelman told me.
Has Edelman given up on Donald Trump’s America? No. Millions of citizens, especially in his native Minnesota, are speaking out. “Stop, don’t do that,” is his RFK-inspired mantra. Proof, Peter Edelman believes, that the American heart is still beating.

Five Takeaways
• Bobby’s Last Man. Principal aide from JFK’s death through 1968. Travelled with him every day. Watched him become himself.
• He Met Marian in Mississippi. Bobby found a malnourished child. Edelman found his wife. Married one month after the assassination. Third interracial couple in Virginia.
• Trump’s Picture on Bobby’s Building. The Department of Justice. Almost dictatorial. Bobby would call him out.
• He Broke with Clinton. Seventeen million became three million. He threw low-income people overboard. Edelman resigned.
• Stop, Don’t Do That. Millions speaking out. The most American thing you can say right now.
About the Guest

Peter Edelman is a Georgetown Law professor, former aide to RFK, and author of So Rich, So Poor.
References
So Rich, So Poor by Peter Edelman

About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.
Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow

Chapters:
00:01:11 Introduction: looking for America’s heart in Washington DC
00:03:15 Bobby Kennedy was the most important person in my life
00:04:44 Trump’s picture on the Department of Justice building Bobby once ran
00:06:16 Mississippi: meeting Marian Wright in the Delta
00:09:37 The third interracial couple to marry in Virginia
00:11:23 Married one month after the assassination: let’s do something good
00:12:11 Cleveland, Mississippi: Bobby finds a malnourished child
00:13:38 Are the Trump Republicans winding the clock back before civil rights?
00:15:08 Everything I did afterward was connected to his thinking
00:17:08 How Bobby became himself after Jack’s death
00:19:20 The last man to unite the Black and white working classes
00:20:30 The third son of one of the richest men in America
00:22:45 The Ambassador Hotel: I was at home, it was three in the morning
00:24:44 Would he have won? I think he would have made it
00:26:54 Breaking with Clinton: he threw low-income people overboard
00:33:08 Stop, don’t do that: where the hope is