While the parallels between Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 and son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in 2023 are eerily similar, the surviving scion of the Kennedy political dynasty isn’t deterred by the spectre of a deep state assassination becoming another uncanny resemblance.

“It’s something that I’m aware of. You know, there are risks,” Kennedy said after announcing his candidacy and up-ending the 2024 election.

“As far as I’m concerned, there are worse things than dying, a lot worse. And one of those is that my kids will grow up in a country, an America, that doesn’t have freedom of speech. Where constitutional rights are conditional.”

They’re the values his father and uncle, President John F. Kennedy, both died defending and that remain under siege more than four decades later. This time, Joe Biden is in the White House instead of Lyndon B. Johnson. The bodies are piling up in Ukraine rather than Vietnam. And social anxiety has inflamed in the name of BLM as opposed to the hard-fought battles of the Civil Rights era.

What hasn’t changed are the dirty politics that compelled Kennedy to burst into the race and immediately poll at 19 per cent against Biden, giving him a viable path to winning his party’s nomination.

With Florida Governor Ron DeSantis this week tipped to announce a run in the Republican primary, the two dark horse candidates, who are catching fire among a divided America united only in its distaste for another Octogenarian presidency, have the potential to drag global politics out of the Biden-Trump gerontocracy.

Under President Kennedy, that would include an end to the Russian-Ukraine war, a de-escalation with China, a day-one pardon of Julian Assange, and a strengthening of ties with Britain after the US snub of King Charles’ coronation.

But just days after Kennedy declared his candidacy for president, it emerged the Democratic National Party would not hold primary debates, leading to criticisms the fix was in for a uniquely vulnerable president Biden.

“It’s politics. It’s not a good template for democracy. There are so many Americans now that think that this system is rigged, including our election system,” Kennedy said. “Of course it’s not fair, but nothing’s fair in life.”

Seemingly chief among the unfairness is the return of Trump, who Kennedy is convinced will win the Republican candidacy despite, or perhaps because of, felony charges for falsifying business records, liability for sexual assault, and a pending investigation into the handling of classified documents.

“I don’t think it will stand in his way because even if he were convicted he could still run for president … and it would actually energise his base,” Kennedy said. “However justified the prosecution is, it’s going to have the optics of looking like a political vendetta.”

If America returns to another four years under a Trump or Biden presidency, Kennedy has no doubt it will be another disaster for a world he said has been excessively militarised with unnecessary wars under the previous two occupants of the White House.

“I’ve known Joe Biden for 40 years. He was a personal friend of mine … I have three family members who are working in his administration,” he said, referencing his cousin and US Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy.

“But I think it’s been a catastrophe. And I think the Trump administration has been too.”

The results of those dual catastrophes, and the main reason Kennedy is subjecting himself to a gruelling campaign 45 years after seeing his father killed trying to do the same thing, are playing out in the blood-soaked mud of Ukraine.

“I think the war could have been avoided,” Kennedy said. “But inside the United States White House there are a bunch of the Neo-cons, the same people who made the war against Iraq.”

“We’re using Ukrainians in geopolitical machinations where we have now made Ukraine an abattoir.”

Kennedy said the same mistakes and provocations in Europe that led to war between Russia and Ukraine are being repeated in the Asia Pacific.

“We need to let China and Taiwan settle their differences in peace without pressure from outside, in their own way, and not be injecting the U.S. military into something that could become World War III and, you know, destroy the whole planet,” he said.

Asked if he would therefore reconsider the transfer of US nuclear submarine technology to Australia under the AUKUS pact, Kennedy would not commit either way.

“You know, I can’t answer that now. I would have to study that more, I don’t know enough about the implications of that,” he said.

Given the last two Kennedys to criticise the security state and buck against the military-industrial complex ended up dead, RFK Jr might be forgiven for pulling his punches the closer he gets to the Oval Office and the bigger the target on his back becomes.

But, he says instead: “There’s so much evidence now, including confessions by the participants, intelligence documents, that I think the CIA involvement with my uncle’s assassination is established beyond a reasonable doubt”.

“As for my dad, the evidence that the CIA was involved in his death is high-level information, but it’s circumstantial so it’s not anywhere near as definitive as my uncle. But it’s certainly something that should be investigated and it never has been.”

There are worse things to die for, Kennedy says, than defending the constitutional rights won by a generation of Americans lost in their revolution from the British Empire in 1776.

“But,” he makes sure to add, perhaps for anyone listening in, or watching from a grassy knoll. “I’m not stupid about it. I take precautions.”