RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR.: With ignorant, inflammatory tweet, Kennedy Jr. fails his first immigration test

Here I was thinking there were many good things to say about long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

And then the son of my political hero — an attorney general, senator and 1968 presidential candidate — goes and spoils it all by tweeting something stupid about immigrants.

Historians note that one of the personal attributes Robert F. Kennedy admired most was courage. “Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society,” Kennedy noted in a 1966 speech at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Robert Jr. is not afraid of disapproval, censure or wrath. He is an outspoken critic of vaccine policy who claims vaccinations are responsible for what he says is a spike in cases of autism among children.

I find myself rooting for him to give President Joe Biden a run for his money. It comes out of respect for the first Robert Kennedy, whom my Mexican grandmother used to affectionately call “El Bobby.”

I was a U.S. history major in college, and I spent many hours at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum studying the life of Robert F. Kennedy. Bobby was tough and compassionate, vulnerable and authentic, tireless and relentless in the pursuit of social justice.

Robert Jr. seems to share those qualities. After graduating from the same schools that his father attended — Harvard and the University of Virginia School of Law — he became a prominent environmental lawyer in the 1980s and ’90s.

Today, the left-leaning media is trying to discredit Robert Jr. because he is a threat to Biden’s re-election.

Eventually, the Democratic Party will drag Biden — whose job approval rating, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll last month, is just 36 percent — across the finish line and make him the nominee.

But given polls showing that Robert Jr. is supported by nearly 20 percent of Democratic voters, he could rough up Biden — and make it easier for a Republican to defeat him.

Things were not so different in March 1968, when Robert Sr. declared his presidential bid. The Democratic Party establishment shunned that Kennedy, too.

Still, Bobby had a magical connection to everyday Americans. Journalist Jack Newfield wrote in his book “Robert Kennedy: A Memoir” that Kennedy identified with the powerless because he lived in the shadow of older siblings and felt ignored in the family hierarchy.

Kennedy also spoke his mind. Once, he was scolding a roomful of white college students about how the government had to do more for the poor. A student shouted, “Who’s going to pay for all this?!” Kennedy angrily yelled back, “You are!”

Most politicians want to be liked, and so they don’t push back like that. It takes guts. Instead, they pander. For example, look at what happened on June 6 — the 55th anniversary of his father’s death — when Robert Jr. posed with a handful of farmers in Yuma, Ariz., and then tweeted the photo with a deeply uninformed comment:

“Yuma County provides 90% of the green leafy vegetables, like iceberg lettuce, arugula, spinach, and broccoli, to American tables between November and April. The tsunami of migrants walking across farm fields and defecating in irrigation canals threatens the safety of that food supply.”

Soon after, Kennedy was praised by the hosts of the Fox News program “The Five.” Mission accomplished.

I was born and raised in the farm country of Central California. I know more about leafy vegetables and irrigation canals than Robert Jr. or right-wing pundits.

The contamination problem is real, and there is probably a solution — a way to treat irrigation water to kill fecal bacteria and protect the public. But there is already enough anti-immigrant hatred and fearmongering out there. Politicians shouldn’t add to it.

Besides, take it from a country boy. It’s absurd for farmers, of all people, to complain about — as Robert Jr. put it — “migrants walking across farm fields.” Who do you think put migrants in the fields in the first place, and who relies on them for their livelihood?

That’s right: farmers. They’re not victims. This problem is of farmers’ making.

Without undocumented immigrant labor, the entire Arizona economy — including agribusiness — would go belly up.

This is what I imagine El Bobby would have said to those hypocritical farmers: Who’s largely responsible for the immigration problem? You are! Instead, Robert Kennedy Jr. took the easy way out. What a missed opportunity.

It’s true what they say. The sequel is indeed often not as good as the original.

Ruben Navarrette’s email address is crimscribe@icloud.com. His podcast, “Ruben in the Center,” is available through every podcast app.