It wasn’t Yasgur’s Farm. Jimi Hendrix wasn’t there. But for a few days last week, it felt like the spirit of revolution was alive on the Kennedy24Bus in Chicago.
I was only on the patriotic party bus for ten minutes before I thought “the Kennedy folks got it right.”
They didn’t need to drop millions on a Pink performance to ignite patriotism with the DNC crowd. All they needed was gas money.
“Our top concern is vibe,” Damien Michael Nichols said, a volunteer on the bus wearing a splattered Kennedy 24 jean jacket and fuzzy bear hat, poking fun at the relentless media coverage the Central Park dead bear story received.
The bus cruised around the city all day and night during the convention, thanks to the charismatic leader behind the wheel, Kyle Kemper, who stole the show at every red light.
“Where’s Kyle?” people would ask anytime the bus came to a halt and driver Kyle was nowhere to be found.
“Oh, he’s on the roof again,” Damien would explain, and you’d then see a crowd of people below taking photos of Kyle and the bus.
The scene felt like political Burning Man.
A bearded independent voter dancing in American flag slides on the roof of a painted school bus, vibing out to AI reggae while his hippie counterpart invited strangers on board for enlightening, open-minded conversations, (discussions lost in the two-party system) felt like an acid trip.
Party bus favors included Kennedy24 t-shirts, “Vote for Bobby” pins and exclusive black-and-white newspapers with the bold-faced headline “Kennedy is WEIRD.”
“We have 10,000 newspapers to hand out by the end of the week,” Kyle said, pointing to a stack of newspapers piled up in the shower stall. Apparently, Kyle and Damien stayed up all night the night before the convention began to help Bobby’s son, “Bobby 3,” finish writing the satirical newspaper, a 20-page spread filled with cheeky stories that poked fun at Kennedy and his opponents and fake ads promoting Big Pharma and trips to Russia. “Brought to you by ADDERAL (purposely spelled with one L) ‘The real gateway drug’ available at middle schools near you.”
It wasn’t until I heard Kyle ask a friend for gas money, that I realized this bus was not an official part of the Kennedy campaign, but instead, a grassroots marketing effort funded by the people. Kyle has been driving the van cross-country the last couple months, making pit stops at important events on the campaign trail, surviving off of donations and the hope that Bobby has a shot at disrupting the two-party system.
On the first night out on the town, we stopped to get burgers when a group of waspy college men ran up to the bus to tell us how much they “loved Bobby” but were still voting for Trump. They joined us for 1/2 off drinks and started asking some of the American Value volunteers hard hitting questions about RFK Jr’s policies, border control being their main concern.
As we were driving back to the hotel, a group of young documentary filmmakers and podcasters flagged down the bus and asked if they could ride along.
“You guys are wayyy better to hang out with than the Democrats! I love this RV,” one of the guys said after hopping on.
We started talking and I learn that this guy is a podcaster named, Brace. He asks me why I’m at the DNC and I tell him I’m working with House Inhabit.
“Jessica Reed Kraus?” he asks, followed by a playful warning, “Do NOT tell her you know me!”
He goes on to tell me that a few years ago he got in an online tiff with Jess during the Ghislaine Maxwell trial. Of course, I couldn’t wait to go back and tell Jess, hoping maybe they could reconcile on the Kennedy bus. When I tell her what happened the next morning at breakfast, she dies laughing. Turns out he’s Brace Belden from the famous TrueAnon Podcast.
I didn’t get home until 3 AM that night. The bus really sucked me in. It felt like I was riding along on The Who’s “Magic Bus,” one strange synchronicity happening after another.
Besides for one stuffy liberal who attempted to kill the vibe with her “are you guys seriously voting for Kennedy? Pathetic,” comment, 99% of the feedback was positive.
We couldn’t have asked for a better Uber ride.
During Jess’s meet-and-greet, Kyle parked the van outside, inviting everyone aboard for an impromptu tour. As the event wound down, he rallied the remaining crowd for what he dubbed 'artistic expression,' armed with cans of red spray paint and an LED speaker, firing off Marshall McLuhan predictions of the new world.
Nobody asked any questions. They blindly followed him down the street.
The final destination was a wall covered with 24 Kamala Harris FREEDOM posters. Kyle encouraged everyone to take turns “upgrading propaganda” aka spray painting devil horns and X’s on Kamala’s head.
“We Are Squarely in World War 3 Here Right Now and it’s a Battle Between the Forces Between Darkness and Light,” -Kyle Kemper
Tyrone Muhammad grabbed the mic and started beat boxing before giving a speech about his organization, ECCSC, Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change.
“Ex-felons are the only class and cast that are perpetually discriminated by everyone.”
“This city always talking about ‘TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP,’ when all politics are local,” Tyrone says before speaking about how the Clinton 1994 Crime Deal affected Chicago.
“Thank you Trump for releasing a lot of these men so that they can be fathers and be responsible husbands in their community,” he said before spray painting red eyes on Kamala.
Each night of the convention, the bus joined the American Values volunteers lined up outside of the Daily Show taping interacting with the crowd of (mostly) left-leaning audience members waiting to go inside. On the first night, a few Daily Show crew members asked the volunteers for a bunch of t-shirts, so everyone thought they’d incorporate RFK Jr. into one of their segments.
The American Values team went all out the final night. A stilt walker dressed as Uncle Sam swayed to the music coming from the volunteers, who’s rendition of “This Land is Your Land” and “The Star Spangled Banner,” sounded more in key than the trio that performed at the DNC. It looked like a scene out of Portlandia, almost as if the protestors were a parody of themselves. Volunteers handed out Kennedy24 tees and red white and blue popsicles to Daily Show attendees, most of whom said they would never vote for Kennedy. This, of course, didn’t stop them from saying no to a free t-shirt though #democrats.
To no surprise, the Daily Show did not end up incorporating any of these patriotic spectacles into their programming. Everything was pre-recorded and the last episode revolved around a long, highly-edited biography video documenting the life of Kamala Harris. Attendees waited in line for hours hoping someone like Taylor Swift would pop up as a special guest but all they got was another push for Harris.
“Breaking News, The News is broken”
Kyle pulled up in the Kennedy bus and thanked all the volunteers for their hard work all week. They cheered as he drove away. Summer camp was coming to an end.
If I wasn’t so obsessed with the bus all week, perhaps I would have made it to the inflatable IUD. Sadly, birth control art wasn’t in the cards for me this year.
Now that Kennedy has endorsed Trump, the future of the Kennedy24Bus remains uncertain.
But according to volunteer Damien Michaels Nichols, the big wheels will keep on turning.
“The Official campaign Has Been Suspended. The Grassroots Campaign is Just Getting Started.”
Donate to the Kennedy24Bus:
Learn more about Kyle Kemper:
Kyle Kemper on Tucker Carlson (Podcast discussing his half brother Justin Trudeau’s influence in politics and Kyle’s stance on government, corruption and more)
Up Ahead: I have so much to catch up — expect doubling up on newsletters from here until November. I’ll be adding a few footnotes to Emilie’s recap (I need to empty a few thoughts regarding the DNC) + a long photogenic recap of the RNC tomorrow.
The like 48 min. speech Kennedy gave saying he was suspending his campaign is one I think every American should hear. The thing in our country that need to be fixed like all of the processed food and sick and obese children, the cough cough and big pharma etc.
Kennedy has proven he loves this country and he wants to help heal it. Truly believe we can do it.