"The Kennedy voter and the Trump voter -- the mutual enemy is Biden. . . . Why wouldn't we put our vote to Bobby and at least get rid of Biden. . . .If you don't get to 270,. . . Congress picks the president. They'll pick Trump. So we're rid of Biden either way. Does everybody follow that?"
New York State Director of RFK Jr.'s campaign.
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There is a reason Republican billionaires are donating to the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaign. He takes votes from Biden.
RFK Jr. is hard to define politically. He isn't a centrist. He is eccentric. He is "some kind of weirdo fringe," in the words of Matthew Bennett, a leader in the left-center Third Way think tank. The problem for Democrats is that some of the "weirdo fringe" things he says sound about right to a lot of people on both the left and the right.
In this political era shaped by Trump, Democrats and Joe Biden represent the party of normal. Democrats are the party that can govern. A Democratic House caucus could pass legislation. The Democratic president supports longstanding bipartisan positions on NATO, on Israel, on trade, on public health.
The GOP under Trump is the party of tear-it-down. At its best it could be considered the "creative destruction" of progress and renewal, but its primary focus now is negation. Shut down the government. Stop majorities. Stop border legislation. Stop abortion. Its presidential candidate is a proud hooligan, vandalizing old norms. He flagrantly connived to overthrow an election and justifies it. He is proud of it. He tweets crazy things in the middle of the night. Trump is the chaos candidate -- the foil and opposite of Biden.
There are people who prefer where Trump is on that axis of normal and chaos. There is yet another salient axis today: It is conspiracy-friendly/conspiracy-resistant.
Trump -- like RFK Jr. -- appeals to those Amerivan with conspiratorial instincts. Trump says that elections are not what they appear to be. Don't believe the so-called "evidence" or audits or re-counts. The news is fake. The health care system is lying. Vaccines are dangerous. The deep-state-controlled government is fake. Government investigators are fake; prosecutors are fake; judges are fake.
The left has its own conspiracies. Some of the largest hotbeds of vaccination resistance are in leftist schools and communities. There is widespread leftist conspiracy thinking regarding adulterated and artificial ingredients in food, and in corruption in big business, in the CIA, FBI, and local police. It is the left that worries most about the military-industrial complex and secret money in politics.
RFK Jr. is best known for his vaccination skepticism, but he also says that Sirhan Sirhan did not assassinate his father and that the CIA assassinated his uncle, JFK. He says he doubts that the January 6 attack on the Capitol was part of a Trump-led effort to stop the vote count. He has said that Wi-Fi causes cancer, that anti-depressants cause school shootings, that chemicals in water cause kids to become transgender, that AIDS isn't caused by HIV, that Republicans stole the 2004 election, and that 5G networks are used for mass surveillance.
RFK Jr. currently polls around 15% in three-way contests. When RFK Jr. is included in current polls, Biden's support drops more than does Trump's. RFK Jr.'s brand is Democratic and environmentalist. With Democratic voters crowded into their blue corner, and people restless for new Democratic faces, Biden's "status quo normal" vibe seems blind and tone-deaf to people who believe that dark forces are ruining America. I can imagine people on the left thinking: RFK Jr. is a little bit crazy, but at least he isn't a Republican and he's right about _________. And here is where they can fill in the blank. The JFK assassination? The FBI sabotaging Martin Luther King? Cell phones tracking us? Distrusting big pharma? There is always reason to question authority.
Urban and out-of-area readers may under-estimate the strength and in-your-face belligerence of some of Trump's voters in rural America. Trump has locked down his base. The conspiracy-minded among them won't be tempted by RFK Jr. They have their man. The lawn signs are up on rural roads. "Trump won." Yesterday I parked behind a pickup truck with this home-made modification.
I have never seen anything equivalent from a Biden supporter. I don't see people driving Priuses bedecked with flags and Biden signs. If there is partisan erosion to a conspiratorial third party candidate, I expect more of it to come from Biden.
The Democratic national campaign will attempt to disqualify RFK Jr. by citing his kookiest ideas. But some of those will have an air of truth about them to Democrats. This is an era of widespread distrust of institutions. I expect Democrats to deal with the RFK Jr. threat with a simple message that re-affirms partisanship -- in this case negative partisanship. The message will be "A vote for RFK Jr. is a vote for Trump." Full stop. Democrats know what they don't like.
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17 comments:
RFK, Jr. is way beyond weird. He’s almost as compulsive a liar as Trump. His lie about the long-debunked connection between vaccination and autism is just the tip of the iceberg.
When he announced his candidacy, four of his siblings released the following statement: “Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment. Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.” Take it from those who know him best.
Clowns to the left of me jokers to the right...
Stuck in the middle with....who?
People forget that the new Congress is sworn in a few days before Electoral votes are counted.
So the current makeup of Congress isn't relevant, as this posts suggests.
It's important for Democrats to also win the House.
Someone who would spend money in the way that pick-up owner has is an idiot.
Is that idiot moving the needle politically? Doubtful.
He's just showing his low SES, his hate and his poor decisions.
... and a truck-driving moron ahead.
If the Democrats had not alienated their former working class base with allegiance to globalism and wokery, Trump would never have had a chance, and we wouldn’t be in this current mess.
RFK, Jr. and Nicole Shanahan, his vice presidential running mate, are both Californians (red flag). She is a 38 year old attorney and "philanthropist." Previously, she was married to one of the co-founders of Google and she received a very large sum of money as a result of their divorce. I also read that previously she supported Marianne Williamson.
For the record, anti-depressants have a black box warning because of the increased risk of suicide and other negative side effects in teens and younger adults. For more information, ask a physician or pharmacist or check a legitimate medical website. Anti-depressants and other drugs used to treat mental illnesses are not risk-free. They are not candy. On health matters, your (typical) sarcastic, dismissive, know-it-all tone is inappropriate and potentially harmful.
When it comes to health matters, it isn't sarcastic, dismissive or know-it-all to take the findings of science over conspiracy theorists. In fact, it's potentially harmful not to.
Nor are Democrats responsible for the mess we're in. For decades, the GOP has been the party of free trade and globalization and now it's simply fait accompli. As for "wokery," that's just a dog-whistle term for anything the far White doesn't like. The only people giving Trump a chance are those drawn to his anger, hatred, racism and attitude of 'poor, poor pitiful me.'
Last month over St. Patrick's Day weekend, a large group of Kennedy family members posed with President Biden at the White House. RFK, Jr. was not there. Internet search for more information.
If allowed, can someone post the group photo? Family members tweeted the photo and their comments. The occasion also was covered by traditional media. Thanks
Regarding globalization, wasn’t it Bill Clinton who pushed NAFTA? Remind me again, what party was Clinton a member of?
And anyone who claims criticisms of wokery are solely expressions of racism is just deploying the usual tactic used by the far left to intimidate critics of wokery. The power of this dishonest tactic is decreasing year by year.
Great point ! Many problemwirkcan be solved before raising up if Democratic Candidates secure a very large Majority, or even a moderately large Majority, and then Hakeem Jeffries can go to work castrating (politically), the so-called Freedom Caucus.
Both “globalist” and “wokery” have become all-purpose terms of derision and thus meaningless. If “wokery” wasn’t intended in the racist sense, then it must have been referring to the dictionary definition: “A restaurant, food counter, kitchen, etc., serving (esp. Cantonese) dishes cooked using a wok. Also: the skill or activity of cooking using a wok.”
You can lead a particularly stubborn horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
If the far left continues to refuse to understand things like this, perhaps only adverse election results will get through to them. Maybe they will open their minds when they see their political hopes and dreams go up in smoke as they fry in the wok of history.
“If the far left continues to refuse to understand things like this…”
…says the guy who keeps trying to blame Trump on the left, refusing to understand that his success is due solely to the whackos who vote for him - as if they didn’t have options.
The Democrats might be able to attract some of the people you denigrate as whackos if they would separate themselves from the woke-oes on their left. Bill Clinton did something similar to great political effect with his “Sister Souljah moment” in 1991.
Or, the Dems can keep their attachment to wokery, and spend the next four years bitching about how awful the second Trump administration is.
I personally would prefer the former, but it doesn’t look like the Democrats are going to catch a clue this year. 🤷♂️
Trump is the personification of racism, anger, hatred, lies and criminality. God forbid that Democrats should try to attract the whackos who find that acceptable.
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