Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to announce Monday that he will drop his Democratic bid for president and run as an independent or third-party candidate, adding a new wrinkle to a 2024 race currently heading toward a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy’s campaign has teased the announcement in the days leading up to a Monday afternoon speech in Philadelphia. In a recent video, Kennedy said there is corruption “in the leadership of both political parties” and said he wants to “rewrite the assumptions and change the habits of American politics.”
The video came shortly after Mediaite reported he planned to launch an independent bid.
You’d think that if you’re gonna position yourself as a third party alternative, you’d drop the wild antivaxx shit since the crazy people already are going to vote republican.
Yeah. My eyes got WIDE open about the “function” of third-party candidates in the US after I saw in hindsight (because isn’t hindsight always clearer?) Jill Stein’s role in a prior election. They’re basically there to shave off just enough votes from one of the major parties to tilt things one way or another. Easy for 3rd parties–no matter of they’re crazies OR if they actually have legit policy stances that really should be considered, such as climate issues–to be turned into agents of chaos. People working the USA’s political system from the outside work BOTH sides–the right and the left, pretending to be either one to sow discord as it suits their goals. The more division the better, for them.
I really want various ballot initiatives to succeed in changing how voting is done in the US, so you can safely vote for the candidate you actually want without handing the election to the worst candidate. Voting would be much invigorated if you could vote for someone with pride and enthusiasm instead of, “At least they’re not XYZ” which is what has to happen now working within the rules our system has for us.
Here and there, a few states have implemented better systems with various flavors of ranked choice and such for their state elections, so they’re not stuck in a two-party horror show for local elections at least, but there’s a lot of hard work that has to be done before that gains enough momentum across many states and towns and smaller localities in the US that it might be feasible to change the way voting is done on a federal level.
Yeah if third party candidates were actually serious they would work to get ranked choice voting passed then run
I can certainly get that it feels like most third parties are there to siphon votes from major political parties and sow discord.
I really want various ballot initiatives to succeed in changing how voting is done in the US, so you can safely vote for the candidate you actually want without handing the election to the worst candidate.
Funnily enough their is a third party for that. One of the Forward’s main policy is Ranked Choice Voting.
They plan to start focusing on local and state elections as those positions make the election laws.
there’s a lot of hard work that has to be done before that gains enough momentum across many states and towns and smaller localities in the US that it might be feasible to change the way voting is done on a federal level.
Indeed, there is lots of work to be done. You can volunteer with your state’s local group if you think it is important. They have groups organized in 43/50 states.
Not sure if the article is paywalled, but it’s not really interesting who is paying him. What would be interesting is if normal people were supporting him, but only the kooks are looking for RFK Jr to make any waves.
The reason I disagree is that he claims to be a dem but seems to be courting some of the dumber aspects of “centrists.” He doesn’t have shot. He knows that.
So, why is he running? I believe the answer will be found if we follow the money.
Archive link: https://archive.ph/WLmcQ
He probably pulls more votes from older voters based on the name recognition of his father, and unfortunately with how closely associated his father was with the Democratic party I’d imagine that pulls votes from Biden. Could be wrong though, maybe he’ll corner the market on crazy street.
Junior is going to find out quick and in a hurry why Ross Perot decided to create a political party in 1992. There are 51 different sets of ballot access laws that range from easy to byzantine. Good luck with that.
He’s totally out of step with the Democratic base. It takes about a minute and a half to figure out the guy is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. His coalition, what there will be of it, will come off both fringes, but primarily off the right fringe and fringe libertarians.
He will take more votes from Trump than Biden
Maybe we can somehow convince the right that voting for him will somehow take votes from Biden.
“He was originally running to get the nomination in the Democrat party” (shibboleth intentional) should help
OK, what does that mean “Democrat Party?” I know it’s supposed to be jibe against Democrats, but I never understood it.
They’ll never understand that. They are accustomed to authoritarian ideas, and in those systems, you simply follow your leaders. You give your loyalty, and once given, your honor dictates it remains there. You know, old tradition.
This is why they love to accuse science of being another kind of religion, instead of a process or method. That authoritarian idea of loyalty is creeping in.
So, they can’t understand a world where we don’t just trust him because he carries the correct label and looks presentable. Remember, when their authority tells them to take Ivermectin or something, they just go fucking do it. So, they think we’re the same, and when someone says “vote Kennedy” we just will.
Remember, they also think we’re all stupid. Like, really, really stupid. They do not see us as peers, they see us an inferiors who do not understand how “hard” the world is “supposed to be”.
Naturally, this is kinda amusing when its not sad and irritating.
edit: Just thought of another good example. When covid was raging, if you wore a mask regularly, why did you? Was it just because you were told to, and you didn’t think about it further? Nothing wrong with that of course, not everyone has time to research everything and sometimes you do just have to trust your doctor.
But there’s a second possibility. Did you maybe wear a mask because you understood how diseases get transmitted through the air and you figured, for yourself, that yeah, that might be a good idea?
Authoritarians do not acknowledge the existence, or even the right to exist, of that second possibility. It’s literally disallowed by authoritarianism itself, because it proposes the possibility of facts beyond the control of any authorities. In their world, should anything at all be beyond the control of the highest of authorities? No. No it should not, because the highest of all authorities is actually an omnipotent deity that is fully responsible for everything that exists.
He will take more votes from Trump than Biden
I sure hope so. I think internally, Republicans are (supposedly) freaking out over that, but at this point, I take nothing for granted after donnie’s “win” in 2016.
Can’t be a spoiler candidate designed to siphon votes away from Biden in the general election if he isn’t on the ballot, hence this move to run as an independent as there’s no fucking way he would win a primary.
Polls are showing hes more likely to pull votes from Trump, the “centrist antivax conspiracy both sides” nonsense.
The Trump campaign is rearing up attacks on him now.
He’s not wrong that there’s corruption in both parties leadership. Everything else on the other hand, completely insane about
He’s wrong if he’s going to pretend that he’s not part of that same corruption.
He’s literally a chaos agent of Steve Bannon. He’s not right about anything, and legitimizing him as a real candidate makes this worse.
"Former chief Trump strategist Steve Bannon spent “months” encouraging anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run against President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, according to a report from CBS News.
People familiar with the matter told the outlet that Bannon hoped Kennedy could serve as a “useful chaos agent” in the election while also spreading “anti-vaccine sentiment around the country,” according to CBS News’ Robert Costa."
Yep, he just announced it. Truthfully I have no idea if this schedule hurts Biden or Trump more, but my gut says the latter
