Hey wait a minute. I know that name. Didn’t this guy’s dad kill Marilyn Monroe?
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No, the woman was Mary Jo Kopechne, Teddy was his uncle, and the chap’s acquitted.
I knew someone was behind it, but I am surprised it was the far right. Between RFK Jr and Marianne Williamson I was thinking it was an establishment Democratic attempt to stop another Bernie style candidate talking about socialism and being taken seriously.
And yet again I realise that I have a massively different definition of left wing to most other people. What RFK Jr is is syncretic. Do you know who else were syncretic?
and the most relevent for this discussion
You can be syncretic without being fascist, but some of the ideas that RFK talks about are fascist adjacant. Do we know which will be dropped as impractical? I don’t, but historically it is usually the left wing ones.
I never use words like Nazi or Fascist lightly, despite what right wingers may want to believe.
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The two are linked, I recall. Jnr was busted for possession, and because of the family connections the charges were dropped in return for doing social work (i.e. pro-bono environmental lawyering).
He licked Trump’s boots in the hope of being made Surgeon-General. He got up on stage with Nazis at a rally in Berlin. Choosing Nazis as bedmates is not all that progressive.
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Could be, but Bernie himself hasn’t expressed any interest in running this term, but instead has pledge to support Biden…
And there seems to be plenty of evidence to indicate he’s leaning into support from the far right (Bannon, Moms for liberty, etc).
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I appreciate the thoughtful reply, but I’m not sure if Captain America is laughing because he doesn’t believe it’s possible, or for some other reason?
It’s not possible. He might draw off a tiny amount of Democrats, but he’s leaning too hard into right wing politics to make any serious dent into the democratic electorate.
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From your lips to whatever deities’ ears. But his crunchy faux-populism is not without its fans.
I hope you’re right, I’m just less willing to decide in June of 2023 what is possible and impossible in a 2024 primary.
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Also, RFK Jr., even in his looney tunes conspiracist way, is too directly and openly hostile to some of the corporate interests to which the DNC is beholden. A New-Age woo peddler like Williamson who was only vaguely anti-corporate would work better for them to draw off support from a truly progressive populist Dem candidate for President (and, as you imply, we’ll have to wait at least another cycle for that).
It’s quickly become apparent that RFK Jr. is being bankrolled by fascists and billionaires to split the Dem vote in the general election rather than the primary. When he loses the nomination, there’s a good chance they’ll continue to run him in a third-party bid.
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It’s not 10-15% of the Democratic electorate… most of those types are gonna vote 3rd party, most likely (Greens, generally).
Sure. I’m just saying, I find the Democratic electorate to be a bit less hard to predict than the GOP.
Probably the Greens. I suspect that they’ve really been taken over by those seeking to disrupt the left wing of the Democratic party that holds their nose and votes for corporate Dems.
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What will be interesting to see is how many BernieBros decide to support RFK Jr. over Biden. I don’t think all of them will fall for it, but for a significant percentage it would be the next logical step on their road to becoming beefsteaks.
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Beefsteaks?
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Some of them did vote for trump rather than give a woman a vote… so who knows? Honestly, I think that lot (or some part of it) is just in it for the disruption… I just don’t think it’s a enough to hurt Biden… and a not insignificant number of them indeed just moved to the right, showing their true colors, so they can fuck off.
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Amen. Really, as long as they don’t show up here I’m good. It was bad enough when they were obnoxious and abusive on behalf of a reality-based progressive I supported. If they arrive again bringing the same zeal to pushing this conspiracist it might require a rules change.
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I’m not at all sure that I share your certainty.
To be clear, I agree that there is absolutely no chance of him winning or even breaking 20% under any foreseeable circumstances. But he’s going to get a lot of coverage, will have lots of money at his disposal, and his last name is not Smith.
If he’s into the double-digits and runs the kind of stalking-horse campaign designed to do the most damage possible to Biden and then continues it into the general, it’s not clear at all how that is going to play out. Personal certainty notwithstanding.
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Polls are almost always a bit suspect, though, and often don’t tell us much about what voters will actually do. Given the lack of details in reporting on most polls, it’s hard to actually know what they asked, how many people they asked, and how representative that sample is… Since many of these are done by landline, it tends to skew in weird ways… but not much detail in that article about the methodology there, so…
Plus, is he even on the ballot (or Williamson) at this point, in any states?
[ETA] Same pollsters came out with this…
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I agree with all of that, BUT they are at least a data point that does undermine simply asserting that such a thing is impossible based on personal belief.
Your certainty is admirable, but I’m simply telling you that your certainty is not reflected in all the available data.
We’ve more than gone around in this circle, though, so I’ll leave it at that.
/s
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