this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024
356 points (94.1% liked)

politics

18973 readers
3107 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
  2. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  3. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  4. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
  5. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  6. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

In his speech on Friday, Mr. Kennedy implied that Mr. Trump had offered him a role in his second administration, dealing with health care and food and drug policy. “We’re going to reform the entire food system,” he said.

It's worth noting that Kennedy's health care policy is to bring back measles, that he eats roadkill, and had part of his brain eaten by a worm as a result.

Additional context about this campaign

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 162 points 1 month ago (2 children)

"Oh fuck I'm spoiling the wrong voters"

[–] [email protected] 98 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

The fact the GOP backed him thinking he'd pull voters from Democrats shows just how out of touch the GOP has gotten

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Well, if you go strictly based off his positions on paper, or as posted on his website, he hits all the "progressive" points that would seem very attractive to a progressive independent or some more left democrats. Its a legit honest mistake to think he might be fairly left, based off when I was researching him a bit.

But every time he opens his mouth in front of a camera it's the most asinine right wing brain worm vomit you've ever heard, and I think they figured that out a little too late.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I mean, apparently he was a pretty good dude and an environmentalist for a long time.

Then around the time he got a worm in his brain, he just went bat shit crazy for some weird reason...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

I'm imagining Ratatouille, only it's an anthropomorphized worm steering RFK Jr around by chomping on different parts of his brain. I want to say the worm would be voiced by David Cross. It's almost making this bizarre timeline a little easier to process.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Ignore the necrotic, segmented, invertebrate behind the curtain...

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Maybe, but every time he speaks it's all conspiracy theory shit: anti-vax, etc.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Yup, that's the point I made. Put some pretty stuff on paper, but it all gets ugly the second he gets in front of a mic.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Uh...no...he was very pro gun. He was liberal on like one or two issues, but most of his policies were straight up Republican.

I wanted to like the guy as a viable alternative to Biden, but he was hard right on too many issues.

[–] vaultdweller013 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just gonna point out damned near every lefty Redneck ive met is violently pro gun, but they all would happily mutilate someone for improper use of a firearm. The NRA and Republicans aint pro gun if they were they wouldnt throw a fit everytime a minority used one.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

^^^^ this man gets it.
I like firearms. I would qualify as "a redneck".
I also think you should need to go through a minimum 2 day safety, maintenance and storage training course to own one. They are a tool that you must prove you are safely capable of handling, maintaining in safe operation (no exploding barrels), and keeping secure.

[–] vaultdweller013 2 points 1 month ago

This and also lets not restrict weapons cause scarry. I fear a shotgun far more than an assault rifle in untrained hands, mostly cause it takes an afternoon to learn how to use a shotty while it takes a good bit more to use really any rifle.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I'm a little confused why they wouldn't have him endorse Kamala instead if he was supposed to be a spoiler.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm not sure I follow;

If his goal was to pull voters away from Kamala, why would he endorse her?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Yeah...you're right it doesn't really make sense. I guess my thought was that he was supposed to be posing as an alternative liberal, but if he's out, that's irrelevant.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

They aren't bright people

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

He may or may not know he was a spoiler, right now his most important task is to try and grab a hold of a cabinet position in whoever wins. He knows Kamala isn't stupid enough to give his brain worm any power, but Trump is absolutely corrupt and stupid enough to do so.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I have a feeling that it was Trump's idea, as he grew up in the decades when the Kennedy name meant something in politics, especially Democratic politics, so he figured the name would draw Democrat voters, not realizing that the Kennedy name hasn't had any sway in Democrat politics for the last three decades or so, as the party moved on from the Kennedys long ago. Just showing again that Dastardly Don is old and out of touch.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)

With Kennedy out of the race, that frees up more of the oligarch money to bolster the Jill Stein and Cornel West campaigns instead.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

So can you straighten this up for me? Because it's not clear right now.

Is Cornel West actually running? As in, does he think he's running for office?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yes, Cornel West is campaigning as an independent. Here's his website if you want to learn more about his platform.

Based on his stated policies, he'll attract more leftist voters away from the Harris campaign as a spoiler candidate, whereas Kennedy was the "centrist" option who ended up pulling away more non-MAGA Republicans than he did conservative Democrats.

West's calls to disband NATO and end US involvement in Ukraine also makes him a favorable option for Russia.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

West is also not on the ballot in most states:

In point of fact, he's on the ballot in few enough states that he can't achieve more than be a spoiler in Georgia.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

he can’t achieve more than be a spoiler in Georgia.

Yeah, but that alone is a big fucking problem (I say as a Georgian, and especially one who has been trying to raise the alarm about the MAGA sabotage being perpetrated in my state). Having a spoiler candidate on the ballot only makes it even more likely that the MAGAs find some excuse to refuse to certify.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

It doesn't seem to matter. Russia is running on behalf of he and Stein.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

He was running with People's Party, then tried to run with Green Party, and is now running as an independent.