The Democrats are pretty confident that the more people know about RFK Jr, the more he will pull from the Republicans. 6 months ago he was pulling strongly from Biden but there was a factor that he was just called Kennedy and people knew a little bit about him being an enviromentalist.
As the race gets further along though, and the not insignificant influence of Democrats amplifying his message to the middle ground voters, means that the data shows heās increasingly a negative to Trump. Everything he believes and is running on is direct competition for Trump - especially the anti-vax stuff.
Iāve also seen reports that the Democratic party are helping to fund his campaign in āpurpleā states - because they believe that Trump supporters are inclined to be attracted to his message. Heāll win something like 1% of the vote but that could be a very important important 1% if it stops Trump winning races that are expected to be close like Wisconsin or even North Carolina for example.
I think both. It certainly attracts a lot of people who are, uh, epistemologically challenged, even if well intentioned. But you also often also see slides like weāve seen with RFK Jr. Thatās likely part cynicism (youāve seen one mega corporation or government entity totally fuck the people and start believe it is hiding behind every corner), maybe partly become more and more like the people you spend the most time with (believing arguments that 12 months prior you would have identified as incoherent). But also likely driven in large part by grift that economy.
Yeah, RFK is the joker with pretty compelling arguments for why he would pull from both sides, and with data supporting both arguments.
The theory of the campaign for team Biden is that Trump can only win 44-46 of the vote and so they would prefer as close to a head to head battle as possible. That means that a collection of third party candidates that lower the share of the vote required to win are really the only avenue Trump has to win. I think most Trump aligned people understand this as well and we so the Biden team have to believe that there are Trump forces behind each 3rd party candidate trying to push them into places that will take from Biden.
So their attitude towards 3rd party candidates is that that no matter what you might initially think about where a 3rd party candidate gets its support they have to be treated as an arm of the Trump campaign. With RFK Jr that is pretty easy to do given the conspiratorial world view. It will be interesting to see how they react if they find West or Stein generating enough traction to have to treat in the same way.
EDITED as I didnt think the initial post really made the point I thought I was making.
Itās funny that you earlier criticised both the extreme left and extreme right but now think that a politician whose appeal is exclusive to those with extreme political views is the one that America needs.
A person who can see the best of both ends are always better than people who decides that people who disagrees with their end are always evil. The left does that. The right does that. And if anyone, not necessarily this guy, who can help navigate a middle ground, is better than the politicians you have on the itās either red or blue or die. But of course that wonāt happen, the greatest nation on earth.
A person who can see the best of both world, sure, but you said RFK Jr not this imaginary person.
You are mistaking holding extreme views from both the left and right with being centrist. He doesnāt connect in the middle. Heās an extremist anti-vax, pro-Russia, Zionist conspiracy theorist whose own family have distanced themselves from and backed Biden. The fact that some of the views he holds could be seen as left-wing does not mean heās objectively looking at the political spectrum and choosing the best course of action.
Heās batshit insane. I actually think his votes will eventually come almost exclusively from the right-wing and he will make far less of an impact than anyone is currently saying. Once the majority of Americans hear the man talk heāll be out immediately - literally the sound of voice (I know it was caused by a surgery) will be enough for most people who may be swayed by him to second guess themselvesā¦
By the way, I donāt really know what else Obama would be described as than someone who tried to split the middle between left and right wing. Even Biden does now. The majority of Presidents have done it to a greater or lesser extent. The idea that America sways wildly between extreme left wing politics when Democrats have power and extreme right wing politics when Republicans have power is utterly nonsensical.
Even ignoring the RFK connection, there is nothing noble about reflexively seeking middle ground without consideration of the merits of the arguments of the respective sides.
Fair point on RFK, I donāt know him actually but I started my post saying āifā only simply because people mentioning him as someone who will pull votes from both sides.
So to be clear, someone who takes the best, not the worst, of both ends is great for America, but like many told me including on this forum, itās almost impossible. Come to think of it, America has a few things they always say itās impossible to solve even if it should ⦠getting rid of gun ownershipā¦the metro in New York, the homelessā¦the public shitting in SF⦠businesses who get their stores looted and police not able to do a damn thingā¦
And itās the everyday Americans who suffer. I speak to just a few random people in my 3 weeks here and some of them are amused that abortion can be a huge campaign point. Itās like ok, make your law but have compassion. How hard is that.
Unfortunately trying to outlaw firearms here in the states would never work. Do you think thatās going to stop the criminals from committing crimes with firearms if theyāre ābanned, outlawed, etc etcā¦ā
Well, you can never ask one for an answer, as a radical on either side of the spectrum you will only ever see the opposite as radical and will be in complete denial that their own beliefs are radical. If you are moderate on a fair amount of subject matter, then you will be able to identify radicals on both sides. And by me answering obviously infers that I am not a radical on a fair amount of subjects
As others have mentioned, a radical is dependant on geography as they donāt correlate well across borders.