RFK Jr. is expected to drop his Democratic primary bid and launch an independent or third-party run
apnews.com
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.
It’d be interesting to see who is paying him to run.
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
That is exactly what the Forward party is doing. Their top political policy position is promoting ranked choice voting.
I have deep, intense skepticism of anything Andrew Yang touches or endorses
EDIT: Also look at the fucking wikipedia article for the "Forward Party". It's literally bankers and Republicans, if I wanted to ruin the country this sounds like a great idea
Okay, I have deep, intense skepticism of any current politician.
No, its not literally bankers and Republicans. All you have to do is look at the Notable member chart to see that. It does have some republicans who have joined which isn't exactly a surprise since they are 33% of the country. As far as bankers, there was no mention of the word banker in the article so not sure where you're getting that.
Why are you cursing about an wikipedia article? Is it because you are angry at it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_Party_(United_States)
"On July 27, 2022, the Forward Party announced that it had merged with the Serve America Movement and the Renew America Movement to further its effort to form a new third party named "Forward"."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serve_America_Movement
"The Serve America Movement (SAM) was a big tent political organization founded in 2017 by Morgan Stanley lawyer Eric Grossman."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renew_America_Movement
"The Renew America Movement (RAM) was an American political group founded in 2021 by former staffers from Republican Party administrations"
If you give them money you're just giving Republicans money, full stop. I support RCV but I wouldn't trust any of these fuckers for a second. Knew that website looked way too slick
Got it. You think anything republican is impure therefore bad. Essentially you think to be good you must not associate with bad people. It is for or against. There is no grey area. You have to meet my purity test of not being a bad person so I can support you.
Sorry, but the world is not black and white. There is a gray area. The reality is that politics to the average person is no different than a rooting for team sport. By advocating for ranked choice voting you seem to be willing to step out of that viewpoint a little, but you still think all republicans are bad.
PS: when you cuss it just lets me know you are dehumanizing the people you are referring to. So I try to somewhat ignore that as I do not support dehumanizing people.
If "purity test" is not supporting the people and party who overtly supported the overthrow of the United States government and continue to do so, then yeah I use purity tests. Also I can curse all I fucking want
The people and party are two different things. There are 50+ million republicans. It is a mistake to assume that they all support what happened on Jan 6.
Most of them are probably just uninformed or misinformed and therefore support their team. Just because some republicans did actively support Jan 6 doesn't mean they all support it. Mostly, they just chose to ignore headlines because they do not like the cognitive dissonance it causes.
Why? I am curious why you are skeptical of him. He is literally doing what you suggested. Why are you mistrustful of him?
He's a naive idiot who thinks business skill translates into political skill (always amusing to watch those types toss themselves into the wood chipper of primaries), and he did a vanity/brand run for President in 2020, then basically publicly admitted he got rolled by Biden's team with his endorsement. Any of these is disqualifying. He doesn't know what he's doing, and he's not serious about it.
So you are mistrustful of him because you don't think hes qualified to be president. That is a reasonable rationale for distrust.
No one always knows what they are doing, that is part of being an imperfect human. That he admits it to some degree just means he is being honest about his skills and abilities and is willing to learn.
Anyway you are entitled to think someone is not qualified for president if you want. However, that does not disqualify that he is at least trying to do exactly what you think should be done.
He's surrounding himself with people so fundamentally untrustworthy that it absolutely needs to be called out no matter what he says his goals are
So why should I trust you when you call someone untrustworthy? You keep calling people names and that doesn't exactly lead me to trust you. Trust is in the eye of the beholder and your cussing doesn't exactly lead me to trust your viewpoint.
Objectively Yang and everyone on the list of 20+ notable member are more trustable to the general public than you simply because they are important enough to be mentioned by a Wikipedia entry. There are 14 democrats and 13 republicans listed on the notable member chart.
You don't have to trust everyone in an organization to trust that organization. I would rather support an organization that might be lying over 2 organizations that I know are lying.
Anyway, I understand your viewpoint and can respect it even if I happen to see it differently. Thanks for explaining your view.
And the entities who encourage US 3rd parties as spoilers for the left are not limited to the GOP
The only third party I give any credence to is the Working Families Party. They'll run in local races while supporting candidates from other parties when they know they can't win.
I can certainly get that it feels like most third parties are there to siphon votes from major political parties and sow discord.
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.
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.
I suppose I wasn't clear. I agree that I think he is being paid just to be a spoiler. The only difference between RFK Jr and Kanye running is that RFK knows he's being used and reaping huge personal benefits from a renewed interest in his brand.
The money is obviously from nefarious super PACs and mega donors, NOT any kind of grass roots movement of people who think he's a viable alternative candidate. The article I posted is just one that shows that we already know where his backing is coming from
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.
You would think, but it’s ok as he’ll divide the ant-science vote.
The danger is if he pulls some D votes because he's a Kennedy. He's been working pretty closely together with roger stone and steve bannon if that tells you anything about the messaging he's been putting out.
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.
That should be easy. His name is Kennedy and he was running democrat. And a large portion of republicans vote based on buzz words.
“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.
It’s supposed to deny calling them democratic
Yep. In the same breath, they also insist that “America is not a democracy, it’s a republic”, as if [a] that’s a meaningful argument, [b] it’s even true, and [c] it matters in the first place if they’re using that dumb “democrat party” dig anyway. Meanwhile, the shit they’ve been proposing would make America neither a democracy nor a republic.
No such party. People like Newt (the man who worked harder than almost anyone to divide this country) really ran with it to purposefully irritate those that know better.
Since donnie is dumber than dirt, he said as much out loud, in front of his idiot base, too.
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.
Great news!
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.
https://themessenger.com/politics/rnc-distributes-23-reasons-to-oppose-rfk-jr-list-ahead-of-major-announcement
Seems like very few trust him on anything. It must take one hell of an ego to run anyway.
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.
Have you got links to those handy? It'd be reassuring to see
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.
It really makes you wonder where all the anti-corruptiom reformers are that aren't part of the problem.
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.
https://www.salon.com/2023/04/06/steve-bannon-spent-months-recruiting-anti-vaxxer-rfk-jr-to-run-against-biden-as-chaos-agent/
"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
I think this will hurt any dem candidates. Theres some older generations that might just vote for a Kennedy based solely on a name, my 76 year old granddad would be one of them.
Well good. Not only is this more honest of his
policiesweird racist conspiracies, it's also much less likely to go anywhere.Cool. Spoil on friend!
If anything, the more conspiratorial wing of trump voters might vote for him instead. I don't see antivaxx Harambe-did-911 voters realistically voting democrat anyway.
My father has said he really likes RFK Jr. My father also voted for Trump twice and would vote for him in 2024 if he's the candidate - though there's a chance he'd get pulled over to vote for RFK Jr. instead.
Another politician trying to shave off votes, it happens every 4 years
-RFK Jr.
This is some medieval, "How come the Jews are surviving the plague better?!", boolshit.
Perhaps because they have a history of practicing good hygiene?
“Who survived Covid most?”
“The ethno-religious group required to practice medically sound infectious disease practices and an ethnic group predisposed to wearing masks while sick. Both are disproportionately medical professionals.”
“Conspiracy!!!”
Yeah! You're so smart! How did they become "disproportionately medical professionals" ?!
Not gonna hear it. Conspiracy. I stand pat.
Well of course. The Jewish space laser blasts anti-covid beams over synagogues and the Chinese invented the virus as well as the REAL™ cure, and everyone else has CCP activation codes inside the vaccine and will activate during the FEMA broadcast test on
Oct 4threscheduled since too many people knew about it and turned off their phones.He also forgot the lizard people who cured themselves with 5G waves.
The scientific evidence and statistics say half the opposite. Ashkenazi Jews actually had poorer outcomes overall as compared to other ethnic groups. It's just that they were more likely to follow masking and social distancing rules and got their vaccinations, so had less infections overall. But if they did contract Covid, it was way worse for them.
Same with the black population, (though there were issues of not getting vaccines in those communities due to past genocidal testing by the US government on said populations) so I guess he's half right there.
The one Kennedy nobody wanted.
Oh no, stop, come back.....
Democrats: 🕺💃
Lmfao and the democrat voters were worried about Cornel West siphoning the few far leftists, there goes your center right republican votes.
Yet another Useful Idiot for #Ruzzia
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Asked for comment on his potential independent run, a Democratic National Committee spokesman responded with an eye roll emoji.
Monday’s announcement comes less than a week after the progressive activist Cornel West abandoned his Green Party bid in favor of an independent White House run.
In campaign emails and videos, he blasted the DNC’s decision not to host debates between Biden and other candidates and railed against the committee’s plan to give South Carolina rather than Iowa or New Hampshire the leadoff spot on the primary calendar this election cycle.
Far-right and anti-vaccine influencers close to Kennedy also have sent strong signals on social media suggesting he should or will leave the Democratic Party.
He appeared on a channel run by the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and headlined a stop on the ReAwaken America Tour, the Christian nationalist road show put together by Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
He also has gained support from some far-right conservatives for his fringe views, including his vocal distrust of COVID-19 vaccines, which studies have shown are safe and effective against severe disease and death.
The original article contains 642 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I hope he takes votes away from donnie mostly. And the Green Party just looks like a Russian front these days - I wonder if whatever useful idiot they prop up realize that, or do they come to terms with it later?