this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 107 points 7 months ago (2 children)

If anything, RFK will split the Republican (Russian) vote

This author is a dipshit

[–] TexasDrunk 54 points 7 months ago

I don't know this author, but when I see articles like this I always think it's a reverse Hanlon's razor. I refuse to believe the people reporting on it are stupid and assume they're fucking evil.

[–] Breezy 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I said this in another post, but i believe older democrats who dont keep up with the nonsense of politics could very well just see the name Kennedy and vote for him. If we werent in a very red state i would be worried about my grandfather in his 80s doing exactly that.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (3 children)

That isn’t what polling shows.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 7 months ago (2 children)

RFK Jr. is a piece of dog shit drying in the hot summer sun. I can't imagine in any universe this guy (who makes me wish there was a Sirhan Sirhan Jr.) draining votes from Joe Biden when their views are diametrically opposed.

[–] grue 36 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Really, really low-information voters might see the last name and think he's like JFK.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (1 children)

A shocking amount of Republican antics suddenly made sense to me when I realized they're just targeting low-information voters.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

When was that, when Trump said "I love the poorly educated"?

His little off-script comments are always interesting to me, because they give insight to what he's thinking.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

That's most of his base.

[–] partial_accumen 6 points 7 months ago

RFK is the wish.com JFK.

[–] disguy_ovahea 7 points 7 months ago

I support Kennedy. RFK’s sister, who said she’ll vote for Biden over her own brother. lol

[–] johannesvanderwhales 48 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (9 children)

They run this same story about third party candidates every election year. The problem is they never show that the people who voted for the third party candidate would've definitely gone to one party or the other. People know what's at stake, why do you assume people voting for RFK Jr would've voted for Biden? There's nothing about his platform that is very left leaning. The most left leaning thing about him is his last name.

Edit: Just as an example, I voted for Nader in 2000. I'm someone who would've voted for Gore otherwise. But guess what? I was voting in a state that wasn't in close contention at all, so I could vote for a third party without really changing the calculus of who would get elected. The idea that votes for third parties are fungible with votes for major party candidates is just not accurate.

[–] SkybreakerEngineer 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Because it's true every time, and it works a lot. Gore would have won if Nader wasn't on the ticket, and guess what? The Republicans have been propping up third-party candidates for years.

Hell, in Florida they got some random dude on the ticket just because he had the same name as the Democrat -- and it worked.

[–] TwentySeven 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Intuitively it doesn't even make sense in this case though. Biden is running as the safe ordinary establishment candidate. Trump and RFK Jr are going for the right wing wacko conspiracy theory crowd.

Unless I see data to the contrary, I'm going to assume that RFK Jr siphons more votes from Trump.

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[–] Nobody 45 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I believe the latest polls show Bobby Kennedy Jr. taking slightly more support from Trump. It makes sense. In order to support Kennedy, you have to listen to him first.

The conspiracy theorist label stops the left from even considering him. The voters who are more likely to give him a chance are on the right. They don’t care if he’s called a conspiracy theorist.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I think it's a mix that varies state from state based off the latest polling.

[–] Nobody 9 points 7 months ago

Could be, but it’s likely to tend toward Trump voters as time goes on. They’re less resistant to someone being unpopular in the mainstream media.

Being called crazy by the media is a prerequisite for right wing viewers to trust a candidate.

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[–] givesomefucks 27 points 7 months ago (4 children)

The problem is the people running the DNC

At some point, we're going to have to make an actual left wing party. Because the only thing the national DNC cares about is money

They don't even know how to spend it effectively when they get it.

[–] Bernie_Sandals 48 points 7 months ago (19 children)

Socialist Party of America, Socialist Alternative, The Communist Party of the USA, and plenty others have been trying to run left of the Democratic Party for a century, it won't work in a FPTP voting system, converting the Democrats into a Socialist party would literally be easier.

If you want a left wing party other than the Dems, you're gonna have to change FPTP first.

[–] Eldritch 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Or or, and hear me out here. We could do what has happened many different times throughout history. And take over/replace the structure of a party. The Democrats already ignore state and local elections across several red states. What if we lefties/socialist/etc instead of trying to prop up separate parties and separate candidates that always fail. Fielded our own candidates who more closely match our own ideals. And run them as Democrats in these areas. Focusing on funding them ourselves as well as whatever money the DNC apparatus might provide. We might actually start winning. And if we start winning we might actually be able to replace those in the DNC. And if we replace those in the DNC. Things might actually get better.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Isn't that what they said?

converting the Democrats into a Socialist party would literally be easier

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[–] Bernie_Sandals 6 points 7 months ago (12 children)

This is what the DSA has been trying to do and succeeding in for 30 years with candidates like AOC

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[–] njm1314 4 points 7 months ago

We should all know by now that that's not how it's going to have to work. The way to change politics in a country isn't from the outside. It's not even from the inside really, it's by getting inside and then tearing out all the support beams of fixtures and rebuilding it from the inside out. That's what conservatives under the Republican party for the last 15 to 20 years. They completely took over the party ousted all the ones that were too moderate for them, they rebuilt their party from the inside to be what it is today. Leftists are going to have to have the discipline to do the same.

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[–] hark 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I love how democrats scream about a few thousand votes every election. Why is it that democrats cut it so close with a fascist, racist, sexist, dogshit party every election? The democrats should consider that they're doing a shit job and should work to improve themselves instead of shrieking "but other guy!!!" every single election and claiming that everything cost them the election except for themselves. If they lose the election they smugly say "look how right we are with how bad things are!" and if they win the election they smugly say "we won so we must be doing something right, let's keep the shitty status quo going!"

[–] Wrench 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (31 children)

Uhh huh. You seriously think any of the voters that we lose to RFK Jr or West care at all about things like policy or actions of democrats in office? Reality has no place in that discussion. Unless democrats start going for the fringe conspiracy nutter vote, those votes are a lost cause

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

I would love it if that were the view that most Democrats had - then I could vote for the people I like in peace. Unfortunately, every day we get a new "vote blue no matter the genocide" post trying to shame people into voting for Biden. I pray to one day be a lost cause who isn't worth being yelled at (the earlier the better).

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I thought that was Jr's goal? He seems to be chumming up with right wing conspiracies pretty well.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

how is that going to draw in people who would have otherwise voted for the boring mainstream democratic candidate?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

He seems to specifically be gunning for the demographic of both right and left wing people that support pseudoscience nonsense. All the anti-vaxxers, for example. It's certainly entirely possible he'd steal more voters from Trump than from Biden.

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[–] blady_blah 5 points 7 months ago

The only person who I've heard be in love with RFK Jr. was a former Trump voter.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (9 children)

American electorate: "Fuck this two party system that prevents real choice on real issues."

Also American electorate: "Damn that third party candidate spoiling things for my side!"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

The two party system is not solved by having a third party run. It's the nature of the fptp voting system that it will tend towards two parties. All having a third party run will do is reinforce the idea that you have to pick the lesser of two evils.

The solution to the two party system is to work from the ground up to get the voting system changed. So despite your attempt to shit on Americans, you're the one wrong here.

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