2024 US Presidential Elections Megathread

[Jacob]

Bannon doesn't care about the planet. He cares about "clever" insurrectionist hacks of the US electoral system.

[Barrister]

Wait he is being bankrolled by Steve Bannon? What a crazy world we live in. That is kind of weird since the main thing RFK Jr is known for is being a big environmentalist. Didn't know Bannon cared so much about the planet.

So I gotta say that I think the main thing RFK Jr is known for (other than his name) is being an anti-vax conspiracy theorist.  And he's been that way for decades - long before Covid.

The connections between Bannon and RFK Jr are not crystal clear.  It's been reported Bannon repeatedly urged him to run, which RFK Jr has denied.  So I don't know I can say 'Bannon bankrolls RFK Jr' with certainty, but it does look that way.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/steve-bannon-alex-jones-love-robert-f-kennedy-jr-rcna82057

As for Democratic base - I would say minorities and university-educated whites.  And yes the latter are much more susceptible to RFK Jr's "charms" than the former.

[Sheilbh]

On RFK - obviously his wife is a beloved star in Hollywood and I really enjoyed this paragraph of an interview with her in the NYT:

Ms. Hines clarified: "I haven't lost any jobs because of my support for his candidacy, but there was a project I'm involved in where there was a pause for discussion about how his candidacy might affect what we are doing but it has been resolved." Mr. Kennedy added that so far, "I feel a lot of support and love from most of her friends, including Larry." (In a text, Mr. David clarified: "Yes love and support, but I'm not 'supporting' him.")

I think her role and that he's a figure in that world does get to Valmy's point though that, until very recently, fears abot vaccines, big pharma conspiracies etc were generally the preserve of the left. Pre-covid I remember reading articles about the dangerously low rates of measle vaccinations in places like Portland and Vermont. Partisanship's a hell of a drug in a country as polarised as the US.

As for Democratic base - I would say minorities and university-educated whites.  And yes the latter are much more susceptible to RFK Jr's "charms" than the former.

Although Black Americans are still the least likely to have received a covid vaccination - I think because we all got distracted by the political/partisan side of people not getting vaccinated that the far more significant material, public health, access side of people not getting vaccinated slightly fell to the side.

[Barrister]

RFK doesn't worry me, he has no shot in the primaries and Joe won't even have to show up.

Remember Joe Kennedy lost a primary challenge against Ed Markey, in Massachusetts, with the full Kennedy name and money behind him. I don't think there's a big demographic of people who will just vote for a random Kennedy.

I only slightly remembered the Kennedy-Markey race.  This Politico story certainly seems to suggest the race was Joe Kennedy's to lose, and he did in fact lose it.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/02/joe-kennedy-senate-campaign-failed-408033

[Valmy]

So I gotta say that I think the main thing RFK Jr is known for (other than his name) is being an anti-vax conspiracy theorist.  And he's been that way for decades - long before Covid.

Right. I meant to say "besides being an anti-vaccine conspiracy guy".

[Admiral Yi]

I've read descriptions of Joe as the dumbest Kennedy.

[Razgovory]

That's really saying something.  I mean there is Rosemary Kennedy...

[Barrister]

That's really saying something.  I mean there is Rosemary Kennedy...

Harsh toke.

[grumbler]

RFK Jr is not a serious candidate. Unless something takes down uncle Joe before Christmas I don't think there will be any serious candidates for the Democratic Nomination.

It says it all that he isn't even bothering with something so lame as running for Senator or anything. Just running for President in a year where we have an incumbent running for his party.

I think he is a handy reminder that health-based conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine bullshit was largely a leftwing thing in the US until recently.

Doesn't everything you just said also apply to Trump in 2015?

The incumbent president was not eligible to run in 2016 and was a Democrat to boot.

[Jacob]

So RFK Jr. is a potential GOP candidate in 2028.

[Savonarola]

Well, I suppose this was inevitable:

RFK Jr. says COVID may have been 'ethnically targeted' to spare Jews



He's weirdly specific that it's Ashkenazi Jews (and Chinese).

[Savonarola]

From Newsweek:

Cornel West Blames NATO for Russia's War With Ukraine
Story by Nick Reynolds • Tuesday

Third-party presidential candidate Cornel West suggested Tuesday that NATO was just as culpable for the Ukraine war as the Kremlin, calling the alliance an "expanding instrument" of Western imperialism that "provoked" the Russian invasion.

In a Tuesday post to his social media pages, West—a leftist philosopher and academic running on a fierce anti-war platform—said that ongoing efforts by NATO allies to arm Ukraine represented a policy of escalation that, if left unresolved, "could lead to World War III."

The latest alleged escalation came earlier this week after NATO-allied Turkey and U.S. President Joe Biden said they would support providing cluster munitions to the Ukrainian military to resist the Russians' offensive. Use of the weapons is outlawed by some 123 countries.

Such a deal, West said, was a step too far. His remarks mirrored rhetoric from Russian state media and President Vladimir Putin, who have said their country was justified in breaking international law to launch a preemptive assault on Ukraine and stand up to the West.

"NATO is an expanding instrument of U.S. global power that provoked Russia into a criminal invasion and occupation of Ukraine," wrote West, who is seeking the Green Party's presidential nomination.

He continued: "This proxy war between the American Empire and the Russian Federation could lead to World War III. We must stop the war and war crimes (including cluster bombs used by all parties) and embark on diplomatic talks that should lead to a just peace."

He then quoted a line from author W.E.B. Du Bois, saying, "I seem to see outlined a third World War based on the suppression of Asia and the strangling of Russia."

He went on: "The Democratic Party is a party of war and Wall Street targeting Russia and China. Let us save our democracy and world by dismantling U.S. militarism at home (as in Cop Cities) and abroad—as Martin Luther King Jr. painfully reminded us!"

Newsweek has reached out to West's campaign via email for comment.

West has long been a critic of Putin, describing him as a "gangster" and "criminal" in past interviews. Since the Ukraine invasion, he has been opposed to foreign involvement in the country, calling for a cessation of all U.S. military aid abroad as part of his platform.

West is running for the nomination of the Green party for president.  A number of left-of-center publications in the United States have fretted that he'll siphon off votes from Biden and play a Nader type role in this election.  I don't see the appeal, but I didn't see the appeal of Nader either, so maybe.

(Although, with his blame of the US for the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, it sounds like he has common ground with the Freedom Caucus.  Maybe there's a Molotov-Ribbentrop type opportunity ahead.)

[Tonitrus]

It's nothing really new.  Much of the very far-left seem to have that "if only they ("they" ultimately meaning the US, but inevitably Ukraine too) could both lose" view of war, and a perplexingly naive idea that a simple negotiated peace could be obtained that is reasonable to all sides.

[PJL]

When it comes to these sorts of people, labelling them left or right becomes meaningless. They're ideologists and they have more in common with other ideologists than they do with pragmatists.

[Solmyr]

You have some weird Greens over there. Our Greens are like among the strongest NATO supporters.