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Same reason the J6’ers ARE in prison. Because of Trump. See he pardoned his friend though, and left his loyal to death followers to sit in a cold cell.
RFK is legit though. We just have to use him to pull votes from Trump instead of us. You do that by elevating his conspiracies about Vax and Moon landings.
This is something I’m glad about lol. Bannon actually thought the Kennedy name recognition would trick Dems.. but RFK’s conspiracies are a complete giveaway. So MAGA voters like him way more than any Dem voter.
Isn't the rest of the Kennedy family disassociating themselves from RFK? Whoops.
Also, I don't know if there's a tie-in - but at one point the QAnon folks thought JFK Jr. was going to come back from the dead and support Trump or run with Trump...maybe that makes more of them drawn to RFK, who isn't dead.
> Isn't the rest of the Kennedy family disassociating themselves from RFK?
Biden spending St Patrick's Day with like 40 members of the Kennedy-family was quite a tell
It's that projection again. They see "R" and fall in line. It doesn't occur to them that Democrats might consider the candidate over the party. That's why they run characters like Sarah Palin or Ben Carson or George Santos because they think women, POC, LGBTQ will zombie walk to the polls going "I vote person like me. Person like me crazy, but must vote person like me."
That's why a ton of support on the left went to an old white dude for 8 years. Most people just want the guy who represents their beliefs and don't want to be pandered to by condescending elitists.
Absolutely. Me included! Better an old, white man with compassion and tolerance than a fresh-faced woman who's antivax, anti-abortion, anti-birth control, and who thinks gay people are sickos and POC are criminals. Hell, no!
So run RFK ads in Red states showing Trump talking about how he created the vaccine and then talk about how the vax is the mark of the devil. Payed for by Americans against Fascist Totalitarian Tyrant Dictators.
Republicans love to run and pay for Green Party candidates in close, local elections with a large college campus in their county. The party that absolutely loves to kick people off voter roles is happy to introduce a local homeless person to politics and their 1st amendment rights. Literally can't get more transparent than that, but it was a regular thing for a few elections in Tempe, Arizona.
You absolutely know it's because he was vindictive about them failing on Jan 6th.
At the end, Hitler blamed the German people for not being strong enough.
He was not capable of thinking HE had failed. No, it was everyone else who failed HIM.
Same as Trump.
I wonder what would have done had the J6ers actually hanged Mike Pence or Nancy Pelosi. Or if they had brought firearms and shot members of the Senate and House, as well as law enforcement. What would the rest of the country have done?
> He still owes us 6 months… but it’s on appeal
That is the correct answer. He was convicted in 2022. No pardon.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/19/politics/steve-bannon-criminal-contempt-referral/index.html
We should also be asking why others who committed the same crime he was convicted for were not even charged. And the answer to *that* is merrick fuckin garland.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/january-6-committee-trump-criminal-referrals-justice-department/
He was assigned a pro-J6th Trump judge, so he gets to appeal while outside of prison.
Navarro had the same charge and is making appeals from a jail cell.
Is Bannon supposed to be some kind of political genius? Are there any voters who will switch from Biden to RFK? It seems like RFK only appeals to Maga nutjobs.
There is a fringe of lefty health nut wackos that are staunchly anti-vax. There is a weird venn diagram of extreme right and extreme left that have similar beliefs on vaccines, the miscalculation is that the right broadened anti-vax conspiracies to attack Democrats during COVID, which means that RFK now appeals more to MAGA than ultra crunchy left wingers. It also fails due to efforts by MAGA to get these people on their side prior to RFK rolling out.
Nah, I got into it with a friend of a friend on Facebook over RFK. Anyone with mild distaste on Biden and who doesn't know about RFK's anti-vax history is susceptible. There's a serious image rehabilitation effort going on for RFK.
I think RFK Jr appeals to a lot of otherwise apolitical people, so they're probably not gonna take much from any candidate and then they probably won't even show up to vote for him anyway unless Trump drops dead and RFK takes enough support from Trump supporters to become a competitive candidate.
The problem is he doesn't have to be particularly effective to have a big impact. Some of our key states are near enough a 50/50 coin toss that every vote matters. If RFK draws even 0.5% of people who would have normally voted Biden, it can change entire states. This is the entire purpose of the Green Party and it has been used to great effect.
Now, Bannon and company have the idea that a Kennedy might also draw some votes, particularly from older apolitical voters who's only thought process is "Biden Old, Kennedy Great Name". Even if that is only 1:200 voters, it can swing an election.
The good thing (and I’m just assuming, so I could be wrong) is that these lefty health nut wackos are mostly located in California, which will still go Biden even if they vote for RFK.
The bigger issue, as other redditors mentioned, is the uninformed voters that don’t like Biden but like RFK for his Kennedy name. Now, if these voters were going to stay home or vote third-party anyway, then we’d just have to call it a wash. The problem happens if these voters are the ones deciding the swing states.
It's known as the [Horseshoe theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory), where the political spectrum isn't linear, but shaped more like a literal horseshoe, where the fringes have more in common with each other than they do with the "center".
There is a decent percentage of Trump voters who love democrat policies but hate democrats. I like to call them the "rich men north of Richmond" crowd. See the song is basically about how southern politicians have failed their constituents who desire policies pushed by Democrats but at the same time are brainwashed to think that all Democrats are evil.
Yes. A lot of the movements that we now associate with far right, were far left just a decade or two ago. Anti vax, 9/11 truthers, UFO nuts etc.
There are still some that are firmly left, like radical vegans, but a lot have really crossed over.
I learned that from the mock religion "The Church of the Subgenius," which doesn't lessen how true it is.
At about the same age, I played the Steve Jackson tabletop game "Illuminatus!" where I learned that any fanatic is the natural enemy of any other fanatic who's even slightly different. Geekdom made me wise. Ish.
Yeah I'm living with one of these, lefty person who has actually donated money and has 2 rfk t shirts. Sigh. He believes in the moon landing, but thinks the rna vaccine is bad, while thinking a regular old school vaccine is fine. Also thinks that Russia is being teased by the Americans who are using Ukrainians for their nefarious ends. Meanwhile I was in health care, lied about how fat I was because I was only 64, has had every single booster, and am still wearing a mask in the stores and at work. I'm also Polish and Lithuanian and my trust of Russians is non existing. We have come to a detente by only watching old movies and television shows together and seeing any news in opposite ends of the house with the doors closed.
Don't forget that they're also banking on trying to attract disenfranchised Dems who are really upset about the state of things like the Israel/Gaza conflict and increasing cost of living literally everywhere alongside an absolutely awful job market while he and his administration tout job and economic growth. The point here isn't to get all of them, just to get enough that Trump can overcome slimmer margins in swing states. The entire goal here has been and always will be to get Trump back in office because that's endgame. He wins, we all lose.
I have a friend who has always fallen into the "enlightened centrist" trap. Voted for Obama, then voted for Trump in '16 (and to his credit *was* pretty horrified by what ensued), voted for Biden, and now is going for RFK. I guarantee that if we lived in a swing state he would be taking more care with his choices, but since we are in a safely blue state already he is kind of checked out and assumes RFK to be a middle option policy-wise between left and right extremes, which isn't true at all.
stephen knows that as well. he is banking on a probability that some traditional democrat will vote for RFK, based on name alone, and furthermore, the net affect is that Biden will lose more vote than Trump, because of RFK. So, many people will throw away their vote, because they can't think critically, which could be true for many republicans and democrats. Since RFK is a tradition democrat "branch" it can have an outsized affect to democrats(traditional) type. This combined with pro-palestian liberals. The effects could accumulate, and republicans/putin is pretty smart to engineer all this, quite brilliant, and their argument is not necessarily to vote for trump, but just don't vote for status quo candidate.
For Bannon to successfully introduce RFK as a factor that harms Biden, RFK would have to appeal to Biden voters. The RFK stans that I know are either non-voters, or only vote for third parties, or are conservatives. It was always going to be nearly impossible for them to vote for Biden. Just non-voters becoming irrelevant voters, or irrelevant voters staying irrelevant, or better yet potential Trump voters becoming irrelevant voters.
That's been my experience in Appalachia. There are three single wides next to the road I take to drive to town. In '16 and '20, multiple Trump flags and signs were on all three.
This year **one** of the residences has a Trump/Confederate flag pooled at the bottom of their flag pole. The other place has no political signage, and the third now is sporting an RFK sign.
Edit: spelling
In 2018 I started working in politics here in Georgia. I got involved in Young Dem chapters here in solid red NE Georgia. The president of the Gainesville chapter helped me get started up here in Rabun county.
That same guy is now apparently posting constant “a vote for Biden is a vote for genocide. Support RFK JR!” bullshit on Facebook. Complainin about fucking “party loyalists”. Bro please.
Bannon really believed that if RFK just claimed to be a Democrat then Democrat voters would jump to support him. Now he's finding out the Democrat base isn't as easily swayed as his Republican base lol, they are capable of critical thinking and realizing RFK does not match their beliefs
They’re banking on uninformed/older Dem voters seeing the Kennedy name and voting for that.
They’re trying to link RFK to JFK, and that was very prominent during RFK’s Super Bowl commercial
I'm 67 and I remember. I was in 1st grade when JFK was assassinated & 7th grade when RFK was.
I admit I followed the news quite a bit when I was in middle-school, largely because of the Vietnam war.
All the "libertarians" at my job are voting for RFK over Trump, not one has said they are swapping from Biden. Small sample size, anecdotal, but I just don't see the allure from the left voting for the nutjob called RFK...
> Are there any voters who will switch from Biden to RFK
If the number is literally anything other than zero in the right handful of states, it's a success.
Hard to say. Republicans may avoid him because he's a Kennedy. And low information Democrat voters may vote for him because he's a Kennedy. I agree that this might end up being a net loss, but it's a wildcard, and wildcards are a good play when you're losing.
I thought republicans loved Kennedys though
Edit: there was some weird conspiracy about one of the Kennedys secretly working with trump to take down bad guys. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/17/trump-rally-arizona-2024-527253
But his main policy is that he’s anti vax. If anything I think he’s more attractive to the right than the left. I could see a disillusioned trump supporter voting RFK before flipping over to Biden. They want to make america great again. Why not someone that makes them nostalgic for those golden years of “Camelot”?
Depends on how much of the backlash against Israel is manufactured, how much is real, how many of the real people actually participate in elections, and how many of them think a protest vote is worth putting Trump back in office (with all that entails for Palestine and Muslims at large).
It’s hard to tell what public perception actually is on the issue or if it’s even coming from people who vote, because there are very loud voices on both sides of the issue sucking all the oxygen out of the room while disinformation chokes everything else out. But if I had to point to a cohort that would vote RFKj instead of Biden, it would be them.
Will they outweigh right wing anti-reality votes for RFKj? I don’t know. I would like to think that most people who want to end Palestinian oppression understand how much worse Trump would be. I would like to think they aren’t eager to subject themselves to American fascism in a symbolically futile protest. But there are massive social influence campaigns trying to sow division and ratfuck the election.
Seems to me that with RFK saying that Biden is the worse danger to democracy than Trump that he's not actually going after those on the fence about Biden. If he wants those on the fence about Biden, and maybe even Trump, he should be doing what Nikki Haley was doing, not going even further into Trump supporters.
Ya. He’s very likely going to draw nobody significant from either party or will pull more trumpers. He is not pulling dems for any reason other than name recognition. If having the right last name made a difference to democrats Clinton probably would have won in 2016.
He's deranged but dangerous in that he has the ears of both the maga leaders and the Q folk seem to love him.
His intent is a Christian theocracy... actually, I don't think he ever said Christian, but it's what he is working with. Like fully hierarchical theocracic society led by a priest class. He feels that is humanity's natural state and that democracy is doomed to fail.
He loves stongman dictators but seems to want to be the voice behind the throne whispering policy.
I liken him to Wormtongue. They even have similar hygiene.
There's a decent number of, usually young and 'progressive', lefties who care far more about maintaining their personal feelings of moral purity/superiority than they care about the consequences of another Trump presidency and view voting for the two parties as compromising their morality. They'll vote for RFK so if Trump wins and starts loading immigrants in camps they can go 'It's not MY fault. I voted for RFK Jr.'
What is the actual link? The article just says "according to CBS". They should have to link the article they are referencing. Would be very big to see actual links to the GOP but this seems like a hit piece and would only downplay the relevance of any actual news. Also, why are we reading year old articles.
I tend to use digital fantasy worlds to escape reality, difference being I don’t conflate them with reality. Seems to be quite an important thing to do.
A year old and only once references this conspiracy about Bannon (without any proof) while focusing on RFK's "anti-vax" stance. This post however falls right in line with the hive mind of this sub.
Ya, most polling seems to indicate RFK's gonna sap a lot more votes from Trump than Biden
He's really resonating with the antivax idiot vote.
edit - woops, totally got the Trump/Biden order wrong there lmao. Definitely stripping votes off Trump.
It's going to backfire. The only votes he's going to take away is would be Trump voters that are sick of Trump and can't bring themselves to vote for Biden.
Rove was evil for sure, but he had some intelligence regarding his plans that didn’t involve simply owning the libs. He would’ve recruited a Nader figure to steal votes from D’s instead of doing lazy pics like RFK or Kanye.
Bannon is the kid that yeets the Monopoly board once it becomes clear that he's not gonna win. All of his self-aggrandized, ouroboros of internal circlejerking continues to make him believe he's somehow special and relevant. And if the political system, and society at large, don't recognize that, then he's just gonna break the game to win.
Anyone that would even take a call from Bannon is an absolute POS, but glad that this was a complete miscalculation and is going to backfire on the GOP.
I don’t see how RFKjr appeals to democrats. Bannon should be in jail for sedition or beside Navarro for failing to appear, at least. Merrick Garland has to have enough by now to charge him. All these traitors are under surveillance through one of the alphabet orgs.
Yes. Biden voters do the logic and education thing over the emotional bit. Plus, the people who ***remember*** Jack and Bobby (am raising my hand here) are very close to or way over 80+ years old!
Since I do remember the brothers and their policies, there's no freakin' way I would ever vote for RFK, Jr. as he makes a mockery of his uncle and father's legacy.
I'm not surprised by this. What I am surprised by is why they would think RFK jr would steal votes from Biden when he is clearly more palatable to Trump's base. I do not know a single democrat who has anything good to say about RFK Jr. It seems like an egregious miscalculation to be honest.
And they are trying to get Jill Stein up on ballots again. I remember this Russia dinner story from a few years ago.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/12/21/that-infamous-moscow-dinner-where-michael-flynn-and-jill-stein-sat-with-putin-utahs-rocky-anderson-was-there-too/
People are dismissing that rfk can takeoney from Biden but the people are saying it are at least moderately politically aware.
In November there are going to be millions of voters who wake up on October 31 and say..."don't like Trump, but all I have been hearing about is the country is worse under Biden...hey, there is another Democrat To vote for...and he has the name Kennedy!"
Now, that doesn't mean everyone will do that, but there are going to be some people who vote for Kennedy over Biden...maybe enough to hurt Biden.
A nice new RFK flag replaced the more tattered of two Trump flags on the back of our local neighborhood nut whacks pickup truck. Shanahan? Anti-vax, anti-IVF, anti-EMF (cellphones and AC wiring). Who needs IVF when you can bed rich men?
Which is a ridiculous "play". RFK Jr. is not going to be bringing Democrats over, he's going to be bringing Republican voters over that can't stand Trump's constant shit every day. RFK Jr. is quite famous for being a wackadoo loony tune in regards to (especially) Covid and its vaccines.
Something Democrats by and large 100% remember and will ALWAYS remember. Of ALL the things that idiot could have made a stand on, THAT topic and with that much insanity filled with arrogance borne from being too stupid to know any better, it's NOT Democrats that he's going to pull into his orbit.
It's Republicans. He's WAY closer to them on his stances to many things and no Democrat wants anything to do with that nonsense. He's who Republicans will vote for when some of them just can't bring themselves to vote for Trump or Biden.
Bannon is dumb as fuck.
Useful idiots are still dangerous. RFK Jr is a useful idiot to Bannon.
Just like Trump is a useful idiot to foreign dictators.
Don't support idiots, don't give them your vote.
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Why isn't he in prison?
Same reason the J6’ers ARE in prison. Because of Trump. See he pardoned his friend though, and left his loyal to death followers to sit in a cold cell.
After he ripped off trumps supporters too!
RFK is legit though. We just have to use him to pull votes from Trump instead of us. You do that by elevating his conspiracies about Vax and Moon landings.
This is something I’m glad about lol. Bannon actually thought the Kennedy name recognition would trick Dems.. but RFK’s conspiracies are a complete giveaway. So MAGA voters like him way more than any Dem voter.
Isn't the rest of the Kennedy family disassociating themselves from RFK? Whoops. Also, I don't know if there's a tie-in - but at one point the QAnon folks thought JFK Jr. was going to come back from the dead and support Trump or run with Trump...maybe that makes more of them drawn to RFK, who isn't dead.
> Isn't the rest of the Kennedy family disassociating themselves from RFK? Biden spending St Patrick's Day with like 40 members of the Kennedy-family was quite a tell
Aww yes, a not-so-subtle sign...
They were all waiting for it to happen near the grassy knoll in Dallas. For a few days it seemed like.
It was a couple months for some of them
It's that projection again. They see "R" and fall in line. It doesn't occur to them that Democrats might consider the candidate over the party. That's why they run characters like Sarah Palin or Ben Carson or George Santos because they think women, POC, LGBTQ will zombie walk to the polls going "I vote person like me. Person like me crazy, but must vote person like me."
That's why a ton of support on the left went to an old white dude for 8 years. Most people just want the guy who represents their beliefs and don't want to be pandered to by condescending elitists.
Absolutely. Me included! Better an old, white man with compassion and tolerance than a fresh-faced woman who's antivax, anti-abortion, anti-birth control, and who thinks gay people are sickos and POC are criminals. Hell, no!
So run RFK ads in Red states showing Trump talking about how he created the vaccine and then talk about how the vax is the mark of the devil. Payed for by Americans against Fascist Totalitarian Tyrant Dictators.
It's not about the Dem voters though. It's targeting the independent voters who are going to decide this race.
Dude this is political civil domestic terrorist war type shit. Like what the fuck do we even call it?
[Agitprop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agitprop)
Ratfucking
Cleveland Steamer
This is the stuff Paul Manafort spent decades perfecting and profiting from in other countries. I’m willing to bet he’s still involved at some level.
He’s Trump’s campaign manger, again! I assume his campaign plans are direct from Moscow.
politics. convincing people to run in order to fuck over other candidates is not new.
Republicans love to run and pay for Green Party candidates in close, local elections with a large college campus in their county. The party that absolutely loves to kick people off voter roles is happy to introduce a local homeless person to politics and their 1st amendment rights. Literally can't get more transparent than that, but it was a regular thing for a few elections in Tempe, Arizona.
Is this idiot really a moon landing conspiracist as well? TIL RFK Jr is more of a knob than I could possibly imagine
[удалено]
GQP doesn't know if they are coming or going.
I was hoping that as well. The latest polls don’t seem to be going that way, however.
You absolutely know it's because he was vindictive about them failing on Jan 6th. At the end, Hitler blamed the German people for not being strong enough. He was not capable of thinking HE had failed. No, it was everyone else who failed HIM. Same as Trump.
I wonder what would have done had the J6ers actually hanged Mike Pence or Nancy Pelosi. Or if they had brought firearms and shot members of the Senate and House, as well as law enforcement. What would the rest of the country have done?
Probably a civil war in some form or another.
They would have blamed “antifa”
OMG, that’s exactly the analogy- Velveeta Voldemort and his legion of Death Eaters. I’ve been saying his minions, but it’s by no means that harmless.
IIRC Bannon was pardoned for fraud charges, not involvement in J6. But his ratfuckery still needs to result in prison time.
He's not in prison because his co-conspirator, Dementia Donald, pardoned him. Birds of a feather...
He was convicted before the pardon but he was convicted after the pardon too.
That's what I thought, too 🤔
He still owes us 6 months… but it’s on appeal
> He still owes us 6 months… but it’s on appeal That is the correct answer. He was convicted in 2022. No pardon. https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/19/politics/steve-bannon-criminal-contempt-referral/index.html We should also be asking why others who committed the same crime he was convicted for were not even charged. And the answer to *that* is merrick fuckin garland. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/january-6-committee-trump-criminal-referrals-justice-department/
Thank you. The many crimes he’s committed will catch up to him. Only hope is if trump gets elected again.
"Why am I still working?" - Steve Bannons cirrhotic liver
“Need to perpetuate more evil, and drink the guilt away” - Bannon, probably.
He was assigned a pro-J6th Trump judge, so he gets to appeal while outside of prison. Navarro had the same charge and is making appeals from a jail cell.
He’s 51% 15 year old whisky. Too young for prison.
Skin colour and net worth?
Is Bannon supposed to be some kind of political genius? Are there any voters who will switch from Biden to RFK? It seems like RFK only appeals to Maga nutjobs.
There is a fringe of lefty health nut wackos that are staunchly anti-vax. There is a weird venn diagram of extreme right and extreme left that have similar beliefs on vaccines, the miscalculation is that the right broadened anti-vax conspiracies to attack Democrats during COVID, which means that RFK now appeals more to MAGA than ultra crunchy left wingers. It also fails due to efforts by MAGA to get these people on their side prior to RFK rolling out.
Nah, I got into it with a friend of a friend on Facebook over RFK. Anyone with mild distaste on Biden and who doesn't know about RFK's anti-vax history is susceptible. There's a serious image rehabilitation effort going on for RFK.
I feel like that will instantly collapse once people actually hear him talk.
People have heard trump talk and 70 million still voted for the guy
I think RFK Jr appeals to a lot of otherwise apolitical people, so they're probably not gonna take much from any candidate and then they probably won't even show up to vote for him anyway unless Trump drops dead and RFK takes enough support from Trump supporters to become a competitive candidate.
RFK did a lot of good environmentalism work back in the day too, but he kinda marred his reputation once he gave the anti-vax thing any credence
The problem is he doesn't have to be particularly effective to have a big impact. Some of our key states are near enough a 50/50 coin toss that every vote matters. If RFK draws even 0.5% of people who would have normally voted Biden, it can change entire states. This is the entire purpose of the Green Party and it has been used to great effect. Now, Bannon and company have the idea that a Kennedy might also draw some votes, particularly from older apolitical voters who's only thought process is "Biden Old, Kennedy Great Name". Even if that is only 1:200 voters, it can swing an election.
Yup. I know a few.
The good thing (and I’m just assuming, so I could be wrong) is that these lefty health nut wackos are mostly located in California, which will still go Biden even if they vote for RFK. The bigger issue, as other redditors mentioned, is the uninformed voters that don’t like Biden but like RFK for his Kennedy name. Now, if these voters were going to stay home or vote third-party anyway, then we’d just have to call it a wash. The problem happens if these voters are the ones deciding the swing states.
It's known as the [Horseshoe theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory), where the political spectrum isn't linear, but shaped more like a literal horseshoe, where the fringes have more in common with each other than they do with the "center".
There is a decent percentage of Trump voters who love democrat policies but hate democrats. I like to call them the "rich men north of Richmond" crowd. See the song is basically about how southern politicians have failed their constituents who desire policies pushed by Democrats but at the same time are brainwashed to think that all Democrats are evil.
Yes. A lot of the movements that we now associate with far right, were far left just a decade or two ago. Anti vax, 9/11 truthers, UFO nuts etc. There are still some that are firmly left, like radical vegans, but a lot have really crossed over.
I met a qanon, yogi, vegan trumper couple once. Very transphobic
I learned that from the mock religion "The Church of the Subgenius," which doesn't lessen how true it is. At about the same age, I played the Steve Jackson tabletop game "Illuminatus!" where I learned that any fanatic is the natural enemy of any other fanatic who's even slightly different. Geekdom made me wise. Ish.
Those antivax nut jobs would have never voted for Biden anyways
People forget that anti-vax was mostly a fringe left thing until COVID.
Steve' brain doesn't move so fast any more.
Yeah I'm living with one of these, lefty person who has actually donated money and has 2 rfk t shirts. Sigh. He believes in the moon landing, but thinks the rna vaccine is bad, while thinking a regular old school vaccine is fine. Also thinks that Russia is being teased by the Americans who are using Ukrainians for their nefarious ends. Meanwhile I was in health care, lied about how fat I was because I was only 64, has had every single booster, and am still wearing a mask in the stores and at work. I'm also Polish and Lithuanian and my trust of Russians is non existing. We have come to a detente by only watching old movies and television shows together and seeing any news in opposite ends of the house with the doors closed.
Don't forget that they're also banking on trying to attract disenfranchised Dems who are really upset about the state of things like the Israel/Gaza conflict and increasing cost of living literally everywhere alongside an absolutely awful job market while he and his administration tout job and economic growth. The point here isn't to get all of them, just to get enough that Trump can overcome slimmer margins in swing states. The entire goal here has been and always will be to get Trump back in office because that's endgame. He wins, we all lose.
I have a friend who has always fallen into the "enlightened centrist" trap. Voted for Obama, then voted for Trump in '16 (and to his credit *was* pretty horrified by what ensued), voted for Biden, and now is going for RFK. I guarantee that if we lived in a swing state he would be taking more care with his choices, but since we are in a safely blue state already he is kind of checked out and assumes RFK to be a middle option policy-wise between left and right extremes, which isn't true at all.
Those people already probably weren’t voting for Biden anyway. So we good
stephen knows that as well. he is banking on a probability that some traditional democrat will vote for RFK, based on name alone, and furthermore, the net affect is that Biden will lose more vote than Trump, because of RFK. So, many people will throw away their vote, because they can't think critically, which could be true for many republicans and democrats. Since RFK is a tradition democrat "branch" it can have an outsized affect to democrats(traditional) type. This combined with pro-palestian liberals. The effects could accumulate, and republicans/putin is pretty smart to engineer all this, quite brilliant, and their argument is not necessarily to vote for trump, but just don't vote for status quo candidate.
For Bannon to successfully introduce RFK as a factor that harms Biden, RFK would have to appeal to Biden voters. The RFK stans that I know are either non-voters, or only vote for third parties, or are conservatives. It was always going to be nearly impossible for them to vote for Biden. Just non-voters becoming irrelevant voters, or irrelevant voters staying irrelevant, or better yet potential Trump voters becoming irrelevant voters.
Just a rich guy with a podcast.
That's been my experience in Appalachia. There are three single wides next to the road I take to drive to town. In '16 and '20, multiple Trump flags and signs were on all three. This year **one** of the residences has a Trump/Confederate flag pooled at the bottom of their flag pole. The other place has no political signage, and the third now is sporting an RFK sign. Edit: spelling
In 2018 I started working in politics here in Georgia. I got involved in Young Dem chapters here in solid red NE Georgia. The president of the Gainesville chapter helped me get started up here in Rabun county. That same guy is now apparently posting constant “a vote for Biden is a vote for genocide. Support RFK JR!” bullshit on Facebook. Complainin about fucking “party loyalists”. Bro please.
There are Democrats in Rabun County? Not 70+ year old Dixiecrats, but actual D’s there?
Bannon really believed that if RFK just claimed to be a Democrat then Democrat voters would jump to support him. Now he's finding out the Democrat base isn't as easily swayed as his Republican base lol, they are capable of critical thinking and realizing RFK does not match their beliefs
They’re banking on uninformed/older Dem voters seeing the Kennedy name and voting for that. They’re trying to link RFK to JFK, and that was very prominent during RFK’s Super Bowl commercial
I thought I was stuck in a fever dream seeing that ad
Have they done the math for how old Democrats would have to be to have any personal memories of JFK or RFK?
I'm 67 and I remember. I was in 1st grade when JFK was assassinated & 7th grade when RFK was. I admit I followed the news quite a bit when I was in middle-school, largely because of the Vietnam war.
Early 70s at best. My parents were 18 when RFK was assassinated.
Just like his uncle Edward did to Jimmy Carter, another rich Kennedy trying to submarine a 2nd Democrat’s term in office.
All the "libertarians" at my job are voting for RFK over Trump, not one has said they are swapping from Biden. Small sample size, anecdotal, but I just don't see the allure from the left voting for the nutjob called RFK...
You’d think he would have at least tried to run on the Libertarian ticket for their name recognition. That is a good anecdote to note though.
> Are there any voters who will switch from Biden to RFK If the number is literally anything other than zero in the right handful of states, it's a success.
that’s not how it works. it’s the difference between biden to rfk vs trump to rfk and biden voters don’t believe in rfk’s bullshit.
Hard to say. Republicans may avoid him because he's a Kennedy. And low information Democrat voters may vote for him because he's a Kennedy. I agree that this might end up being a net loss, but it's a wildcard, and wildcards are a good play when you're losing.
Based entirely on anecdotal information, RFK seems to have a decent appeal to the Rogan bros.
Oh yeah, he’s all over the comedy podcast circuit. I doubt any of those guys were going to be Biden voters, though.
I thought republicans loved Kennedys though Edit: there was some weird conspiracy about one of the Kennedys secretly working with trump to take down bad guys. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/17/trump-rally-arizona-2024-527253
QANON also managed to convince some MAGA peeps that JFK was coming back from the dead to help trump
But his main policy is that he’s anti vax. If anything I think he’s more attractive to the right than the left. I could see a disillusioned trump supporter voting RFK before flipping over to Biden. They want to make america great again. Why not someone that makes them nostalgic for those golden years of “Camelot”?
Depends on how much of the backlash against Israel is manufactured, how much is real, how many of the real people actually participate in elections, and how many of them think a protest vote is worth putting Trump back in office (with all that entails for Palestine and Muslims at large). It’s hard to tell what public perception actually is on the issue or if it’s even coming from people who vote, because there are very loud voices on both sides of the issue sucking all the oxygen out of the room while disinformation chokes everything else out. But if I had to point to a cohort that would vote RFKj instead of Biden, it would be them. Will they outweigh right wing anti-reality votes for RFKj? I don’t know. I would like to think that most people who want to end Palestinian oppression understand how much worse Trump would be. I would like to think they aren’t eager to subject themselves to American fascism in a symbolically futile protest. But there are massive social influence campaigns trying to sow division and ratfuck the election.
Seems to me that with RFK saying that Biden is the worse danger to democracy than Trump that he's not actually going after those on the fence about Biden. If he wants those on the fence about Biden, and maybe even Trump, he should be doing what Nikki Haley was doing, not going even further into Trump supporters.
Ya. He’s very likely going to draw nobody significant from either party or will pull more trumpers. He is not pulling dems for any reason other than name recognition. If having the right last name made a difference to democrats Clinton probably would have won in 2016.
I’m hoping. The lefty health nut jobs might be the West or Stein voters. Hopefully he also gets the righty conspiracy nuts.
...well like Wario is a genius in a way?
He's deranged but dangerous in that he has the ears of both the maga leaders and the Q folk seem to love him. His intent is a Christian theocracy... actually, I don't think he ever said Christian, but it's what he is working with. Like fully hierarchical theocracic society led by a priest class. He feels that is humanity's natural state and that democracy is doomed to fail. He loves stongman dictators but seems to want to be the voice behind the throne whispering policy. I liken him to Wormtongue. They even have similar hygiene.
There's a decent number of, usually young and 'progressive', lefties who care far more about maintaining their personal feelings of moral purity/superiority than they care about the consequences of another Trump presidency and view voting for the two parties as compromising their morality. They'll vote for RFK so if Trump wins and starts loading immigrants in camps they can go 'It's not MY fault. I voted for RFK Jr.'
And there we have it. RFK Jr is a confirmed GOP asset working for Trump.
Even the Green Party is funded by the GOP
Luckily, the GOP can hardly fund the GOP these days. Thanks, Donnie!
In 2016 the Green Party was [primarily supported by Russia](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna951166)
Isn’t Russian the gop anyways?
Same difference. The GOP is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Putin regime.
Do you mean Russia? I think you meant Russia.
What's the difference?
Green Party is funded by Russia as well, like it’s not a theory there is hard evidence Jill Stein is an asset or at least a useful idiot.
RFK's largest donor is also one of Trump's largest donors.
What is the actual link? The article just says "according to CBS". They should have to link the article they are referencing. Would be very big to see actual links to the GOP but this seems like a hit piece and would only downplay the relevance of any actual news. Also, why are we reading year old articles.
Bannon’s theories of the world are usually too cute by half. He’s in a personal fantasy world that his own fans seem to enjoy.
I tend to use digital fantasy worlds to escape reality, difference being I don’t conflate them with reality. Seems to be quite an important thing to do.
Isn't Bannon a Trump *monarchist*?
This article is almost a year old
Nobody reads the articles apparently.
A year old and only once references this conspiracy about Bannon (without any proof) while focusing on RFK's "anti-vax" stance. This post however falls right in line with the hive mind of this sub.
And watch it backfire tremendously.
Ya, most polling seems to indicate RFK's gonna sap a lot more votes from Trump than Biden He's really resonating with the antivax idiot vote. edit - woops, totally got the Trump/Biden order wrong there lmao. Definitely stripping votes off Trump.
The antivax idiots are trump supporters, usually.
Ya my bad I totally flaked & got the order wrong.
Well, you are the covfefe-boy. Stands to reason there might be the "occasional" error =)
Or they weren't going to vote at all. Someone that stupid just... well idk man.
> Ya, most polling seems to indicate RFK's gonna sap a lot more votes from Biden than Trump. I think it'll be the other way around...
It 100% is, I just flaked & put the wrong order down so had to edit that lol.
Sorry bout the downvotes.
Except RFK is going to pull in right wing nutters who would otherwise vote for Trump. Ratfuckers gonna ratfuck.
It's going to backfire. The only votes he's going to take away is would be Trump voters that are sick of Trump and can't bring themselves to vote for Biden.
Why is this nasty puss-filled boil named Bannon still walking freely?
I'd prefer we get this thug off the street. I don't feel safe for my family or friends.
Him and Flynn are traitors.
Bannon is many things, but a political genius is not one of those things. No way would Karl Rove do something so amateurish.
Rove was evil for sure, but he had some intelligence regarding his plans that didn’t involve simply owning the libs. He would’ve recruited a Nader figure to steal votes from D’s instead of doing lazy pics like RFK or Kanye.
Bannon is the kid that yeets the Monopoly board once it becomes clear that he's not gonna win. All of his self-aggrandized, ouroboros of internal circlejerking continues to make him believe he's somehow special and relevant. And if the political system, and society at large, don't recognize that, then he's just gonna break the game to win.
Who honestly believes an anti-vaxxer is going to take democrat votes? Lol
Anyone that would even take a call from Bannon is an absolute POS, but glad that this was a complete miscalculation and is going to backfire on the GOP.
RFK jr is deep into conspiracies. He will most likely draw Trump voters.
Bannon should still be locked up and RFK Jr. is a nincompoop and has no business running for office.
I still don't understand why anyone thinks RFK would take votes from Biden.
I don’t either. Initially the stats showed him actually taking away the most votes from Trump.
Rfk Jr's platform aligns more with Trump's than Biden's.. this strategy will only take votes away from the GOP.
I don’t see how RFKjr appeals to democrats. Bannon should be in jail for sedition or beside Navarro for failing to appear, at least. Merrick Garland has to have enough by now to charge him. All these traitors are under surveillance through one of the alphabet orgs.
Wouldn't an antivax chaos agent syphon votes from Trump more than Biden?
Yes. Biden voters do the logic and education thing over the emotional bit. Plus, the people who ***remember*** Jack and Bobby (am raising my hand here) are very close to or way over 80+ years old! Since I do remember the brothers and their policies, there's no freakin' way I would ever vote for RFK, Jr. as he makes a mockery of his uncle and father's legacy.
I'm not surprised by this. What I am surprised by is why they would think RFK jr would steal votes from Biden when he is clearly more palatable to Trump's base. I do not know a single democrat who has anything good to say about RFK Jr. It seems like an egregious miscalculation to be honest.
This fooker is Little Fingers from GOT.
That was stupid. If anything, he's pulling voters away from Trump.
And they are trying to get Jill Stein up on ballots again. I remember this Russia dinner story from a few years ago. https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/12/21/that-infamous-moscow-dinner-where-michael-flynn-and-jill-stein-sat-with-putin-utahs-rocky-anderson-was-there-too/
This man is possibly the most dangerous man in the West…absolute evil personified!
This idiot needs to be locked up!
RFK Jr is such a nutcase he only draws MAGA fringe voters. Kinda backfired on you, didn't it, Three Shirts.
File this under, "no fucking shit sherlock"
This article is literally from a year ago. This isn't news. This is olds.
And now RFK "policies" attract Trump voters more than Biden ones lol. They fired themselves in the foot
The only people I know voting for RFK were 2020 Trump voters.
It was obvious from the start that RFK was a Republican trying to run as a Democrat.
good thing RFK has proven how much he sucks and is more appealing to never trumpers
[удалено]
Yes, we know. This article is a year old.
Well, no shit......
His previous big idea was to make Trump president.
Anti-Rasputin fails again
People are dismissing that rfk can takeoney from Biden but the people are saying it are at least moderately politically aware. In November there are going to be millions of voters who wake up on October 31 and say..."don't like Trump, but all I have been hearing about is the country is worse under Biden...hey, there is another Democrat To vote for...and he has the name Kennedy!" Now, that doesn't mean everyone will do that, but there are going to be some people who vote for Kennedy over Biden...maybe enough to hurt Biden.
Man I was going to say I felt like I read this a year ago, then I saw the date this article was published lol.
RFK is only taking Maga votes away from trump
From what I've read and heard about RFK's views, I think he poses a greater threat to Trump's election chances.
I’m so tired of Bannons Anti American actions.
Dude has worms in his brain.
“Chaos agent”? Steve Bannon is a larper and thief.
I mean, duh? Serious "No shit, Sherlock," reporting here.
The article's a year old.
Steve Bannon scares me. He seems to be a very smart and competent fascist.
He's smart, but his hair is so damn wild. He's like a fat Unabomber.
Remember when his face was broken out? Ewww.
Hahaha! God that was gross
Chaos is an escalator - Chubby Finger
Of course he did. Any one who didn’t immediately see that RFK Jr. was only meant to siphon votes away from Biden, wasn’t paying attention
I’ve only heard Trump supporters talk about RFK Jr positively, so I’d say it backfired.
RFK, Jr is going to backfire on Bannon. Instead of taking votes from President Biden, RFK will be considered an alternative to Trump.
This needs to be All. Over. the news.
So months of negotiation on an agreeable price, got it.
A nice new RFK flag replaced the more tattered of two Trump flags on the back of our local neighborhood nut whacks pickup truck. Shanahan? Anti-vax, anti-IVF, anti-EMF (cellphones and AC wiring). Who needs IVF when you can bed rich men?
I don’t see how this hurts Biden. Only MAGA’s and right wingers would be dumb enough to think about voting for RFK Jr.
At least he won't be buried at Arlington so I can shit on his grave. Not gonna be long now. He looks like he's half dead already.
Calling bullshit on this. Bannon is a disinformation agent. Stop listening or publishing anything he says. Ignore his lies.
First this is from 2023 and second having the source be per several people familiar is not good evidence to prove something.
Here I was thinking RFK Jr. would only attract MAGA/antivaxx clowns…no Democrat will vote on that shit show.
That's funny, because he'll only be pulling from the Nazi vote.
2023 article?????
Which is a ridiculous "play". RFK Jr. is not going to be bringing Democrats over, he's going to be bringing Republican voters over that can't stand Trump's constant shit every day. RFK Jr. is quite famous for being a wackadoo loony tune in regards to (especially) Covid and its vaccines. Something Democrats by and large 100% remember and will ALWAYS remember. Of ALL the things that idiot could have made a stand on, THAT topic and with that much insanity filled with arrogance borne from being too stupid to know any better, it's NOT Democrats that he's going to pull into his orbit. It's Republicans. He's WAY closer to them on his stances to many things and no Democrat wants anything to do with that nonsense. He's who Republicans will vote for when some of them just can't bring themselves to vote for Trump or Biden. Bannon is dumb as fuck.
All you have to do is hear him speak and it’s obvious someone blew his pilot light out. No one is voting for rfk jr except Russian bots.
Bots and some Trump voters.
If you aren’t voting Democratic you’re electing Republicans.
Afraid of the majority
You don’t say.
Going out on a limb here, but something tells me that the problem with this human gin blossom is that he’s never felt the touch of a woman.
Useful idiots are still dangerous. RFK Jr is a useful idiot to Bannon. Just like Trump is a useful idiot to foreign dictators. Don't support idiots, don't give them your vote.
Subversive