this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024
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In his speech on Friday, Mr. Kennedy implied that Mr. Trump had offered him a role in his second administration, dealing with health care and food and drug policy. “We’re going to reform the entire food system,” he said.

It's worth noting that Kennedy's health care policy is to bring back measles, that he eats roadkill, and had part of his brain eaten by a worm as a result.

Additional context about this campaign

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[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 159 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

"Oh fuck I'm spoiling the wrong voters"

[–] MajinBlayze@lemmy.world 96 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

The fact the GOP backed him thinking he'd pull voters from Democrats shows just how out of touch the GOP has gotten

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 52 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (7 children)

Well, if you go strictly based off his positions on paper, or as posted on his website, he hits all the "progressive" points that would seem very attractive to a progressive independent or some more left democrats. Its a legit honest mistake to think he might be fairly left, based off when I was researching him a bit.

But every time he opens his mouth in front of a camera it's the most asinine right wing brain worm vomit you've ever heard, and I think they figured that out a little too late.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I mean, apparently he was a pretty good dude and an environmentalist for a long time.

Then around the time he got a worm in his brain, he just went bat shit crazy for some weird reason...

[–] bcgm3@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

I'm imagining Ratatouille, only it's an anthropomorphized worm steering RFK Jr around by chomping on different parts of his brain. I want to say the worm would be voiced by David Cross. It's almost making this bizarre timeline a little easier to process.

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[–] MajinBlayze@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe, but every time he speaks it's all conspiracy theory shit: anti-vax, etc.

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[–] chakan2@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Uh...no...he was very pro gun. He was liberal on like one or two issues, but most of his policies were straight up Republican.

I wanted to like the guy as a viable alternative to Biden, but he was hard right on too many issues.

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[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I'm a little confused why they wouldn't have him endorse Kamala instead if he was supposed to be a spoiler.

[–] MajinBlayze@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm not sure I follow;

If his goal was to pull voters away from Kamala, why would he endorse her?

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[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

With Kennedy out of the race, that frees up more of the oligarch money to bolster the Jill Stein and Cornel West campaigns instead.

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

So can you straighten this up for me? Because it's not clear right now.

Is Cornel West actually running? As in, does he think he's running for office?

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yes, Cornel West is campaigning as an independent. Here's his website if you want to learn more about his platform.

Based on his stated policies, he'll attract more leftist voters away from the Harris campaign as a spoiler candidate, whereas Kennedy was the "centrist" option who ended up pulling away more non-MAGA Republicans than he did conservative Democrats.

West's calls to disband NATO and end US involvement in Ukraine also makes him a favorable option for Russia.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

West is also not on the ballot in most states:

In point of fact, he's on the ballot in few enough states that he can't achieve more than be a spoiler in Georgia.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago

he can’t achieve more than be a spoiler in Georgia.

Yeah, but that alone is a big fucking problem (I say as a Georgian, and especially one who has been trying to raise the alarm about the MAGA sabotage being perpetrated in my state). Having a spoiler candidate on the ballot only makes it even more likely that the MAGAs find some excuse to refuse to certify.

[–] gdog05@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

It doesn't seem to matter. Russia is running on behalf of he and Stein.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

He was running with People's Party, then tried to run with Green Party, and is now running as an independent.

[–] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 90 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

What the fuck. I want the road kill eating dude the fuck away from my food.

[–] snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world 33 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

VOTE! Bring your friends too!

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[–] 58008@lemmy.world 78 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

In his speech on Friday, Mr. Kennedy implied that Mr. Trump had offered him a role in his second administration, dealing with health care and food and drug policy. “We’re going to reform the entire food system,” he said.

This might just be the single most frightening thing I've ever heard from a US politician. RFK Jr. getting that job in a Trump 2.0 administration would be catastrophic.

[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Minister of health.

[–] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 68 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

And there you have the proof that all his "alternative to both Biden and Trump" was bullshit. He was only ever a spoiler for Democrats, so he's dropping out because they realized he was taking more votes from Trump. Those guys just can't do anything on the level.

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 weeks ago

last Saturday I was walking through the park and saw a boomer wearing a giant "I'm voting for RFK ask me why" t-shirt.

kinda wish I had now.

[–] zcd@lemmy.ca 63 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The brain worm has obviously been running the show for quite a while

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[–] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 48 points 2 weeks ago
[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 48 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

...he felt compelled to help Mr. Trump over support for policy positions he holds dear, including diminishing America’s military presence overseas and an overhaul of the country’s public health system.

Read: he wants to withdraw support to Ukraine and strip away the Affordable Care Act so we can go back to your insurance company denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

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[–] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 39 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

He was always an endorsement for Trump.

[–] whereisk@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

He run as a spoiler to democrats but it turns out polling indicated he ate more votes from anti-vaxer republicans so he had to be folded in.

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[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 34 points 2 weeks ago

Anti-vaxxers are the absolute shittiest people.

[–] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 33 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"I will endorse whichever candidate offers me a job" has to be the least persuasive political "endorsement" ever.

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[–] RangerJosie@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"Independent"

Uh huh. Sure.

[–] blarth@thelemmy.club 6 points 2 weeks ago

Independent as my boomer dad who loves to poke fun at Biden and assures me everything Trump did was fine.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago

The latest bad decision from a guy who admits he eats roadkill...

[–] DogPeePoo@lemm.ee 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

RFK, Musk, and Trump all with bigly ties to Epstein.

Kompromat being held over all three with Putin directing their agenda and associated political maneuvers.

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[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

This is the funniest sad shit I've seen all day

[–] pastabatman@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago

So heartwarming that these two excessively weird old men managed to find each other ❤️

[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

RFK voters are an odd bunch, but I don't know how many of his voters are realistically going to vote for Trump. I feel like he's still pretty toxic to them.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

Just start spreading the rumor that if you write in some sov-cit ass "I hereby blah blah blah RFK Jr!" on their ballot it will some how work and he'll magically take power.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 weeks ago

Makes sense. brainworms was supposed to be a spoiler for Biden but barely was doing well at that. In large part because the only people parroting the "He is actually really smart" are chuds like joe rogan anyway. So all he was doing was hurting trump.

Real question is if the rumors of him replacing vance are true... and if swapping out couchfucker actually WOULD invalidate trump on a lot of state ballots.

[–] numlok@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Thus proving true the recent adage, "A vote for Kennedy is a vote for Trump".

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Watching from abroad, it's amazing to me that this guy has the slightest relevance or following.

Although, thinking of it, the same could be said about Trump (with the difference tha he's backed by a party).

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] citrusface@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

isnt tht how you you get brain worms?

[–] citrusface@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 9 points 2 weeks ago

Very common issue with bear. From The Joy Of Cooking

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[–] 800XL@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Never saw ol' worm brain's bid for President as anything other than a thinly-veiled attempt to take centrist votes from Biden.

I am curious to see if the houses I see with Kennedy signs replace those signs with Trump signs tho.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm not too worried about this, tbh. I think the people that RFK attracted post-Kamala really aren't likely to vote for Trump or Harris anyway. They'll likely either stay home, vote libertarian, or write in Vermin Supreme

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 6 points 2 weeks ago

It's definitely a small difference — something like 0.2% to 0.4% — but that's enough to be important in a close race like this one.

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[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 weeks ago

Can we have all these rfks and trumps on the TV, in the ballpit, far from grownup politics, so we can enjoy them rambling batshit insane stuff without any risks?

[–] snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

This should help steer some votes for Kamala me hopes.

[–] Silverseren@fedia.io 5 points 2 weeks ago

It's funny that any time he speaks about policies he supposedly supports, we just instantly know that his position is completely vacuous and it's entirely about how much power and prestige he is given. He doesn't care about any of the issues, just about himself.

Which makes him a very good match for Trump, I suppose. I wonder if they'll butt heads because of that.

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