April 12, 2023 - 7:15am
Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is polling at 10% among Democratic voters, a new Morning Consult Survey has found. A week after his campaign launch, the Democratic challenger has leapfrogged rival Marianne Williamson, who comes third with 4% support.
Respondents were asked to choose who out of three candidates — RFK Jr., Marianne Williamson, and Joe Biden — they would vote for if the Democratic presidential primary or caucus was held in their state today. The President is comfortably ahead of his two rivals, securing seven out of 10 primary voters even though he has yet to formally declare.
The nephew of former president John F. Kennedy, RFK Jr.’s name still carries a great deal of weight (particularly in Democratic circles), but his views on a range of issues — most notably on vaccinations — put him radically out of step with the Democratic base.
A long-time critic of vaccines, Kennedy’s attacks intensified during the Covid pandemic, with the former environmental lawyer even going so far as to draw a comparison between the Holocaust and Covid-19 regulations. Meanwhile, his anti-vaccine charity, Children’s Health Defense, flourished, with revenues more than doubling in 2020 to $6.8m, according to filings with charity regulators.
On other issues, too, RFK Jr’s worldview does not sit comfortably with the Democratic (or Republican) consensus. A long-time critic of US foreign policy, he has in recent weeks furthered his attacks on America’s ‘neocon strategy’ driven by Joe Biden and presidents before him. “Over the past decade, our country has spent trillions bombing roads, ports, bridges, and airports,” he tweeted. “China spent the equivalent building the same across the developing world. The Ukraine war is the final collapse of the Neocon’s short-lived “American Century”.
Elsewhere, he has become an unlikely advocate for Bitcoin, asserting that it gives “the public an escape route from the splatter zone when this bubble invariably bursts”. In the same tweet, he expressed fears about ‘FedNow’, a digital currency mooted by the Federal Reserve, warning that central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, are the “ultimate mechanisms for social surveillance and control”.
This strain of Left-libertarianism might be increasingly falling out of favour in the Democratic Party, but recent polling shows voters are not yet ready to dismiss Kennedy’s eclectic set of beliefs out of hand.
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SubscribeI’d vote for him if I were a US citizen. I don’t know his position on identity politics (probably more in favour than me), but he has had an amazing 40-year career as an environmental lawyer, as an environmental and human rights activist, and in fighting corporate-state corruption. His heart’s in the right place.
I don’t agree with the mercury in vaccines issue, but if you haven’t read his book on Fauci and Gates, it is worth it; read it as fiction if you like, but it is a pageturner. Don’t dismiss it unless you’ve read it.
A lot of the stuff RFK Jr has been attacked for saying has now entered the mainstream, and you’ll be hearing it from DeSantis, Ramaswamy and, less coherently, Trump too. Should keep the BBC’s misinformation expert busy 🙂
He won’t get anywhere near the White House, though; he is too dangerous to Pharma, and I’m sure the CIA doesn’t want him declassifying files on his father and uncle.
Last week or so I did toss $100 into the campaign bucket … more as a demonstration of support to the campaign.
RFK Jr. has more confidence in government than I do to solve (manufactured) problems, I hope that campaign is serious in that, at the very least, it could make the Democrats face up to the “eclectic” set of issues that the leadership has assiduously avoided.
Last week or so I did toss $100 into the campaign bucket … more as a demonstration of support to the campaign.
RFK Jr. has more confidence in government than I do to solve (manufactured) problems, I hope that campaign is serious in that, at the very least, it could make the Democrats face up to the “eclectic” set of issues that the leadership has assiduously avoided.
I’d vote for him if I were a US citizen. I don’t know his position on identity politics (probably more in favour than me), but he has had an amazing 40-year career as an environmental lawyer, as an environmental and human rights activist, and in fighting corporate-state corruption. His heart’s in the right place.
I don’t agree with the mercury in vaccines issue, but if you haven’t read his book on Fauci and Gates, it is worth it; read it as fiction if you like, but it is a pageturner. Don’t dismiss it unless you’ve read it.
A lot of the stuff RFK Jr has been attacked for saying has now entered the mainstream, and you’ll be hearing it from DeSantis, Ramaswamy and, less coherently, Trump too. Should keep the BBC’s misinformation expert busy 🙂
He won’t get anywhere near the White House, though; he is too dangerous to Pharma, and I’m sure the CIA doesn’t want him declassifying files on his father and uncle.
As a Brit living in the US for 18 years I have never wanted to apply for citizenship, which would entitle me to vote. Always been content as a green card holder but I will apply to vote for this man.
‘He will be maligned but my god, he is right on so many issues and will be a breath of fresh air compared to the usual crowd we see in DC.
As a Brit living in the US for 18 years I have never wanted to apply for citizenship, which would entitle me to vote. Always been content as a green card holder but I will apply to vote for this man.
‘He will be maligned but my god, he is right on so many issues and will be a breath of fresh air compared to the usual crowd we see in DC.
Not many people will have read every word of his book ‘The Real Anthony Fauci’ (and researched many of the large number of sources to which he refers as evidence). If another 10% of voters read it, he’d suddenly have the support of 20% of voters. If a further 10% read it, he’d have 30% of the vote. And so on. Vote RF Kennedy. I don’t agree with everything he’s ever said, but I do agree with about 95% – which is enough, right? You’ll probably feel the same way.
Not many people will have read every word of his book ‘The Real Anthony Fauci’ (and researched many of the large number of sources to which he refers as evidence). If another 10% of voters read it, he’d suddenly have the support of 20% of voters. If a further 10% read it, he’d have 30% of the vote. And so on. Vote RF Kennedy. I don’t agree with everything he’s ever said, but I do agree with about 95% – which is enough, right? You’ll probably feel the same way.
This is not surprising, at all.
For one, the Dems appear to have gone insane, and are not taking their base with them, so for ‘normie’ Dem voters the announcement that Joe Biden will run again is alarming and concerning.
For two, look at the uptake for the latest booster. It’s sub 20%. Even if those ‘boosters’ are all Democrat voters (which is unlikely), the math indicates that the mainstream view is now sceptical re the efficacy and necessity of these products.
As such, the new ‘fringe’, if you will (of both sides of politics) will be a significant cohort of people who go one step further and think these products are harmful. At the same time as this shift has occurred in the voter base, neither party has pivoted their rhetoric in any way to reflect the move the public are making.
So the public will naturally pool around candidates, even extreme ‘outsiders’, that speak to their views on this. Pretty simple.
If the R’s and D’s had any common sense, they’d start to pivot, or at least allow certain voices within their parties to raise these topics and mop up the votes. But neither has been willing / intelligent enough to grasp the obvious opportunity. Hence RFK Jnr polling well.
This is not surprising, at all.
For one, the Dems appear to have gone insane, and are not taking their base with them, so for ‘normie’ Dem voters the announcement that Joe Biden will run again is alarming and concerning.
For two, look at the uptake for the latest booster. It’s sub 20%. Even if those ‘boosters’ are all Democrat voters (which is unlikely), the math indicates that the mainstream view is now sceptical re the efficacy and necessity of these products.
As such, the new ‘fringe’, if you will (of both sides of politics) will be a significant cohort of people who go one step further and think these products are harmful. At the same time as this shift has occurred in the voter base, neither party has pivoted their rhetoric in any way to reflect the move the public are making.
So the public will naturally pool around candidates, even extreme ‘outsiders’, that speak to their views on this. Pretty simple.
If the R’s and D’s had any common sense, they’d start to pivot, or at least allow certain voices within their parties to raise these topics and mop up the votes. But neither has been willing / intelligent enough to grasp the obvious opportunity. Hence RFK Jnr polling well.
At this point, I don’t give a damn what you are, as long as you’re anti-war.
At this point, I don’t give a damn what you are, as long as you’re anti-war.
He has no chance, and even if he did, the neocons know how to deal with the Kennedys
It’s true he’s got no chances, but as you can imagine, any kind of traction in a campaign can bring attention to important issues. That’s probably his true aim and more power to him!
All he really has to do is get on the debate stage
It’s true he’s got no chances, but as you can imagine, any kind of traction in a campaign can bring attention to important issues. That’s probably his true aim and more power to him!
All he really has to do is get on the debate stage
He has no chance, and even if he did, the neocons know how to deal with the Kennedys
How can Biden be comfortably ahead?!
It’s like Weekend at Bernie’s.
Are things that bad within the Democratic Party?
Even worse..!
Even worse..!
How can Biden be comfortably ahead?!
It’s like Weekend at Bernie’s.
Are things that bad within the Democratic Party?