Kennedy used to be an environmentalist. His current positions on the environment are more libertarian, since he doesn't believe in cutting greenhouse gasses through regulation or jump-starting green energy with subsidies. He wants to let the market work its “wonders.”
He's also a crypto fan, which generates about 23 metric tons of CO2 annually.
@TonyStark
First heard of Kennedy Jr when he was with Riverkeeper in NY. Didn't follow his career closely, knew enough to have a lot of respect for him.
Something happened 20 yrs ago. I was stunned to see him go down the anti vax rabbit hole.
He's had a lot of trauma in his life, losing 2 young brothers to overdose and accident, assassination of his father and uncle, the suicide of his wife. He was a heroin addict as young man.
Not excusing his behavior, wondering if he cracked. Should quit.
@Barbramon1 I first started paying attention to him when Air America launched and he co-hosted “Ring of Fire.” I lived at the time in their listening area, NYC and surrounding.
He had a good sense of things at the time although I didn’t always agree with him but I don’t expect to agree with everything everyone says.
But then the anti-vaccine stuff started and I was out as was the show. Add that to his many other problems and that he’s not qualified. He shouldn’t be drawing left voters.
@TonyStark Absolutely not presidential material. And no, he should not be attracting voters from the left, but some are rabid Biden haters, and he may win their protest vote.
Spoilers like Kennedy have never, to my knowledge, helped Dems in Presidential elections. Leftists deny that Nader cost Gore the 2000 election, but personally I will never forgive him.
@Barbramon1@TonyStark But if they’re rabid Biden haters, they weren’t going to vote for him anyway, right? So if anything, Kennedy’s not really drawing votes from anyone.
@dogzilla@Barbramon1 In a swing state, a few people who could be swayed by a false independent statement choice could definitely swing an election to Trump.
@TonyStark@Barbramon1 Well, agreed, but it somewhat counters the basic premise of why they’d choose Kennedy over Biden. DeSantis’ campaign showed that there just isn’t that much to draw on in terms of third-candidate support. Unclear to me why we’d expect Kennedy to be any more successful than DeSantis or any other non-Trump Republican was, or how Biden’s strategy would change. Seems the best approach is still reducing Trump’s core draw
@TonyStark@Barbramon1 No, he wasn’t, but it’s much easier to draw votes as a D or R than an I, in every measurable way. His (very famous) family is publicly endorsing the opposition. He’ll only be on the ballot in two or three states.
I get it - the stakes are high. But too much pessimism will kill your chances just as much as too much optimism. Given what we currently know, Kennedy isn’t a realistic threat to Biden or Trump.
@TonyStark@Barbramon1 Well, you’re posing the thesis that Kennedy is a realistic threat to Biden’s campaign by cherry-picking information that supports that while ignoring all the massive challenges Kennedy faces in actually having that effect.
I have no idea what this account was telling me about cherry picking whatever and I don’t really care to interact with them anymore. This is a valid conversation about a person running for President and this account’s need to try and shut it down has left me very suspicious.
@TonyStark@Barbramon1 That’s certainly possible, but increasingly unlikely given current trends. Of course, we’re still 6 months out from the election, which is a ridiculously long time in a political campaign
It’s a dead heat right now, but current trends show that gap widening. That said, likely voter polls 6 months out from an election are kinda pointless for anything but getting clicks and selling ads
@dogzilla@Barbramon1 I’m not interested in arguing with you as I like you but I’m not talking about polls. I’m talking about voters on the ground I talk to in a swing state. There’s a handful of states that will decide the Presidential election, as I’m sure you are aware.
@Barbramon1 Had Nader not pursued an unwinnable candidacy, there may have been no Bush II and his neocons, no Iraq war, nor possibly even a 2007-8 economic meltdown preceded by 8 years of deregulation. Deaths would have been avoided. Collective wealth would have propagated domestically. The path to a balanced budget we were on would have been followed. Attempts to privatize New Deal programs would never have been made. The arc of history would have been altered almost certainly for the better.
@TonyStark@Barbramon1
Not to mention that had Al Gore been POTUS we would not be in a climate crisis now either since we would have started decarbonizing back before the rapid warmth we've seen since 2010.
@TonyStark I have thought a lot about that over the years. That election was a major fork in the road of US history. As political as I am I could have never predicted the long term consequences of heading down that particular path.
@TonyStark@Barbramon1
RFKJr's journal of adultery that may have contributed to his wife's suicide is enough to keep all sane leftists from giving him any support in my opinion.
Plus, there are of course many other reasons to not support him.
@TonyStark@Barbramon1
He had a meeting with the entire Kennedy clan just last week is when this picture was taken. He shared a video of many of them endorsing him as well.
I saw one of RFKJr's brother knocking on doors for Joe Biden.
@TonyStark Kennedy is a moron, a shill for his oligarch beneficiaries, or both.
I love the free market, but it does create an incentive to pollute.
Pollution mitigation costs the specific company on it's bottom line. Pollution spreads that cost to society at large, costing all of us while the specific polluter saves by not having mitigation costs.
Pollution is a market failure. Left to their own devices, no company would mitigate pollution beyond cheap, half-baked solutions for PR purposes.
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