The Democrat Party has yet to find a solution to its RFK Jr. problem. The party’s initial impulse, as it always is with any uncomfortable figure outside of the establishment, was to ignore him. But he’s doing too well in polling and finding too much of an outlet in grassroots conservative media to effectively sideline through silence alone.
So they moved on to predictable smears about him being an “anti-vaxxer,” conspiracy theorist, “fringe” candidate, “vanity” candidate, etc. Failing that, drawing from the “bigot” well, they smeared him as an “antisemite” on the dubious grounds of comparing the brutal U.S. lockdown to the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Maybe undue comparisons to fascist genocides are overwrought and in poor taste, but comparing authoritarian policies to the Third Reich is commonplace in political rhetoric and certainly not antisemitic.
Now, as I covered yesterday, the corporate state media is trying out a new line of attack: targeting his popular Hollywood-favored actress wife to divide his marriage and potentially recruit her to the opposition.
They’ve really been pulling out the big guns quite early in the primary season relative to how they’ve approached other challengers to the neoliberal cult. They waited, for instance, to open up on Bernie Sanders until immediately before the primary season. They didn’t even coalesce around Biden and force all of the other mainstream candidates like Buttigieg, Klobuchar, et al., out to defeat Bernie until after primary voting had begun.
RFK Jr. has the establishment rocked in a way that I’ve never seen on the Democrat side of the aisle and not on the Republican side since Trump.
Related: Corporate State Media Targets RFK Jr.’s Wife
Via The Hill, June 7:
“Democrats are growing concerned that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s profile is rising just as President Biden embarks on a challenging campaign to keep the White House out of Republican control.
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine proponent who launched a primary bid against Biden this spring, is doing unexpectedly well in some polls and receiving increasing media attention as a result. He has also been on a press tour this week that included a Twitter Spaces discussion with Elon Musk and digital town hall with journalist Michael Smerconish.
Democrats widely consider Kennedy to be a problematic fringe candidate who freely spreads conspiracy theories. But his relatively decent poll numbers, as well as his media-ready image as an heir to the famous political dynasty, have caused some to worry he could gain steam and potentially distract from the task of reelecting Biden in 2024…
Kennedy has indeed stirred up some untapped anger within his own party; Democrats have seen him rise to double digits in several recent polls…
Democrats have mostly waved off Kennedy’s campaign as a mere distraction. In recent days, however, some have become more upset and outright dismissive about his fondness for espousing theories about politics and science without credible evidence.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is able to generate media attention and a certain bit of curiosity because of his name. Otherwise he’s a gadfly and a laughingstock,” said Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way.”
Some goon from the neoliberal think tank Third Way — which regularly champions Hillary Clinton knockoff candidates — calling RFK Jr.’s candidacy “laughable” is hypocrisy personified. If it were laughable, they’d be laughing and not panicking behind the scenes, plotting ways to assassinate his character.
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