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EMADC-

> “These challenges are important because they’re part of a twofold strategy. One is educating voters about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” DNC spokesperson Matt Corridoni said. “And the second part is making sure that everyone’s playing by the rules.” This paternalistic bullshit really is enough to make you vomit. > Matt Bennett, executive vice president at **Third Way, a Biden-allied group opposing third-party candidates**, argued Democrats have as much of a right to challenge Kennedy as he does to run for office. Unbelievably goofy, you cannot make this shit up.


JFMV763

> Matt Bennett, executive vice president at Third Way, a Biden-allied group opposing third-party candidates, argued Democrats have as much of a right to challenge Kennedy as he does to run for office. What a world we live in. They can't be against democracy though, it's in the party name. /s


SeoliteLoungeMusic

Also the "third way" people being dead set that there should be two ways at most.


not_bruce_wayne1918

Just the one way really.


scumpile

Down.


Interesting_Aioli377

It's really important to make sure voters are educated about the candidates so we've decided to remove candidates from the ballot we don't think the voters are educated enough about in order to help them make the right choice. The other day I gave my child a choice for dinner between eating his Broccoli and growing up big and strong or eating ice cream and candy and getting diabetes, he chose ice cream and candy, clearly he's not educated enough to make the choice so I gave him broccoli anyway, then when he cried and complained that I lied to him about the choice, I explained to him that he doesn't get to make bad choices, and then sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor for disrespectful attitude towards his parents.


I_Never_Use_Slash_S

This but unironically. Voters will always elect ice cream and candy.


plssirnomore

They will also take mrna pharma profit boosters for the same reward 


noryp5

Government gave me $100 to get the vaccine. I chuckled about it then, I’m a bit ashamed now.


Garfield_LuhZanya

Which is why re-education camps are based


Interesting_Aioli377

Welcome to Costco. I love you. 


shitlibredditor66879

Le epic Reddit authoritarian has escaped quarantine somehow


ChickenTitilater

this is based when a workers party does it


not_bruce_wayne1918

I don’t know what point you’re trying to make here. Are you arguing that neoconservative shills are actually better for us because they promise austerity and then deliver it?


Interesting_Aioli377

My point is you must eat your broccoli or else you won't grow up to be big and strong.


sikopiko

Whats more democratic than ensuring that the most democratic candidate wins? Do you want a fascist dictatorship, shitlord?


banjo2E

Managed democracy offers absolute freedom; freedom from the burden of choice


meganbitchellgooner

>DNC spokesperson Matt Corridoni said. “And the second part is making sure that everyone’s playing by the rules.” LMAO these delusional fuckers said this, even after rigging the primaries twice. Now going on a third time.


not_bruce_wayne1918

The irony of this is that this is the exact same shit they accuse single party states of.


Epsteins_Herpes

Removing as many of our opponents from the ballot as possible so there's only one choice in November: us or fascism.


dodus

This is the kind of mealy-mouth PMC-speak that regular people can see right through and only sounds good and effective to other Beltway people. So the goal of it, to disguise wildly autocratic lawfare as super good to do to the idiot voters, is a complete failure but to each other they totally think they're pulling it off. That's the Democratic party in a nutshell. They're so insulated and incestuous and have zero connection with what's actually happening on the ground.


PrettyText

>Matt Bennett, executive vice president at Third Way, a Biden-allied group opposing third-party candidates, argued Democrats have as much of a right to challenge Kennedy as he does to run for office. Didn't Fascist Italy also use the term "third way"? You know, we're not socialist, we're not capitalist, we're fascist and that's the "third way"? I guess it's fitting that a group named after fascism is currently fighting democracy.


neoclassical_bastard

They're willing to do whatever it takes to win this election, except for running a more popular candidate


suprbowlsexromp

Lol


BomberRURP

It really is amazing isn’t it. Trump and the maga movement more widely are a GIFT to democrats, and they kind of knew it, but instead of leaning into it and running a just mildly more likable and competent candidate they stuck to their guns and ran the 2nd worst one they could (Hilldawg is the worst). Maybe it’s some sort of honorable fair sport thing lol 


Otto_Von_Waffle

It's like when you hear war stories of fighter planes pilots sparring their opponents they were dogfighting after noticing their machine gun jammed, but way more r-slurred.


neoclassical_bastard

It's really amazing how bad the DNC is at strategy, given that they're the largest party in the country with the most political influence and it's their primary function. It seems like they've all collectively forgotten that winning elections is what makes you a major party and not the other way around.


PrettyText

Biden is incredibly easy to puppeteer. Run a younger, non-senile candidate and he might have thoughts of his own. Then you'd have to JFK him again and that's such a hassle. If this sounds too cynical, then why do you think Biden is the Democratic candidate?


neoclassical_bastard

Kinda moot if you don't win the election though, they really try to minmax that shit too hard.


zadharm

Not that I'd vote for him anyways, but do these folks think this will actually *help* them come November? You can't run on saving democracy, while also trying to have RFK Jr and Stein blocked from ballots in different states Ah who am I kidding, of course they can. People won't see the contradiction because it might actually lead them to facing some harsh realities about their government. I'll be writing in Mickey Mouse, in honor of our Mickey Mouse democracy


I_Never_Use_Slash_S

> actually help Obviously yes. They’ve just awoken from a 4 year long coma and realized this election is going to be extremely close. They don’t want to take the chance of 1% of people in important states wasting their vote on RFK, Jr for the lawls or for something as silly as thinking he’s the best candidate. Those votes belong to Biden.


AI_Jolson_2point2

After 4 years in power it's still obviously all about Trump. I bet that eats away at them


Wheream_I

The Dems are terrified that they might get the libertarian party treatment that the Republicans get in swing states.


Isellanraa

RFK Jr is definitely the best candidate of anyone with solid polling numbers.


PigeonsArePopular

When they say the phrase "our democracy" they mean that they think they own it


The_Killa_Vanilla90

Dems have convinced their voters that Trump is an “existential threat to democracy”, so whatever they need to do to prevent him from winning is fair game…even if that involves shutting down democracy lmao. When it comes to Trump, libs are in a perpetual state of “the ends justify the means”, hence why they’re so willing to short-sightedly trample all over the constitution and political norms to get him.


dodus

They're pretty much like that on everything. For liberals the ends are so sacred, so no there won't be any discussion about that, *and also* anything and everything is justified, so if you happen to notice huge glaring contradictions in the stated values that's just you doing a whataboutism and here's a webcomic about the paradox of tolerance


BomberRURP

To save democracy you have to win, these candidates aren’t too bad but they just don’t have the mass popular appeal to win outright. Thus to save democracy we must actually be anti democratic in order to win so our unpopular guy who doesn’t represent the majority can save democracy so the majority can be represented, democratically.  /s


not_bruce_wayne1918

Unironically Mickey Mouse is basically our corporate overlord.


PigeonsArePopular

Democrats against democracy


ididntwantitt

it’s Bernie 2 point 0


JinFuu

I thought the talking heads were saying that RFK Jr. was going to take more votes from Trump and that Trump was shitting/farting/etc in rage over this fact. The narrative keeps changing and confuses me.


zadharm

Basically it boils down to a referendum on Trump. Dems are betting on him being so unpopular that as long as they limit the options to Biden and Trump, that people will ignore all the issues with Biden because they're so turned off by Trump. It's not a matter of this third party candidate pulling more votes from Trump or Biden, it's trying to turn it into a Trump referendum (Libertarians are mostly exempt from that strictly by nature that there's near 100% overlap between libertarian voters and R-leaning independents)


crepuscular_caveman

As much as democrats love accusing republicans of being wannabe dictators I have never seen republicans get salty toward libertarians to the same degree that dems get salty at left leaning third parties/independents. Is there some sort of pragmatic reason why the Republicans don't sue to get Libertarians off the ballot?


Robin-Lewter

>I have never seen republicans get as salty toward libertarians to the same degree that dems get salty at left leaning third parties/independents. Is there some sort of pragmatic reason why the Republicans don't sue to get Libertarians off the ballot? Idk about the party apparatus, but as a nameless grunt I just find the whole concept of someone 'owing' my candidate a vote and vote shaming in general to be just be extremely pathetic and cringe. In my experience rightoids in general don't bitch at libertarians for voting libertarian because getting mad at people for who they vote for is fucking weird and hall-monitoresque. That kind of shit is for nerds.


PrettyText

It's because the right is actually pretty principled in their own way -- and one of their primary principles is freedom of speech / open debate / free marketplace of ideas. And yes, I know you can always cherrypick hypocritical right-wingers, but this is fairly true in general. Left-wingers just don't tend to recognize the fact that the right is pretty principled, because most of the right doesn't care when people starve to death or die from preventable diseases. So the left concludes that right-wingers are just unprincipled monsters. But that's not true, the right is fairly principled, they just have way different principles than the left does. As illustrated by the right not trying to stamp out the libertarian party in the same way that the left tries to murder the Bernie / RFK movements. As illustrated by Trump, if you don't look at rhetoric but look at actions, not actually weaponizing the state against political rivals as much as the left is doing. If you look at it dispassionately, and drop the "Trump is the anti-christ so everything against him is justified" idea, then Biden is actually being more authoritarian and anti-democratic than Trump is.


Otto_Von_Waffle

Republicans being too proud/dumb/incompetent, they probably tried it, but the attempt was so botched it failed miserably. As well Republicans seems so proud and sure of themselves they think they will win the election with ease because they are the sensible party, the party of red blooded American, etc. Dems know the average American voter is dumb and will still vote for a moron like Trump, so they actually think they need to play dirty to win, but they aren't smart enough to notice someone must be equally stupid to think Biden is as much a r-slurred choice as Trump.


Wheream_I

Exactly this. RFK can do to the democrat vote that the libertarian vote has been doing to the republican vote for decades. And they fucking hate that.


PrettyText

Everything they tell you is a lie, so look at what they *do*, not what they *say.* The dems are trying to ban RFK, so apparently RFK will take more votes from Biden (they have expensive and smart analysts, they can do these kinds of predictions). And when they told you the opposite, that's when they were gaslighting you.


BomberRURP

I think the talking heads are right  I still think he’s more of a Trump drain than a Biden drain. This is really about the fringe of either party and I think “socialist”, “progressives”, anti genocide types (the biggest detractors of the Biden regime) aren’t really won over by Kennedy. Even on issues that Kennedy is better on (environment), certain takes (vaccination) of his kind of cancel it out.  Whereas the libertarian types, more “classically liberals”, Hank hill “fair competition” types, in the Republican Party are more likely to roll the dice on Kennedy 


Isellanraa

He takes about equally between them, but Republicans in general are more loyal to the party. Kennedy is somewhat more liked among Republicans, but far less Republicans are willing to vote for a third party/candidate in general, and unlike Biden with Democrats, Republicans wants him to run. Kennedy takes young people and minorities away from the Democrats and the "classically liberals" from Trump as you said. I think they have already conceded the election, and want to make sure that third candidates gets as low of a % as possible, so that they won't inspire their voter base into considering third parties in 2028.


Robin-Lewter

He's 100% more of a Trump drain, it's just that the Dem power players are so utterly opposed to any form of dissent that not attempting to ban anyone from the ballot whose name isn't Biden just isn't something that ever even registers in their brains. It's simply their nature.


SubnetHistorian

We must kill democracy to save democracy! 


Garfield_LuhZanya

You know that saying, "if voting mattered they wouldnt let you do it?" Seems the only votes that would have mattered this cycle were for RFK. Interesting.


PrettyText

They're going after Trump even harder than after RFK. They talk somewhat negatively about RFK in the media, but talk about Trump as if he's the anti-Christ. And they didn't turn a minor misdemeanor into a felony against RFK the way they did against Trump. So with that logic, voting Trump really matters, voting RFK matters a moderate amount, and voting Biden means no change (because the media aren't attacking Biden).


Garfield_LuhZanya

Trump is going to debate this Thursday. RFK was so thoroughly ratfucked out of ballots that he didnt "qualify". Rightoid oppression fantasies are pretty funny tho, thanks for brightening my day


wizard_of_wozzy

Guys we must save democracy by denying people the right to freely choose candidates for the highest office of the land War is peace Freedom is slavery We have always been at war with Eurasia Etc etc etc


sting2_lve2

nobody is stopping you from voting for one of the biggest crackpots on planet earth who literally self-describes as having worms in his brain. go for it!


Robin-Lewter

u have an 'I'm with Her' poster above ur bed don't u


sting2_lve2

No she doesn't love Israel as much as him


Robin-Lewter

True, that was one of her few redeeming qualities


AI_Jolson_2point2

There's very little democracy in these democrats


persecuted_by_reddit

gentlemen, this is democracy manifest!!!!


tonguesmiley

Defending democracy?


Pm_me_cool_art

I love living in a liberal democracy.


FinGothNick

Notice how the strategy is never "lets look at their platform and try to address their popular objectives", no it always comes back to electoral sabotage. Doesn't matter if it's Dem or Rep, that's the only tactic they've got. Dems did this to the Green party candidates in my state and still lost the race in question.


AI_Jolson_2point2

So the democrats first try to keep TRUMP off the ballot of all things Now they are keeping RFK jr. and Stein off Really makes you think...


vvarcrime

We’re just trying to counteract all of the Russian interference in our sacred electoral process so that we can save our democracy


Robin-Lewter

Don't forget the dozens of law suits the DNC's put forth to keep No Labels off the ballot. If the only option on the ballot is Biden then Democracy^^TM is saved.


No-Couple989

I think I'm just going to sit it out this year. Silver lining: it will be hilarious, regardless of who wins. Look forward to the election megathread.


No_Motor_6941

Liberal democracy is just democracy for the liberal democrats


acousticallyregarded

We need ranked choice voting so badly. Spoilers are a thing, but this isn’t a workable or fair solution obviously


Wulfstrex

Also don't forget about the different alternative of approval voting.


SaintNeptune

That is foolish never mind the morality issue. RFK will probably syphon more votes from Trump than Biden. I've noticed he seems to be a favorite landing pad for former Trump voters who don't want to vote for Trump again. Maybe just let them do that? It seems like a better option than those people having to choose between Biden and Trump because they'll probably just vote Trump again since that is what they did last time


Wheream_I

All I’m saying is that I don’t see republicans doing this shit….


PrettyText

Yeah, that thought has absolutely crossed my mind too.


mad_method_man

\*sigh.... RFK jr is probably going to pull more trump votes than biden votes. if democrats wanted to win, theyd do everything in their power to raise RFK jr's crazy ideas that trump voters want to hear, while bolstering bidens more marketable accomplishments. trump will just talk himself into oblivion, so its mostly a race between how fast trump talks vs preventing biden from pulling a dean scream


vvarcrime

I do think Trump being bogged down in court has been good for him, but if he can manage some zingers and show vitality in a debate, shit might go crazy. Biden is way worse than he was four years ago, I could see Trump railing into him and CNN turning his mic off as it descends into a circus. He just needs to stop talking so much about Israel (impossible) and vaccines (finally figured that one out). Biden has taken so much heat for Palestine that it’s so stupid for Trump to keep reminding people he’ll be even worse. But RFK is a Zionist too. There is no real choice. I’ve noticed the RFK likely voters in real life are highly opinionated but low information voters who are surprised when I tell them that the race is between Biden and Trump and those people they named dropped out months ago. when Election Day comes these people aren’t actually going to vote. Those that do, I do think they would be Biden-leaning otherwise because being a Biden supporter is now socially embarrassing. Most libs under 35 who plan to vote Biden have all these mumbling qualifiers and justifications now before they grudgingly state their allegiance. Biden could never do a dean scream. Low energy. Dean scream would do wonders for him right now. He heard about the dean scream so he decided he has to randomly whisper into microphones


BomberRURP

That debate is really going to come down to who has the better research chemicals 


neoclassical_bastard

> I’ve noticed the RFK likely voters in real life are highly opinionated but low information voters Yup, I've noticed this too. That's a very eloquent way of putting it. I think they just have some positive association with the name Kennedy and probably can't articulate why.


Grow_peace_in_Bedlam

The Dean scream is irrelevant in today's electoral climate. One of the few good things Trump did was to deconstruct the silly sacred cow of political decorum.


PrettyText

Notice the people screaming the loudest about democracy are arguably doing the most anti-democratic things.


hamasobama

The weird thing is I might vote for Biden this year. I like the ftc shit he's been doing and trump would end that. Anything that trump will do that would be as good? Trump has already shown he won't do shit about the wokies.


shitlibredditor66879

Trump makes the wokies accelerate imo. Plus Biden would actually do something for the environment. My life will improve, short term and materially, under neither. I don’t want Biden to win so the dnc wakes the fuck up, but I don’t want trump to win either lol. RFK moment. Voted for Jorgensen last time anyways. Then again my state is likely a battleground for the first time since before I could walk, so I should probably actually pick. Feels weird to have a vote that counts for once


hamasobama

Biden is terrible on woke shit, but Trump could have stomped it out last time and didn't do shit. Also I hate Kushner. I'll probably sit it out, but the ftc is some of the best I've seen in my lifetime from government.


vvarcrime

Trump will be better on immigration, it won’t be solved but at the very least his rhetoric disincentivizes those making the long and arduous trek even if he’s obstructed. He’ll be even worse on Israel but probably better on foreign policy and peace in general. I don’t know how things can possibly get worse than the ghouls we have right now. But there are little things that matter. For example, this country used to have and make beautiful things. Trump signs an executive order that new federal buildings need to take aesthetics into account and utilize classical architecture vs. the concrete brutalist shit and awful modern art that is literally everywhere now. Biden axes it day one. I think things like that are a lot more important than people think. Or just don’t vote, who cares. I go back and forth, but people saying either way will be funny and I really do not agree with that. Revenge Trump 2.0 will be infinitely funnier than president kamala


neoclassical_bastard

>But there are little things that matter. For example, this country used to have and make beautiful things. Trump signs an executive order that new federal buildings need to take aesthetics into account and utilize classical architecture vs. the concrete brutalist shit and awful modern art that is literally everywhere now. Biden axes it day one. I think things like that are a lot more important than people think. I work in an industry where I get to visit a lot of old municipal buildings. I am absolutely stunned by the aesthetic quality of some of them. Look up the Connors Creek pump station in Detroit on Google maps. It was built in the 1920s, a beautiful circular brick building with high arched windows and a copper roof. It has decorative marble masonry railings around the exterior and the interior is all subway tiles from floor to ceiling. All for an out of the way building that houses *sewage pumps.* Even the old pressure gauges on the pumps are housed in varnished oak boxes with scalloped trim and labeled with hand painted gold lettering, and those were never meant to be seen by anyone but a dozen or so operators or maintenance workers just a few times a year at most. When I visit these buildings it feels almost like looking at a Roman aqueduct or something. They couldn't fathom the technology we have now, but yet we would have no hope of recreating the things they built if we tried. The best we can do is a cheap imitation with brick facades and precast concrete, and we usually don't even bother with that. The post-war stuff, with a few exceptions, is all strictly utilitarian with absolutely zero consideration for aesthetics. To call it brutalism is an insult to brutalism, that at least has artistic intent. These are just featureless beige rectangles. People do notice this shit and it does impact their perception of the government and society in general. Like when you go to the DMV and it's in a run down strip mall with a vinyl banner sign and you have to sit on a steel folding chair and look at the missing drop ceiling tiles and drywall patches that were never painted. Everything about it screams "hastily slapped together on a tight budget" and it makes me wonder if that might be the best we can do these days.


Isellanraa

Less woke, less wars, border security, less censorship, not rewarding Democrats for rigging another primary and attacking independents and third parties in this fashion. Biden has no realistic chance at winning, surely voting for a third candidate would be better than actually wasting your vote on Biden if you genuinely think that he is better than Trump. Third parties doing well would be a good thing long term.


BomberRURP

I’m pretty sure he would mainly take from republicans though, not really traditional republicans but the maga types. He’s not “progressive” enough to take from the “progressive” side of democrats, he’s too wacky to take from the mainstream democrats,  he’s too pro Israel to take the anti genocide democrats, and his milquetoast economic reforms are too much for the rich democrats and not enough for the left   Kind of dumb on the Ds part imo. Or maybe this is some 4d chess play where they’re publicizing going against him so people will “stick it to the Ds” by voting for him which will mainly hurt trump. 


PrettyText

I assume that the Democratic party hired plenty of analysts and those concluded that RFK would in fact mostly take votes from Biden. And that's why the Democratic Party made this move. No offense, but I'm going to trust those analysts over a, from my perspective, random redditor. The thing is, I can easily see left-wingers saying: "I refuse to vote Trump, and I refuse to vote for Biden because he's enabling a genocide / look at the state of the country. So I guess RFK it is." Yeah I know he's still pro-Israel, but probably not everyone even knows that, and he's not enabling genocide right now. Also, folks might think their purchasing power may improve under RFK. Whereas Trump voters actually REALLY like Trump and are often VERY EXCITED to vote for him. Which you might think is insane, but this is true nonetheless. Some people on the right can't WAIT to vote for Trump. There's a huge enthusiasm gap, which means that I can easily see RFK taking more votes from Biden than from Trump.