I've probably heard more about him from podcasts than elsewhere, and those weren't about him, per se. But my broad thoughts;As most people probably know by now Robert Kennedy jr is a Democratic presidential candidate for the upcoming 2024 American presidential election.
He's the son of Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.
He seems to be a very controversial figure on several fronts (is there a Kennedy that isn't/wasn't?), But all in all a very interesting character.
I've just started trying to familiarize myself with him, his views, and his political history.
This thread is intended as a place for posting any information to that end, anything that people feel is relevant.
Conflicting information and opinions is fine but I'd rather not have this turn into a debate thread, which is why I didn't post it in North American politics.
Right now it's just basically for gathering and vetting information. Plenty of time for debates later.
I'll start with this:
He obviously has name recognition. For some that is positive and for others negative, but on the left I guess it's more positive than anything. For me personally, that's not the case. Just declaring bias.
Purely opinionative, but he is somewhat anti-establishment, in kind of a similar way to Trump, in the right. By that I mean he stands contrary to some established positions on the left, and presents himself as a teller of hard truths.
Again, much like Trump, I find it worth fact checking those truths. He has the ability to present things as factual when they are inaccurate, and I think he's able to convince himself in the moment that these things are in fact true, and that pushback is due to the establishment wanting to silence uncomfortable truths. But I see little evidence of that, to be honest.
He's treading a strange line between leftist cred (his name, environmental beliefs) and courting the right to some degree. He is certainly not run of the mill Dem, and unfortunately I think that is driving some of his popularity, rather than anything of substance in and of itself.
Aware you're looking for evidence and I'm just offering my opinion, but feel free to seek clarification on any of that and I'll do a deeper dive.
In the interim, my comment would be 'fact check everything he says'. Always good advice when listening to pollies, but there are levels of crap.
