Robert F. Kennedy Jr

[John Clark]

Because of our idiotic Electoral College system no third-party candidate, like vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has a chance of becoming president, however he can influence the outcome of the election. The conventional wisdom is that Kennedy's candidacy will help Trump but that appears not to be true because previously Trump had an ironclad grip on the lunatic vote, but now Trump will have to split it with Kennedy. A recent poll  indicated if it was just a two-man race 47% of Kennedy supporters would vote for Trump and only 29% would vote for Biden. He really is splitting the lunatic vote, and Trump seems to have noticed and he doesn't like it:

 Trump rails against RFK Jr., calling him a ‘wasted protest vote’

There is even more evidence of the good deeds Robert Kennedy Junior may accomplish in the November election, not only will he cause the lunatic vote to be split between Trump and Kennedy, there's also evidence he could be instrumental in kicking Ted Cruz out of the Senate. Kennedy voters would prefer Trump over Biden, but a recent poll of Texas independent voters indicated they would prefer any Democratic senatorial candidate over Ted Cruz, who is on the ballot for reelection in November, by a margin of 50% to 38% with 12% undecided.

THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL AND TEXAS U.S. SENATE ELECTION CONTESTS

And it seems probable with Kennedy on the ballot the number of registered independent voters who decide to take the trouble to vote will significantly increase. If more independent voters go to the polls Trump will get more votes but that's OK because there is virtually no chance of Biden winning in Texas regardless of how many fringe party candidates are on the ballot,  and it will increase the number of votes for Cruz's Democratic opponent.

If that revolting prick, Ted Cruz, is kicked out of the Senate in November a little of the sting of a Trump victory and becoming the most powerful human being on Earth during the Singularity would be reduced. It would be a very small reduction in the existential dread a second Trump presidency would cause me to feel, but the relief would be greater than zero.

John K Clark    See what's on my new list at  Extropolis

lnm

[Brent Meeker]

The electoral college system is idiotic because it allows losers of the popular vote to win the election.  But it's not the reason for the two party system.  Notice that third party candidates are still spoilers in races for governor or senator which don't have an electoral college system.  The way to make third parties viable is something like rank-choice voting or a parliamentary system.  But the founding fathers deliberately sought a two party system because they saw third parties as giving two much power to minorities.

Brent

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-li...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv1HKyYQ90EQeJSYRAR6%2BfBw1QKZN4%3DA8b9de8hbCYO6Pg%40mail.gmail.com.

[John Clark]

On Wed, May 8, 2024 at 4:46 PM Brent Meeker <meeke...@gmail.com> wrote:

> The electoral college system is idiotic because it allows losers of the popular vote to win the election. 

Yes.

 

> But it's not the reason for the two party system.  Notice that third party candidates are still spoilers in races for governor or senator which don't have an electoral college system. 

I know, and third-party candidates can also be the spoiler in presidential elections. We can thank third party candidate Ralph Nader for giving us George W. Bush (and the Iraq war) and thank the third and fourth party candidates of the Green and Libertarian party for giving us Donald Trump (and the most anti-environmental and anti-libertarian president in American history).  In the 2016 presidential election the fringe party candidates got about 5% of the popular vote, but none of them received even one electoral vote, much less the 270 they would need to become president.

> the founding fathers deliberately sought a two party system because they saw third parties as giving two much power to minorities.

The founding fathers wanted no political parties at all, that's why they are not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution; George Washington warned us about the dangers of any political party in his farewell address in 1796:

“Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.”

But we failed to heed Washington's wise advice, and that's why today Republicans think of themselves as a Christian first, a Republican second, an American third, and a human being a very distant fourth.  

John K Clark    See what's on my new list at  Extropolis

acf

On 5/8/2024 5:35 AM, John Clark wrote:

Because of our idiotic Electoral College system no third-party candidate, like vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has a chance of becoming president, however he can influence the outcome of the election. The conventional wisdom is that Kennedy's candidacy will help Trump but that appears not to be true because previously Trump had an ironclad grip on the lunatic vote, but now Trump will have to split it with Kennedy. A recent poll  indicated if it was just a two-man race 47% of Kennedy supporters would vote for Trump and only 29% would vote for Biden. He really is splitting the lunatic vote, and Trump seems to have noticed and he doesn't like it:

 Trump rails against RFK Jr., calling him a ‘wasted protest vote’

There is even more evidence of the good deeds Robert Kennedy Junior may accomplish in the November election, not only will he cause the lunatic vote to be split between Trump and Kennedy, there's also evidence he could be instrumental in kicking Ted Cruz out of the Senate. Kennedy voters would prefer Trump over Biden, but a recent poll of Texas independent voters indicated they would prefer any Democratic senatorial candidate over Ted Cruz, who is on the ballot for reelection in November, by a margin of 50% to 38% with 12% undecided.

THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL AND TEXAS U.S. SENATE ELECTION CONTESTS

And it seems probable with Kennedy on the ballot the number of registered independent voters who decide to take the trouble to vote will significantly increase. If more independent voters go to the polls Trump will get more votes but that's OK because there is virtually no chance of Biden winning in Texas regardless of how many fringe party candidates are on the ballot,  and it will increase the number of votes for Cruz's Democratic opponent.

If that revolting prick, Ted Cruz, is kicked out of the Senate in November a little of the sting of a Trump victory and becoming the most powerful human being on Earth during the Singularity would be reduced. It would be a very small reduction in the existential dread a second Trump presidency would cause me to feel, but the relief would be greater than zero.

ln