Brain worms, no metaphor this time
The RFK Jr. thing has rocketed well past farce, into the realm of you couldn’t put this in a political satire because it would be too implausible and ridiculous (This of course. also applies to Trumpism in every respect, except we’re getting used to it now).
My guess is that brain worm nepo baby ends up not even being on the majority of state ballots, and that in the states where he does appear he’ll get something like 2%-3% of the vote, and that — further guessing here obvi — those votes will break something like 50% people who would have voted for Trump, 30% people who would have voted for Biden, and 20% people who wouldn’t have voted.
Because of our wildly dysfunctional electoral system, even this sort of very marginal effect could potentially have a an effect in states like Michigan, although if my guesses are at all in the ballpark, the effect will be in Biden’s favor.
Be that as it may, it’s hard for me to even fathom the intensity of the sheer narcissism required to engage in this kind of ridiculous venture. It did strike me as kind of funny, kind of funny yes indeed, that the NYT is doing this kind of reporting as a consequence of its obsessive focus on Biden’s age and health. RFK is trying to sell himself as the young vibrant alternative to Biden and Trump, which is striking given that, besides the whole literal brain worm thing, he would be the oldest person elected president prior to Biden himself.