For some of us, politics is only about policy. For others, it might be more about our core values, ideas, aspirations or beliefs. And to others still, politics may be a reflection of our culture, with voting as a symbolic act to proclaim our cultural group identity. But for some Americans, who we vote for and who we support is more of a popularity contest, a consequence of which candidate we perceive to be socially “cooler” than another.
Straight Arrow News contributor Larry Lindsey argues that the flaw with modern Democrats — and with President Biden in particular — is that they simply aren’t “the cool guys” anymore. Biden, an elderly white man, cannot captivate a young, diverse audience the same way that his close friend Obama did. Meanwhile, prospective third-party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appear to be much “cooler” than Biden, potentially posing a threat.
So we got to ask the question: How are Kennedy voters and Trump voters the same?
Well, first, Trump and RFK are iconoclasts. They’re attacking the establishment. They’re attacking the so-called Deep State. And that’s popular with a lot of voters who are dissatisfied with how the government and our elites are running the country. In fact, RFK has gone so far as to say that the censorship and other suppressions under Biden make him a much bigger threat to democracy than Trump. That’s the opposite of the message Democrats are sending.
Biden, by the way, has returned the favor. He has declined to provide Secret Service protection to Kennedy, which I’ve got to say is rather unusual, since the Kennedy family has been subject of more assassination attempts than any other family in American history. And as I mentioned, he lost an uncle when he was six, and he lost his father when he was eight, to assassins. Sensible thing, take some insurance, give the guy Secret Service protection for God’s sake. But the real difference here has to do with being cool.
Now, iconoclasm is cool, attacking the establishment is cool. Having your brothers and sisters attack you and standing up to them, which is what’s happened in the rather dysfunctional Kennedy family, I think is also cool, and shows he’s a man of principle who isn’t going to be pushed around by others. Cool. He’s also had two drug arrests, which I don’t know if it’s cool or not, but it certainly is unusual for a presidential candidate. And two other arrests for protesting.
His running mate is cool — Nicole Shanahan, she’s only 38, which is definitely cool, she’s a Silicon Valley denizen. Very cool. And she was, at one point, married to Sergey Brin, the very cool co-founder of Google.
Well, that’s the cool candidate. Now, why are the Democrats not able to understand what’s going on?