On Thursday, Joe Rogan, the millionaire lunkhead who operates the most popular podcast in the world, announced his choice for the 2024 presidential election. Predictably, Rogan, who likes to be thought of as an unconventional guy, is going with someone pretty unconventional: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
On his podcast this week, Rogan said that Kennedy was the only candidate that “makes sense.” “I am a fan. He’s the only one to make sense to me,” Rogan said. “He’s the only one that doesn’t attack people. He attacks actions and ideas, but he’s much more reasonable and intelligent.” He added: “He’s a legitimate guy.”
Rogan also claimed that party politicians “gaslight” and “manipulate” voters and that the only candidate who was not doing that was RFK. “That’s politics. They do it on the left, they do it on the right. They gaslight you, they manipulate you, they promote narratives, and the only one who is not doing that is Robert F. Kennedy Jr,” Rogan reiterated.
On Friday, Kennedy responded to Rogan’s endorsement. “From one ‘legitimate’ guy to another, thank you @JoeRogan for always putting substance first,” said the candidate, via X.
Of course, Rogan is not alone. A certain percentage of the population is all in on Kennedy, and FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average currently has him pulling around 5 percent of the vote. Upon first glance, it may be sorta hard to understand why. The list of the candidate’s foibles is long: He talks like a crow, is reputed to have once been a serial philanderer, has been caught (multiple times) posing with dead animals, hung out with Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Cosby, has admitted that a worm once ate part of his brain and then died, has spread baseless conspiracy theories, and, earlier this week, admitted that he keeps an entire freezer full of “roadkill meat.” Yeah, he’s a weird guy. But the basis for the strength of his candidacy goes beyond the candidate himself.
The reason that third-party candidates are so appealing to voters is because our two-party system sucks. That Simpsons meme says it all. But the problem with voting for a third-party candidate is that they’re not going to win. In modern history, no third party has ever managed to take the White House, which means that such candidates pretty much always function as a “spoiler” for one actually viable candidate or another. Voting for them really just means that you’re voting for the Democrat or Republican who is hurt least by their candidacy.
The ongoing question with RFK has been whether he’ll take more votes away from Trump or Biden (now Harris). Though some polls claim Kennedy hurts Trump more, others show him chipping away at Democratic support in key battleground states. Kennedy has also received funding from the same people funding Trump, and was encouraged to run by Trump allies, like Steve Bannon. Kennedy recently discussed endorsing Trump and even floated the idea of taking a job in the next Trump administration, should he win. Kennedy’s brand seems intentionally designed to appeal to disaffected Democrats; his status as the black sheep of a once-great, politically “blue” dynasty seems geared towards left-leaning voters who feel alienated from the current Democratic Party.
Rogan’s endorsement is easy to dismiss, but it’s worth remembering that he has over 14 million Spotify listeners, many of which skew young and male. In a tight race where every vote counts, Rogan’s influence isn’t necessarily insignificant.
In 2020, Rogan endorsed Bernie Sanders for President. Later Rogan said that he would rather vote for Trump than Biden. Rogan later admitted that he had actually voted for Jo Jorgensen, the libertarian candidate. In 2016, Rogan also voted libertarian, tweeting: “I voted for Gary Johnson, and I lean FAR more left than right.” In 2009, Rogan tweeted that he had voted for Obama, but only “because Ron Paul, a REAL republican wasn’t on the ballot.” Again, Ron Paul is broadly considered to be a libertarian and ran for President on the Libertarian Party line in 1988.
In short, Rogan may not follow a party line but without fail, he loves to pick a loser.
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