Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey laid his 2024 cards on the table Monday when he endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president and predicted that he’ll win the race for the White House. Dorsey’s prediction skills probably need some work, given President Joe Biden’s incumbency and dominance within the party; perhaps Dorsey’s sense of what’s possible has been distorted by how much time he spends in weird corners of the internet as an entrepreneur and crypto advocate. But at the same time, his unusual position in American culture is precisely what makes his endorsement interesting. Why does he like Kennedy so much?
Kennedy is an example of the erosion of straightforward ideological formations in our political era.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist and a descendant of one of the most influential dynasties in American politics, is running for president as a Democrat. Some of his views make him sound like a typical progressive populist, such as his talk about addressing wealth inequality and supporting organized labor. But he’s also very much at odds with the mainstream of the party on many issues, from his opposition to vaccines to his abject distrust in state bureaucracy to his dovish position on the war in Ukraine. In recent years he has developed a fan base among the MAGA right because of those less orthodox positions; some right-wing activists have even called for him to join former President Donald Trump as a vice presidential candidate. Kennedy also attracts the interest of libertarian-leaning people like Dorsey because of his views on state authority.
Kennedy is an example of the erosion of straightforward ideological formations in our political era. While he shares some views of progressives, his idiosyncratic modes of distrust also put him in alignment with many outside of center-left politics. Between that and his famous surname, he could plausibly build an ideologically diverse following in…
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