Is RFKJr. the Key to Attracting Suburban "Health Moms"?

The realignment of left and right has broken a lot of the political ice that kept people frozen into positions they've held so long they've forgotten why they adopted them in the first place.

One area where the left and right are more aligned than before is on matters of health. There are a lot of right-leaning gym bros who have looked into what they might have previously rejected as "silly health worryism" from the left, and found those positions have some merit.

For example: Hollywood has long been a bastion of "left-wing anti-vax nuttery." Now many on the right have adopted vax-skeptical positions.

Women have tended to be much more health-conscious than men and have been more willing to look at new thinking on the issues. Men, especially conservative-leaning men, tend to dismiss all "new thinking" as faddish and Obviously Wrong.

You know, I thought the same thing about the Atkins diet. Faddish and obviously wrong! But Atkins' book explained that this wasn't faddish and new -- and that Akshually, the old thinking had been, for one hundred years of medicine, that carbohydrate causes weight gain, not fat.

It was only in the late 70s and then more seriously in the 80s that the "old thinking," that carbohydrate causes weight gain and dietary fat is relatively benign, got displaced in favor of the theory that dietary fat was the enemy and we should replace fat with lots and lots of carbs.

And that "new thinking" was pushed by... the federal government, which, of course, always gets everything right.

Anyway, I think that these simple rules-of-thumb about whether a theory is "new" or "time-tested" is simplistic -- new, as of when? Is "eating naturally" a "new," "Hippie" idea? Weren't people doing that for 10,000 years?

RFKJr.'s endorsement of Trump, and pushing of health as a major issue -- why are chronic diseases worse than ever? Why are children, especially, sick with chronic illnesses at great rates than at any other point in history? -- might drag some of these "Health moms" to the Trump side.

Maybe.

Out: Soccer Moms and Security Moms. In: Health Moms. Is RFK Jr. the secret to suburban women?

Everyone says that Donald Trump needs to recruit suburban women voters. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. may be his secret weapon. We used to hear about soccer moms, but RFK, Jr. may be able to mobilize a new group, the Health Moms.

Several years ago, I was eating lunch at one of the concourse "sidewalk cafes" in the Houston airport when I noticed that a guy sitting a few tables away was attracting a steady stream of attractive, middle-aged, soccer-mom types stopping by for autographs. I had no idea who he was, but I asked my waiter who said he was a vaccine activist. Apparently he was a rock star among yoga pants wearing moms who worried about vaccine safety and the like. (This was pre-Covid).

In that crowd, RFK, Jr. is a much, much bigger rock star. And the suburban Health Moms who don't trust the establishment on health issues are numerous and don't just fall on the right.

In fact, the crunchy, health-conscious mom shopping local and organic, avoiding high-fructose corn syrup and canola oil, and suspicious of the prescriptions and proscriptions of the medical establishment, has generally been found on the left, though that has changed in recent years to a degree. Popular Instagram accounts like House in Habit, with over 1.2 million followers, talk about this stuff all the time to huge audiences.

A lot of gym bros have adopted this as Bro Science.

...

Government nutrition guidelines have as much to do with what foodstuffs the government wants people to buy as what is good for them. (As even NPR has reported, concerns about eggs and cholesterol were made popular by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, trying to hold down food prices in a time of inflation. Johnson told the Surgeon General to issue an alert about cholesterol in eggs, so people would buy fewer and the price would fall.)

The "food pyramid" is a joke, the FDA does a poor job of policing foods and additives, and Americans are way too fat, and it's not just because we aren't exercising enough.

People care about their health, but people -- especially many mothers, I suspect -- care even more about their children's health.

...

What matters for the election is that RFK, Jr. is talking about that stuff -- under the rubric of "Make America Healthy Again" -- and the Health Moms are listening, and now he's endorsed Trump. This election is likely to be close. And close elections are decided at the margins.

Glenn Reynolds adds:

[As always, if you like these essays, please take out a paid subscription. I will thank you, and my family will thank you.]

Kamala Harris says she is very interested in telling people to eat less red meat-- a health prescription right out of 1970s junk "science."

But I'm sure she'll change that position soon enough.

I guess this is a good place to ask: How are yo' GAINZZZ?

I haven't had GAINZZZ all summer. Or spring. Allergies were hard this year, and also, I was lazy. I keep posting GAINZZZ threads because my lack of GAINZZZ should not be a reason you can't talk about your GAINZZZ.

Starting this week, I'm recommitting to GAINZZZ. I'll call a guy from Taskrabbit and see if he can star working out for me. If that falls through, I guess I'll just have to resign myself to, starting today, hardcore keto and carnivore mode -- and back to the egg-heavy diet -- and working out myself.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:00 PM

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