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When he launched his congressional campaign last week, Jack Schlossberg<\/strong> pitched himself as something of a bridge between Democrats and a toxic social media environment that has been dominated by Republicans. \u201cNew media is completely polluted and the air is dirty,\u201d the Kennedy scion told<\/a> MSNBC during the buzzy rollout of his bid for the New York seat being vacated by Jerry Nadler.<\/strong> \u201cI figured out a way to breathe in that environment, and we need to elect candidates who understand how to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s what makes me an effective representative,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Since their defeats in 2024, Democrats have been desperately seeking to make inroads in new media\u2014even fantasizing, at times, about finding a \u201cJoe Rogan<\/strong> of the left.\u201d<\/a> Schlossberg, grandson of the late President John F. Kennedy, is selling himself as an answer to those woes. He\u2019s built a large social media following as an oddball troll\u2014campy, sometimes controversial, and versant in the outlandish, nihilistic style of the way-too-online. \u201cHe\u2019s a quirky content creator. He\u2019s going to generate a lot of curiosity,\u201d Trip Yang<\/strong>, a veteran Democratic strategist in New York, told me.<\/p>\n Schlossberg has the Kennedy looks, and a kind of mischievous charisma; a Newsweek<\/em> piece<\/a> after his campaign launch crowned him the \u201cinternet\u2019s latest \u2018babygirl.\u2019\u201d And he\u2019s made his cousin, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/strong>, a particular target of his ridicule, as when Schlossberg mocked Kennedy<\/a> with the image of a \u201cMAHA Man\u201d Halloween costume.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going as slutty JUNIOR,\u201d Schlossberg wrote.<\/p>\n Such bits are surely a source of catharsis for some Democrats. They may make others long for a time before politicians did bits\u2014when there was at least a pretense of dignity in our civic life. But those days are gone, buried in the virtual shit Trump dropped<\/a> on the insufficiently-loyal electorate from a fighter jet. And in a world in which the president of the United States spews AI slop<\/a>, his White House responds to journalists with \u201cyour mom\u201d jokes<\/a>, and his edgelord henchmen wage endless culture war online, Democrats need to fight dirty, too\u2014or so goes the thinking of figures like Gavin Newsom<\/strong>, who has taken to parodying the president\u2019s unhinged, all-caps Twitter bluster.<\/p>\n The question for the Schlossberg campaign is whether being a provocateur\u2014even one from America\u2019s most storied political family\u2014is enough on its own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n