Scholar and activist Cornel West announced in early June, he’s running as a presidential candidate for the People’s Party. West is known for his academic activism. He is the former professor of the practice of public philosophy at Harvard University and professor emeritus at Princeton University.
West is seeking the Green Party nomination as a progressive candidate, driven by a pursuit for social and economic justice, he said in a campaign announcement. A poll last month found that nearly half of voters would at least consider a third party candidate in a second Biden-Trump matchup.
“I have decided to run for truth and justice, which takes the form of running for president of the United States as a candidate for the People’s Party,” West said in a video announcement on Twitter. “I enter for the quest for truth. I enter for the quest of justice. And the presidency is just one vehicle we pursue that truth and justice.” In the announcement video, West, 70, claims that he cares more about voters and their quality of life than other political parties. “Neither political party wants to tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about big tech,” West said. “Do we have what it takes? We shall see.”
A vote for Cornel West is not because he is Black or that he is a scholar or that he has the key to correct all the wrongs of the United States; it is a vote for a change from the establishment politics that people sought for during the 2016 election when progressive policies were sabotaged by the Democratic party and before the GOP was stolen by an authoritarian. It is what the people of this country truly want. To live according to their worth and a life of peace.
Of course, political analysts predict Wests’ run will draw votes away from Biden and the Democrats and give the Republican candidate for president an edge toward the White House; a repeat of the 2016 election. This may be true and even land a most unwanted victory for the GOP in 2024. But in the case of Black America, it is time Blacks as a voting bloc tore off from establishment voting of either party and broaden the playing field, which brings us to all the reasons they should.
Reason 1: For over 60 years, Blacks have voted Democratic as a resistance to the Republican party’s racial intolerance of people of color. But since the election of Trump and Biden, the Black community can clearly see that it really does not matter who is in charge, they are both negligent of the issues needed to strengthen Blacks in America. Racism and bigotry live on at the highest levels of the three branches.
The last two elections were deeply dependent on the Black vote to help “save Democracy,” from fascism and authoritarianism, and to preserve the status quo political agenda of the old money Democrat regime. However, we still saw deeper cuts to Civil Rights and widening gaps in social, economic and judicial equality. Protection against such persecution is not happening as promised by the gatekeepers. It seems to be getting worse each year. Black America must prepare to stand toe to toe against the bully’s threats and fight back using new blood.
If Republicans and the Old Guard Democrats want to uphold a systemic form of white supremacy, let the doors wide open and let the hatred run free. We need to stop hiding behind the fallen veil of Democracy and the promises of a multicultural utopia. It is apparent this country is determined to remain an oasis of hate. We must train and trust the eyes of younger generations of Blacks and whites to see the hate and reject it out right.
Reason 2. Republicans swear that racism does not exist and that they and no one else should tell any person that their skin color is neither better nor worse than any other. And no one should “feel bad” about what race they are or what their people have done in the past. This is their argument for banning the ghostly Critical Race Theory. The time to allow them to prove that is now, even though we all know their theory is a lie, sometimes you have to allow people to out lie themselves for them to finally shut up and face the truth and for others to see their ignorance.
Voting for West and giving the bigots another blank check on racism will weaken this country even more to the point of a final collapse. Only then can it be rebuilt on the foundation of true justice once the injustice has been exposed and rooted out. This strategy is a gamble, but one needed in the war for true freedom. Not only will the GOP crumble in hate, but the Democratic establishment will also have to bend to more progressive policies and desires of the people who are tired of the same ole political games and lies.
Reason 3. Progressive politics is what West stands for, the same as what Bernie Sanders stood for and continues to fight for. The establishment Democrats pushed Bernie aside and took the reins of government after terrifying the people into voting for Biden under the threat of Trump authoritarianism. But after Biden took office, Trump continued to terrorize the country as he still does. No longer should the people have to sacrifice their rights to fight for Democracy, but it is now the Democrat’s turn, using the power of the DOJ to bring justice to this country by holding Trump and his rogue people accountable.
Why should the people continue to live in fear of oppression and persecution from an authoritarian regime based solely on getting out to vote every 4 years when the government itself has not held up its part of the deal to bring justice to the country they so claim to love and cherish. Hell no! The people are tired of doing the government’s job, taking off work to face voter oppression laws that were never supposed to pass in the first place, and swallowing empty promises of debt relief, healthcare, climate relief, higher pay and more affordable housing when none of that has happened.
Reason 4. Not all Blacks are on board with the LGBTQ agenda but have been railroaded alongside them in an attempt to smear and diminish Black rights. No Blacks asked to be included with that agenda and now we face persecution as if we started the whole thing and want alternative lifestyles for the entire country. We must disassociate ourselves from this false equivalency and stand as a sovereign people who simply want to be respected and taken seriously.
Though the LGBTQ crowd have their own fight, Blacks can do bad or better by themselves on merit alone and not on government support based on a narrative we never agreed upon. In addition, to hell with Affirmative Action, abortion rights, or religious rights, those are not our fights and we resent having to be entangled with those issues if we cannot get basic rights and true freedom from a system that claims equality. Neither can we allow ourselves to be pulled into different directions through the politics of racial division against other minority groups. That’s foolishness.
Reason 5. If Blacks pull away from both parties, we will have to become self-sufficient with an agenda that we can strengthen instead of being told what we want by people who depend on our votes every 4 years and have no intentions of supplying our needs. We cannot continue to stand in dark hope, blind to what we could achieve if we actually broke from both parties and stood on the principles of true progressive policies of liberation. Bernie and the progressives should have won out over the Democratic establishment in 2016 but we have been deceived and slapped asleep by fear of continued oppression.
We have to break the backs of the establishment in this country and around the world by allowing the hate and greed to escape, crash and burn on its own. We cannot fear hate crimes, gun battles with the police and rogue vigilantes, or hate groups. We must fight back with intellect, innovation, and a determination to overcome, which begins with an attitude of courageousness and a focus on survival based on what we already have and not what we are promised by them.
A West victory is unlikely but not impossible. Standing in the shadow of the former Black president, which reawakened America’s racism after his election, the point is not to take over the country with a Black agenda or to stand on the mountain top and claim we did it. The point is to break the backs of the establishment and force the country, and possibly the world, to reject authoritarianism, wealth inequality and greed, and provide a future for the people who desire a real change and deserve a second chance to the right to peace and true liberty from oppression.
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