(ThyBlackMan.com) Early in the summer, Dr. Cornel West, the left of center activist and former Ivy League professor, announced his campaign for president. He would be seeking to become president running as a third party candidate.
At the time of his announcement, Dr. West stated “I enter in the quest for truth, I enter in the quest for justice, and the presidency is just one vehicle to pursue that truth and justice — what I’ve been trying to do all of my life.”
Brother Dr. West is to be commended for fighting for justice and equality. I applaud him.
I have voted in the past for my share of Black candidates. Cornel West however, will not be one of them.
A vote for Cornel West is nothing more than a vote to give the Oval Office to Donald Trump.
Let us be perfectly clear. Let us not fool ourselves. A vote for Cornel West is a vote to allow Trump to get back in the White House.
If you think that Trump’s time in office from 2017 to 2021 was insanity on steroids, well you ain’t seen nothing yet. Trump will be hell bent on revenge and retribution.
He will also be in position depending on which party controls the US Senate to appoint hundreds of new right lending, conservative judges to federal courts. He might also be able to appoint one or more such judges to the US Supreme Court.
His tilting of the US Supreme to the right when he was in the Oval Office resulted in decisions regarding voting rights, affirmative action and other issues which have not been beneficial to Blacks. We can expect more of the same.
If Trump returns to the White House, Blacks, Latinxs and other people of color cannot only expect to catch hell but end up in a second post-Reconstruction. While this is taking place the good brother, Dr. Cornel West, will be sitting on some Caribbean beach drinking pina coladas waiting for his agent to call with a book deal, his next cable television appearance.
Dr. West’s name will be recorded having run for president with others who sought the presidency such as Congresswoman Shirely Chisholm, Eldridge Cleaver, Dick Gregory, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharton, Kamala Harris and of course President Barack Obama. He will have cemented his legacy in the hall of fame of outstanding race leaders.
Brother West will be championing issues and concerns of importance to Black and other people of color as well as the less affluent. To that, right on.
The platform and the issues that he is running on consists of significantly reducing the military budget. As president, he would make massive investments to the nation’s social safety net. Medicare for all including mental healthcare as well decriminalization of drugs.
Cornel West’s platform includes decent housing for all, quality education for all, free college tuition for all, and jobs with living wages for all. Abolishing poverty and homelessness.
End mass incarceration, demilitarize the police and promote reparations for Blacks. Eliminating the environmental racism that disproportionately damages the life chances of poor people, especially poor people of color.
Heal the sick, give sight to the blind, walk on water, turn water to wine and raise the dead.
All good stuff. Great stuff. But at what cost?
As President Barack Obama once said, “elections have consequences.” There was probably no more consequential election in the last 50 years than the 2016 presidential election.
It was an election however that many decided to sit out and/or cast protest votes. Many people were not happy with the two major candidates for president, Punch Drunk and Damn Judy, so they went third party or trout fishing.
The result of that election was four chaotic, insane years that saw the nation become a world embarrassment. It also saw the death of over 500,000 of its citizens due to an irresponsible, irrational and uncaring approach to a pandemic.
As things stand now 2024, will be a rematch between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The two men ran against each other in 2020.
Key to Biden’s victory were his wins in the states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona. Biden’s victories in several of those states came with less than 100,000 votes. A shift of votes in several of those states would have resulted in a continuation of the Trump regime.
Republican and right wing numbnuts are delighted that Brother Dr. Cornel West is running for president in 2024. They will be praying for his campaign to be variable and effective. They know that it will probably take votes away from Joe Biden.
They understand that i t is not necessary for Dr. West’s campaign to be formidable in all 50 states. Republicans and their allies just need Dr. West to take enough Black votes from Biden in the swing states, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona. If Trump was successful in winning several of those states in 2024, he would wind up winning the presidency.
For such to occur would be a travesty of epic proportions, biblical proportions. It would result in evil once again taking center stage performing its inhumanity, injustice, division, and hate.
It would result in an all out war against Blacks and others. It will also result in our children, our children’s children and their children experiencing enormous pain and suffering way beyond Trump’s final days in the White House due to policies enacted during his time in office.
Republicans and their allies on the right will be praying for Brother Dr. West as he runs. They will also find ways to direct large sums of money into his campaign coffers to ensure he runs a viable campaign.
They are hoping that a significant number of Blacks who normally would vote for a Democratic candidate would abandon the Democratic candidate, President Joe Biden, and cast a vote for Brother West. They would hope that there will be Blacks who feel it is their race duty to support the Black candidate.
They will also hope that Dr. West will be extremely critical of President Biden and Blacks will vote for Dr. West in protest or just sit out the election altogether. Either way it will benefit their candidate Donald Trump.
As in 2016 and 2020, Republicans will encourage other Blacks beyond Dr. West on cable television programs and the internet to express displeasure with President Biden and the Democratic Party. The Republicans and their friends will blame President Biden and the Democratic for the sun not shining on rainy days, and all matters of evil. They will find willing participants who will spread misinformation, disinformation, outright lies and pure nonsense. The participants will present themselves as being politically knowledgeable and astute. But they will be nothing more than snake oil salesmen, con artists and fools.
Some will be paid to spread the misinformation and disinformation. Others on their own will spread the ridiculous, the outrageous and the ludicrous without knowing or caring about its consequences. They will seek to make the insignificant significant and the bogus genuine.
Republicans, Russians, trolls, white supremacists and scalawags. Some pretending to be Black. Others who were born Black pretending to be relevant.
Dr Cornel West is an extremely learned man. The issues that he champions will find a receptive home in the souls of many Blacks and others seeking truth, justice and a better world. A smart person, however, he may be like a lot of very smart people who live in ivy towers but lack the common sense to come out of the rain. Or maybe it is because he has a massive ego and wants to display his relevance as well as to define his legacy.
If the 2024 election was between two rational and responsible candidates a vote for Dr. West out of protest would be understandable and even called for. It would be a protest vote against the status quo, against business as usual.
Unfortunately, this will not be the case in 2024. A Trump victory will be a living death sentence for Blacks and other people of color similar to how it was during his time in the White House.
The Bible points out that there is a time and season for everything. A time to plant, a time to uproot, a time, a time to tear down , a time to build, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to protest.
If things remain as they are, the election of 2024,pitting President Biden against Donald Trump,will not be the year to cast a protest vote. It is not the year for Brother Dr. Cornel West to run.
But Brother Dr. West, if you feel that you must run, put on your best running shoes and run.
Run Cornel, run. Run Cornel, run and keep on running, away.
Staff Writer; Al Alatunji
Question? Comment? Regarding the above article. Feel free to send a message to this address: Alatunji@ThyBlackMan.com.