Cornell West is Also Running for President
Cornell West has an outstanding liberal resume. A graduate of Harvard University, with a B.A. and Princeton University, with an M.A. and a Ph.D, the first black to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy, he taught at both institutions, and currently is the Dietrich Boenhoffer Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary. I've read several of his books, heard him speak on more than one occasion and I find little in the statement made in this piece in Baptist News Global with which I disagree.
Except that he doesn't seem to see himself running for President on the Green Party ticket is only going to benefit whomever the Republican party nominates, including Trump. And if Trump wins again, Cornell West, everything he stands for and everything he is running to achieve, will become a lost cause. West himself would very likely become a target of Trump's intended and publicly announced revenge.
Somebody please explain to me why American liberals keep doing this to ourselves?
In the political atmosphere that we have in this country right now, the best thing the Democratic party can do is to become as pro-active as its principles will allow in stamping out third party candidacies that have the potential to take away voters from Joe Biden's re-election effort. I'm not familiar enough with all of the behind-the-scenes negotiation and work that gets done in this area, if there actually is anything like that going on, but there's never been a time that Democrats needed a more united front than they do now. And one of the ways of doing that is to set aside whatever differences or nuances or messaging that attracts people like Cornell West out of the party, and make a place to include them and their supporters.
Didn't we learn our lesson in 2016, when Jill Stein drew off just enough votes on the far left in at least three states to cost Hillary Clinton the election?
After seeing recent polling data, which is probably not significantly accurate at this point, that the No Labels party has the potential to draw off more GOP votes than Democratic ones, and seeing their agenda and what they want to achieve, there's a strong message there for either major party to pick up and use if they want to do it. The Republicans do not seem to be capable of being a political party any more, they're much more of a personality cult and issues are well beyond their grasp. The names being thrown around as potential "No Labels" candidates would ciphon off a lot of GOP votes from Trump, and unknown number since it seems like half the party is looking for a way out of their nightmare.
But the Green Party is far left. That's our territory, and those people are potential Democratic voters. I'm a regular, monthly contributor to both the DNC and the Biden campaign. Shouldn't I be able to expect that the party is doing something to avoid a repeat 2016 election disaster?
Other than abolishing the electoral college, something that I am completely in favor of doing, but which isn't going to happen anytime soon, as long as that's the way we elect a President, Democrats must figure out how to maximize the size of the party, keep the majority of Independent voters we have won over because of their adverse reaction to Trumpism, and make sure the Green Party's potential supporters know that voting for their own candidate will not lead to their ability to achieve their agenda, but will be a futile attempt which will result in their getting absolutely nothing in return for their work.
No comments:
Post a Comment