I am aware that Dr. Cornel West’s campaign for President has been severely criticized by many Democrats. He’s been described as a “spoiler” but I seriously doubt that Trump will win the electoral college votes in states like New York, California, Washington or Oregon.
A vote for Cornel West in those regions of the US will not be a disaster for the country, so why not vote your conscience?
It’s time for the Democrats to realize that most young voters are opposed to Israel’s war on Gaza. They want an immediate ceasefire and an end to US military support for Israel.
Progressives want a war on poverty, not on people!
Mass homelessness should be a major concern for Democratic party presidential candidates but most don’t even bother to give lip service to ideas like affordable housing or a guaranteed basic income.
I certainly don’t want a dictator wannabe like Trump to serve as President again, but the lies being told about Dr. West’s campaign are egregious and unacceptable. Anyone who believes that he’s being secretly bankrolled by Republican operatives obviously hasn’t seen the campaign’s bank account statements which show a serious lack of funds!
Compare that with the $1 billion raised by Vice President Kamala Harris and you will see just how ridiculous it is for political party pundits to fret over the possibility of Dr. West’s campaign “spoiling” the election, thereby giving the White House back to Donald Trump and his MAGA movement.
Here’s a direct quote from the New York Times regarding the Harris campaign:
“No presidential candidate is believed to have ever raised so much money so fast after entering a race.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/09/us/politics/harris-billion-dollar-fundraising.html
Cornel West is definitely not a major threat to the welfare of the nation. Get real!
Although he has gained access to the ballot in at least 16 states, he’s a write-in candidate in most states and Georgia absolutely refuses to count any of those votes for him.
The Republicans and Democrats have a complete lock on this electoral system and no third party or independent candidate stands a chance of throwing the election.
Alternative campaigns for President are almost completely ignored by mainstream media and the high hurdles placed in front of indy candidates are designed by traditional party loyalists to be insurmountable obstacles for even the best political tacticians and strategists.
Political spending in the US is completely out of control!
It’s a multi-billon dollar industry. We are in serious need of campaign finance reform and public funding with strict limits.
Only Democrats and Republicans have access to the huge financial commitments that a national campaign requires. It’s a rich person’s game and no alternative, third party or independent candidate is able to compete in this high stakes marketplace.
And they call that democracy?
The USA is a two party electoral system.
During this election the Democratic and Republican party candidates have raised almost $2 billion. Imagine how many public schools and affordable homes could have been built with that money!
The political parties and the US news media have an incestuous relationship. They feed off each other. Elections are a huge profit making enterprise for the networks who can charge exorbitant fees for running political ads.
Big money donors and the billionaire class (Elon Musk/Donald Trump) buy elections in a similar fashion to the way they purchase super yachts and expensive real estate developments. They go shopping for a useful candidate and bankroll the campaign. Quid pro quo means tax breaks for wealthy folks and corporations while the middle class and folks living in poverty are manipulated or completely ignored.
Welcome to 21st Century politics in the post Citizens United ruling era! Money is considered free speech, but it’s being used to dominate the marketplace and undermine democracy.
Yet despite my current cynicism about the monopolization of political power in the United States, I still believe in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King who proclaimed:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Social revolutions may take a long time to gain a foothold, but eventually they are self-evident and completely unavoidable.
Dr. West is running because he wants to influence the political dialogue and try to hold liberals and progressives accountable for their support of the Harris/Walz ticket. No one I’ve spoken to on his campaign staff actually thinks he will swing the election for Trump.
The battle against corruption and authoritarianism takes on many diverse forms and the West/Abdullah campaign is but one example of how people in this nation are sounding the alarm and organizing to oppose racism, xenophobia, fascism, misogyny and homophobia/transphobia.
In the end our society will count our victories from the perspective of a people who have seen the destructive and divisive influences of the Ku Klux Klan, John Birch Society and McCarthyism.
We don’t want to go down those roads again!
Whatever the results of this election may be, the struggle to end corruption, racism and hatred will continue.
And if the electoral system is broken then we must fix it!
We face serious challenges to democracy regardless of who wins the White House.
