A few more thoughts on Cornel West

I was planning on posting this a week or two ago, but a variety of other things giving me a full blogging plate made me wait. And West's announcement that he was ditching the Greens to run independent made me glad to have waited. I wound up doing a separate piece on that, questioning his reasoning, and that of Peter Daou if involved. (A follow-up on that piece, on that link, indicates that Daou is involved, or if one will, is enabling, in that sense, West's wilder ideas on political campaigning.)

UPDATE, Oct. 27, 2023: Less than a full month after Peter Daou became West's campaign manager, and only three weeks after signing off on West leaving the Green Party, Daou is OUT, allegedly for health reasons, according to a Tweet from West, as reported by Independent Political Report.

I am reminded of the VERY interesting book, "The Commissar Vanishes."

"We regret that Comrade Kamenev has resigned from the Politburo for health reasons," I picture.

And, as I type this at 10:45 p.m., 10 hours after West's tweet, Daou has no tweet of his own, though he did quote tweet a tweet from earlier in the day, talking about PTSD about growing up in the bombing of Lebanon being triggered by the situation in Gaza.

Possible? Yes. I'm still somewhat skeptical that this is all the story there is, though. And, if that's the full explanation, yes, I know that PTSD is about jumbled emotions and much more, but it's still a snap decision, it seems. That said, as I told Jordan at IPR, she shouldn't expect a formal statement from West, I said, when emailing her Daou's Tweet.

I said, a couple of months ago, when West decided to run as a Green, and not with Nick Brana's sleazy Movement for a People's Party, that he seemed to be head and shoulders above other filed, announced but not yet official, and other would-be Green candidates. 

That was before the allegations about back taxes AND back child support came out. West notably punted to his accountant on the taxes issue, and said accountant was quiet. West also notably has said nothing period about the child support. Actually, on the Daily Beast, he says plenty but it's actual nothing.

While I don't favor non-payment of taxes, whether by businesses or individuals, and whether in the 1 percent or at lower levels on the individual side, in a sense, that's a lesser issue. Per the link above, that's nowhere near a nothingburger amount on child support. That said, the tax issue is not a nothingburger, either, in part because it comes from three different time frames (the Beast had less detailed information).

As for his defenders saying that he was just sharing the wealth of his income? 

• That's not an excuse;
• It sounds like Lady Bird excusing LBJ's womanizing by talking about how much he had to share.
  

Just a bit more on last week's announcement. Jill Stein, with full link to long Tweet here, is NOT following him. Instead, she and Ajamu Baraka, her 2016 Veep candidate, are beating the bushes for more candidates, presumably seeing the lackluster crop otherwise. (Sorry, but it's true, other Green prez candidates.) Other former candidates would include Howie Hawkins, I'm sure. I doubt she will. Maybe Baraka seeks the top spot?

For the man in general? Sactown Magazine has a long (albeit semi-hagiographic if not beyond the semi) bio of him from childhood up, written during the 2019-20 primaries season when he was stumping for Bernie Sanders.

The story reminds us that, per some #BlueAnon calling out the variety of talk shows that Sanders hit up, West has appeared not only with Joe Rogan in 2020, but in years further back, even with Sean Hannity.

It also notes his feud with other Black thought leaders, including former acolyte Michael Eric Dyson and Ta-Nehisi Coates, over West's early, by 2011, and very public, souring on Barack Obama as president.

That said, on something like this?

Last election cycle, Sanders’ loss to Hillary Clinton was hard. This year, West is sanguine. “Sanders has already won in terms of shaping the discourse. Everybody’s got to talk about his issues now, whether you agree or disagree,” he says. His analysis of the hectic Democratic field, with a swirling eddy of candidates vying for attention, is pretty benevolent.

"Naive" is a word I'd use before "sanguine." Or maybe something else. It's like his going to MPP first, not passing it and heading directly to Green-ville. (I'm an independent leftist who won't relabel as Green until after I see the 2024 convention play out, if that does lead me to come back.)

Speaking of? I'm not voting for Warmonger Joe, but I reserve the right to undervote the presidential race. I did it in 2020, and I've touted rational undervoting in newspaper op-eds.

I'm not voting for West, I can say that. Per my piece a week ago about his switch, I question his grasp of the political process. (I also expect, per Texas' ballot access laws, I won't be able to vote for him even if I wanted to.)

He's got other issues. Announcing his original MPP campaign on Rumble? And on Russell Brand's show? 

That said, West's platform is in many ways more radical than the Green Party. One thing in particular I note is that he seems to want a British-style NHS. I totally agree. Whether that's any factor in the split with the GP and two-time presidential candidate DOCTOR Jill Stein and Howie Hawkins 2020 advisor DOCTOR Margaret Flowers or not, I don't know. I DO KNOW that both support Physicians for a National Health Plan's version of Medicare for All, which leaves current fee-for-service medicine in place, albeit while trying to ameliorate it. 

To put it another way? It's a platform that nobody who listens to Russell Brand on Rumble would support across the spectrum.

To put it another way? It's like Kinky Friedman running for guv and supporting both legalized marijuana and prayer in school. We all know how that went.

And, with all this in mind, especially the new news, I am highly unlikely to sign Cornel's petition here in Tex-ass. 

Update: Don't forget (as I did until recently) that West signed that odious Harper's 2020 cancel culture letter.