Republican Operatives Swoop in to Help Cornel West This Election
Republican Operatives Swoop in to Help Cornel West This Election
A new report reveals that operatives with Republican ties are trying to help Cornel West get on the ballot.
”This helps take away votes from Joe Biden,” the activist told one person at the rally, according to a video posted to X (formerly Twitter) by a Washington Post reporter. “We’re helping the Trump team who’s trying to get him on there,” added a woman by his side.
You're viewing a single thread.
Does any progressive actually like West?
I'm a progressive. I like it when he debates a moron. He's good at making an argument, and he's not wrong about a lot of progressive issues.
But he strikes me as a diva more than a leader. He seems to want to be in the spotlight, and is willing to say something mildly unpopular with the most offensive spin possible. The only reason to do that is for attention. You won't convince people you're right with incendiary rhetoric, and it makes it much easier for conservatives and centrists to paint socialists as cranks.
He's like the anti-Walter Sobchak. He's not wrong, he's just an asshole. He's also often wrong, but that's not how the line goes. Would Libertarians like Walter if he ran for president? I dunno, libertarians are all cranks so maybe they would.
Anyway, I don't mind West running now to raise issues, but I wouldn't vote for him in this election and I don't know anyone else who will. He's not siphoning support from Biden, because any reasonable progressive is voting against Trump.
You'll note I said 'like' in favor of 'vote'... Obviously we need to be voting to defeat trump, and I doubt any credible progressive is going to be not recognizing that.
but can I ask who, if that wasn't an issue, would you like? Or maybe better way of saying it. If we had ranked choice or similar voting system... who'd be your first pick?
Bernie will always be my first pick as long as he isn't retired.
They didnt just screw Bernie. They screwed America
I'd vote for Bernie. I'd vote for AOC or Tlaib. I really like Cori Bush. Fetterman is my Senator, and I'll vote for him again even though I disagree with his stance on Israel. Really, I don't agree with anyone on Israel/Palestine, because that situation is far too nuanced to be expressed by a politician in an election year.
Also, if I had a pick, I would go with STAR voting. It's better than RCV in almost every way.
I think you just described Dave Chappelle.
Maybe, but I wouldn't call Chappelle a progressive.
a vote for cornel west is a vote against trump.
I don't subscribe to the belief that third party votes are "owed" to anybody. I've voted for third party candidates in the past, hoping to send a message to candidates from the two parties, with almost no success.
For a while, I worked as a realtor, and we would talk about the value of direct mailer postcards. The critical point was that you were trying to send a message to the recipient in the time that it took them to see your postcard and walk it over to their recycling bin. That was your window, and if your message took longer than that to digest, it was wasted.
That's how I think of the message you send with a third party vote. The message lasts as long as it takes for the party to walk your votes over to their trashcan. Your candidate won't win. If the message is strong, like say for instance the margin of victory is smaller than the percent of third party votes, they might remember you in the next election. Maybe. But they are just as likely to write it off as a fluke or an outlier, because that's easier than introspection.
There are two viable parties. You can support one or the other, or neither. But there is a clear difference between the two, and while you might not like everything about one party, there's going to be one party that stands for everything you hate.
You can vote against the party you hate, but if you don't, you can't really complain when they win and do everything you hate. Voting for a third party does nothing at all.
a vote for any party is a vote against all other parties.
Not really. A vote for a third oarty is a vote for nobody.
only a no vote is a vote for nobody. don't spread misinformation.
If you go to a restaurant, let's say McDonald's, and you order something they don't have, like oysters and pasta, you aren't going to get what you ordered. It's as though you haven't ordered at all, because you won't get it.
You might think that ordering it could let McDonald's know that there is a demand for oysters and pasta, and maybe they will change the menu.
That won't work.
You might think other people in the restaurant will overhear you order it and decide they want that, too.
That won't work either.
Your order serves no purpose. Technically, you've asked for something, demanded it even, but you won't get it and you never will change the restaurant or the menu that way.
Telling anyone otherwise is spreading misinformation.
there will be more than two names on the ballot, and write ins are always allowed. this analogy doesn't hold up.
As a person? He's a great guy and PHENOMENALLY intelligent. He did the "Philosopher's Commentary" on the Matrix films, which is worth a listen.
He shouldn't be running for President though. ;)
Last I looked he was on the ballot in 6 states? It's 5 months to election day, if you're racing to get on the ballot at this point, your campaign is over. Pack it up.
Progressives?
Progressives aren't the target demographic. Progressives were so horrified by Trump, they'll vote Biden, no question.
The target demographic are people who were too dumb to know what was going on during Trump's term.
Who do progressives like?
Good question. I think a large part of the problem is there's not a lot of progressive candidates getting out of the state level. Without party endorsements, it's hard to get to any kind of national recognition sufficient to be a candidate.
and lets be honest, the DNC has actively been squashing any attempt at developing candidates who aren't kowtowing to the status quo. even just being not-a-boomer is enough to make it hard.
Several of the people I've personally liked and thought were progressives turned out to be assholes.
I like Bernie. Warren. I can name a few others, but really don't know enough about them to say if I like them or not. and that's a large part of the problem. Even if we ignore the progressive label... outside of a small handful of people, nobody really has the name recognition. and at this point I assume that's intentional to keep candidates like Biden and Hilary... relevant.
Hillary isn’t relevant.
Hasn’t been for eight years.
I know nothing about the guy, but I just skimmed over about 30 minutes of this and I can't tell what the hell he's talking about. As far as I can tell he's just talking in a funny cadence and listing people he really likes and from time to time touching real lightly on the idea that America does bad things sometimes.
Contrast that with (I just picked a random video from Youtube) Fred Hampton talking for 5 minutes and making simple, coherent, powerful points (among them hilariously enough being "we gonna have to do more than talk.")
I'm not trying to sit in judgement of West just because I watched one talk and didn't get anything from it. But I watched one talk and I didn't get anything from it. Does anyone have like a little TL;DR on what Cornel West believes and wants to make happen in the country?
Sure West is a great guy. He should be president.
.
Bill Maher is a piece of shit. I’m very happy they had a falling out.
.
He's a bit much sometimes. I prefer Bill Lehess.
Isn't it time to delete all your comments again?
.