I’m not convinced that the Democratic Party can be reformed. I think it still has a kind of allegiance to a neoliberal orientation. It still has allegiance to Wall Street. . . . [N]eoliberalism is still hegemonic in the party.
My hunch is the Democratic Party has simply run out of gas. I mean, this was a party that couldn’t even publicly oppose TPP when we debated that in the platform committee. And that’s just one small example. Couldn’t stop – couldn’t vote to stop fracking and so on. So that it’s still so tied to big money.
When you have those kinds of restraints on you, these albatrosses around your neck, how are you going to be a party for the people? How are you going to be a party for working people, poor people? How are you going to be a party for those brothers and sisters in Yemen who are dealing with U.S.-supported troops and bombs killing them, mediated with the Saudi Arabian government? How are you going to deal with the Palestinians, deal with the Israeli occupation? How you going to deal with Africans, the expansion of AFRICOM and so forth? There has to be some integrity and moral consistency. And unfortunately, the Democratic Party just strikes me as not being able to meet that challenge. But I’ll work with Brother Bernie Sanders and others, both out of love and because I know in his heart he’s got a certain deep commitment to working people. But now, even as an independent socialist, he’s behaving as a New Deal liberal.
. . . [A] Democratic socialist is a radical who’s critical of the system. A New Deal liberal works within the system and doesn’t want to bring massive critique for structural change. And I can understand it, because he’s inside. But those of us who are outside and free, we’re going to tell the truth. We’re going to be honest. We’re going to have a certain kind of moral and spiritual and intellectual integrity. And no matter how marginal that makes us, we’re not in any way going to become well adjusted to injustice.
– Cornel West
Excerpted from “Cornel West: Unlike Bernie Sanders,
I’m Not Convinced the Democratic Party Can Be Reformed”
Democracy Now!
December 1, 2016
Excerpted from “Cornel West: Unlike Bernie Sanders,
I’m Not Convinced the Democratic Party Can Be Reformed”
Democracy Now!
December 1, 2016
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump as President
• Cornel West: “The Next Step Is a Green Step, a Progressive Step”
• Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein: Is a “Historic Collaboration” in the Making?
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