Thoughts on Cornel West’s Presidential Run

Cornel West – author, scholar, and Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary – announced in June that he was seeking the Green Party’s nomination for President of the United States in their primaries. (Earlier in June West had said he was running for president as a People’s Party candidate.)

As a third-party candidate, West is being accused by some on the left as being a “spoiler” candidate, one who will take votes away from Joe Biden and thus help secure a win for Donald Trump in November 2024. It’s a long-standing accusation leveled at third-party candidates, and one Meagan Day addressed back in 2017 when Democrats were accusing Green Party candidate Jill Stein of “stealing” votes from Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, thereby helping elect Trump. Day’s response to this charge remains as important tody as it did in 2017.

The fixation on the third-party vote is a decoy. Worse, it’s a fundamental miscalculation, especially for Democrats, who have a slightly better chance than Republicans of activating [the] dormant electorate [i.e., the roughly 40 percent of eligible American adults who declined to vote at all in the 2016 presidential election]. Or at least they could if they were willing to make material concessions to poor people of color at the expense of the donor class.

“Trump’s victory margin smaller than total Stein votes in key swing states,” carped a headline at The Hill in 2016, one of dozens or hundreds like it. But where are the headlines that read, “Trump’s margin of victory dwarfed by the number of poor non-voters in key swing states”? That’s the conversation we need to be having. Not which weight tipped the scale, but why the scale only holds half the weights to begin with.

More recently, Lucas Guzman addressed voting third-party in a counterpoint he wrote last October for The Daily Texan. Guzman writes in part:

Many people claim voting for third-party candidates is just as worthless as not voting at all, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. In state-level races such as California or Alabama, two states known for their partisan views, the leading party isn’t likely to change anytime soon. However, your dissenting vote will allow you to support a candidate that fairly represents your views, and can even serve as an opposing voice holding the leading party accountable. Voting for third party candidates could also force competitive races to have an even greater focus on policy in general, leading to more open conversations.

West, of course, wants to do more than facilitate “more open conversation,” as important as this is.

“I am running for truth and justice and as a candidate for president of the United States in the Green Party,” West says on his campaign’s official website. “I want to reintroduce America to the best of itself – the dignity, courage, and creativity of precious everyday people. Join our movement for priceless poor and working people of all colors here and abroad.”



“The Democratic party is beyond redemption”

About a week ago, Cornel West appeared on The Hill’s Rising podcast and talked with hosts Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave about his third party presidential run.

I should say that I don’t care for how Rising often promotes it’s various segments, with tabloid-looking and -sounding headlines. That being said, these segments’ actual content is generally always insightful and worthwhile. Case in point: the following interview with Cornel West. . . . Now, even though at this stage I remain 100% supportive of Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, whose platform very much overlaps with West’s, I found Rising’s interview well worth watching as it elicits some very powerful and inspiring observations from Dr. West on the dismal state of the Democratic party and the political, economic and moral state of the U.S.

The Democratic party has no fundamental intention of speaking to the needs of poor people or working people. They are dominated by their corporate wing; they’re dominated by the militarists when it comes to foreign policy; and [progressives like] Bernie and AOC and others are, in a certain sense, window dressing at worst, and, at best, people to appeal to every four years. But the Democratic party is beyond redemption at this point when it comes to seriously speaking to the needs of poor and working people.

I think we’ve reached such a low point that . . . we [need to] go for broke and try in fact to reshape our political system. [Yet things like] rank choice voting and proportional representation [which] would be possible things . . . the Democratic party has no interest in whatsoever. It’s clear that Biden and company have no serious interest in trying to scale back on the militarism abroad; they have no serious interest in trying to make poor and working people a priority. . . . And part of the paradox here is that the neo-fascism that’s escalating in predicated on the rottenness of the system in which the Democratic party facilitates that frustration and desperation because it can’t present an alternative [to the current status quo of the GOP’s neo-fascism and it own neoliberalism]. And if the system – if America – is unable to present an alternative to the Democratic party’s [neoliberalism] then we’re going fascist. We just need to acknowledge that. We’re going to go sooner or later. . . . So we’ve got to have some kind of break [from the status quo] or at least raise our voice and [speak to] the truth about our condition.

– Cornel West
August 29, 2023

A “legitimate and sensible alternative” . . . but not the only one

Thanks to my friend William D. Lindsay, I recently became aware of an insightful article about Cornel West and his candidacy by Wendell Griffen, Pastor at New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Following is an excerpt from Griffen’s August 29 piece, "We Should Not Disregard or Disrespect Cornel West’s Candidacy for President of the United States."

Why shouldn’t [we] treat Cornel West as a legitimate and sensible alternative to any of the other people who are announced candidates for the highest elective office in the United States? Whether you agree with West or not, why should you refuse to consider his candidacy as a prophetic and politically sensible alternative to any of the other candidates?

Why not weigh his values, vision, and commitment to democracy, inclusion, justice, peace, and global well-being alongside what the other candidates believe? Isn’t that essential for sound decision-making?

I’ve heard people – including those I deeply respect – say that West’s candidacy benefits Donald Trump. They admit that West has taught, written, lectured, advocated, and agitated for decades about matters and issues they care about.

They have a more favorable view of West than Joe Biden. However, these serious-minded people say that West’s Green Party candidacy will benefit Donald Trump by siphoning likely Democratic voters from Biden in the November 2024 presidential election.

I find that viewpoint unsound.

Biden’s approval rating among Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, women, the LGBTQ+ community, elderly, and working-class voters has been lukewarm, at best, for most of his presidency. Cornel West is not responsible for Biden’s low approval rating among likely Democratic voters.

It is fanciful to think that those voters will vote for Biden in large numbers if West is not on their ballot as the Green Party presidential candidate in 2024. A convenient fanciful notion is – wait for it – fanciful, no matter how much we might enjoy it. The fact that it is convenient, or even desirable, does not make the notion credible, let alone persuasive.

Voters who hold lukewarm views about Biden’s presidency have several options. Some will vote for him anyway. Others might vote for a third-party candidate (such as Cornel West) with whom they more strongly agree. Some voters might decide to “stay home.”

People concerned about Cornel West’s Green Party campaign for the U.S. presidency do not think that disgruntled and lukewarm Democratic voters are likely to vote for Donald Trump, or for any of the other politicians currently campaigning to be chosen as the Republican Party nominee in 2024. They fear that Trump’s right-wing base of white religious nationalists, neofascist imperialists, military adventurists, and free market capitalists will vote Trump back into power unless disgruntled and lukewarm Democratic voters re-elect Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

But if Joe Biden cannot persuade voters that he deserves their votes, no one should blame Cornel West. Instead, we should admit that those voters are free to vote for a presidential candidate whose record squares with their views and values.

They owe Biden no political fealty and are not required to serve the interests of the neoliberal capitalists who run the Democratic Party, whether West runs for president or not. Their voting preferences should be based on their realities, their histories, and their hopes.

– Wendell Griffen
Excerpted from "We Should Not Disregard or Disrespect
Cornel West’s Candidacy for President of the United States
GoodFaithMedia.org
August 31, 2020

A major critique I have of Wendell Griffen’s article on Cornel West is that towards the end of it he incorrectly writes that, “West should not be blamed because the Democratic and Republican Parties have offered no comparable candidates.”

Actually, there is a comparable Democratic candidate: Marianne Williamson.

I wonder: is it because Williamson’s a woman that she’s ignored?

Is it because she openly integrates spiritual and moral themes into her politics?

Or is it because the type of spirituality she emphasizes and embodies is often (and erroneously) labeled and dismissed as “New Age” that she’s routinely invisibilized?

I don’t have the answers, but the fact that these questions are present in the midst of Williamson’s genuinely progressive and refreshingly hope-filled presidential campaign is both disappointing and frustrating.

My friend David Weiss had the same critique, and I’ll close this post by sharing what he recently wrote on my Facebook page.

I had the *same* reaction in reading Wendell Griffen’s piece. Very appreciative of his amplifying Cornel West’s core and compelling vision, but caught off guard by the quick pivot to suggest he was the *only* candidate with such a transformative vision. Although West’s and Williamson’s visions (and temperaments) are not identical, they BOTH present a searing critique of a Democratic party establishment that seems satisfied to be “not-Republican,” rather than socially transformative. That party satisfaction with a merely mediocre vision of social well-being is perhaps the single biggest threat to our democracy, because it will invite the disenchanted and disempowered to simply stay home (or vote Green) because neither major party makes a credible claim to their vote.

Related Off-site Links:
Cornel West Also Is Running for President – Maina Mwaura (Baptist News Global, August 24, 2023).
Bad Biden Polls Stoke Third-party Angst for Democrats – Hanna Trudo (The Hill, September 9, 2023).
Nearly Half of Voters Would Consider a Third-Party Presidential Candidate in 2024 – Quinnipiac University National Poll (July 19, 2023).
Why American Voters Decide to Vote for Third Parties in Presidential Elections – Harmen Rockler (Syracuse University, Spring 2013).
Democrats Are Still Obsessed With Jill Stein. They Should Start Obsessing Over Non-voters Instead – Meagan Day (The Week, June 19, 2017).
No, Ralph Nader Did Not Hand the 2000 Presidential Election to George W. Bush – Anthony Fisher (Reason, August 3, 2016).
How Florida Democrats Torpedoed Gore – Jim Hightower (Salon, November 28, 2000).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Cornel West on Responding to the “Spiritual Decay That Cuts Across the Board”
• Cornel West on the Legacy of James Baldwin
• “Of Course America Is Racist”
• “Two of the Most Dedicated and Enlightened Heroes of Present Day America”
• Cornel West: Quote of the Day – December 3, 2020
• Eight Leading Progressive Voices on Why They’re Voting for Biden
• Ralph Nader: Quote of the Day – January 20, 2022
• Progressives and Obama
• Progressive Perspectives on the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump
• Rocking the Cradle of Power
• Now Here’s a Voice I’d Like to Hear Regularly on the Sunday Morning Talk Shows
• Marianne Williamson on the Current Condition of the U.S.
• Hope Over Fear

Opening image: Philosopher Dr. Cornel West speaks onstage during the “Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise” panel discussion at the PBS portion of the 2016 Television Critics Association Summer Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 29, 2016, in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)