American voters feel “impotent and hopeless” as they approach an election where the main choices are a “neo-fascist Pied Piper” (Donald Trump) or “the war criminals of the Democratic Party”, argues independent presidential candidate Cornel West.
West, one of the United States’s pre-eminent philosophers and justice activists, tells host Steve Clemons that President Joe Biden is enabling Israeli genocide and that Israel cannot be secure if “precious Jewish security and safety is predicated on the domination of precious Palestinians”.
West argues that recent talk of a two-state solution is “subterfuge – a refusal to deal with the 700,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank”.
Again, with respect, I’d suggest that a Google search and explication from that isn’t enough here. West is a black liberation theologian who married Marxist analysis to black American experience, particularly spirituality. He’s not Gramsci. He is first an foremost a Christian theologian focused on ethics over and above being a communist, a clear fundamental contradiction. He understands this and embraces it. You can read more about his foundational thought in Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity. You really need to understand the black church to understand West.
If being a pure Marxist and/or Communist is your minimum, then West isn’t the candidate to back. Simple as. But that standard sure as shit wasn’t the same for Bernie or others in American electoral politics. It’s not applied to Jeremiah Wright when he preaches when folks gobble up those paragraphs.
As far as that article and his political campaigns are concerned, West strives to emphasize every person’s humanity and value and to reach out to everyone, regardless of their beliefs, to educate and create solidarity where it can exist. That’s why he addresses folks as “dear brother/sister/sibling.” Did you read that desantis article you linked? It was a lukewarm take about how the classics were revolutionary and can spur new revolutionary thought, and we should still read them. Like college professor intro class takes. It’s an attempt to reach out to people who like classics, that’s literally all.
West made awful decisions about how we was going to run for president. I don’t know why. I’d guess he got a bunch of conflicting statements and chose poorly each time. I am glad he abandoned the People’s Party after 2 days, and I’m bummed he abandoned the Green Party. He has Stein and Nader’s approval and backing, the latter of whom said he has a perfect platform with no aberrations. His campaign has been absolute dog shit, but he has as good a platform as anyone running today. But again, if being a Marxist is your minimum, he’s not the guy for you. That’s fine.
If you want to read more, there’s an article summarizing his Marxist thoughts here which has links to his works. If you were a fan of Michael Brooks, he discusses Marx on TMBS a few years back (I haven’t seen it, I’m more familiar with Wests academic work)