I know you probably didn't click on this blog post to take a quiz, but I have one question for you to briefly ponder - Who said the following?
"The American empire has little or no moral authority when it comes to violation of international law and the overthrow of national sovereignty, as in Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia." "For example, years ago, Gorbachev was promised that there would not be one inch added to the NATO countries, and now 14 are added. If in fact there's missiles in Poland and Romania, and no missiles in Canada and Mexico, then we have to be very honest in...recognizing that the United States has no moral status given its history, given its record of doing similar things."
By only the virtue of pure quotation, if you answered "Cornel West," you're correct. And if you answered, "Vladimir Putin," you are, by virtue of translation, also correct. In fact, here is an excerpt from Putin's televised speech on February 21st, 2022, given to the Russian people on the night of the Ukrainian invasion."
"All the while, they are trying to convince us over and over again that NATO is a peace-loving and purely defensive alliance that poses no threat to Russia. Again, they want us to take their word for it. But we are well aware of the real value of these words. In 1990, when German unification was discussed, the United States promised the Soviet leadership that NATO jurisdiction or military presence will not expand one inch to the east and that the unification of Germany will not lead to the spread of NATO's military organization to the east."
Former Harvard professor Cornel West recently announced that he is running for President as a third party candidate for the Green Party, for a so-called campaign for "truth and justice." In launching his campaign, he made the interesting (and suspicious) choice of appearing on Russell Brand's web show, run by a guy that is known to spread Russian propaganda and anti-vax conspiracy theories. (Granted - Cornell West is not an anti-vaxxer, and supported efforts in 2021 to promote the vaccine in black communities) I don't like to throw around the term "left-wing extremist" often, because conservatives enjoy painting people like AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren as "left-wing extremists." They are not. They are simply liberal-than-most Democrats with a grounded, principled ideology. But Cornel West is a left-wing extremist - a narcisstic, Trumpian man who does not belong anywhere near public office. He has a well-documented history of feuding with black political figures who are more popular than him, and subsequently lying about his intentions with the guise of seeking "ideological purity." In an interview for the New Yorker, he blamed science (instead of, you know, human nature) for racism because it was used to claim that black people were intellectually interior. Having radical political positions doesn't make you a bad person on its face - we would never be talking about a $15 minimum wage if so-called "radicals" hadn't pressed the issue into the political sphere. But Cornel West is the Eric Cartman of American political figures - burning everyone down in a tantrum of rage if they don't agree with him on everything.
"But Meehm, I want some peihh."
Like nearly all third party candidates, West doesn't actually have a real platform of ideas. Unlike real policy-makers, including the one in the White House today, West doesn't have any detailed plans for Social Security, he doesn't have any documentation for how he will amend the tax code, and he has no budget plan. In fact, I visited his website, and his "issues" are so simplistic, I can fit all them below:
That's it. That's the Cornell West plan for America. Six sticky notes. Maybe I should just run for President if this is all I need to get written up in a Politico article. You ready to vote for this clown yet? And if you start complaining that I'm being unfair to West because "campaigns don't need detailed proposals," I would remind you that this guy was a professor at Harvard, and worked on the same campus as Elizabeth Warren. If you go to her campaign website, every single one of her EIGHTY-ONE (yes, I counted them) most important issues come with an article, most totalling around 2,000 words. Here's just one of those: Click here. If a Harvard law professor can do it, so can a Harvard philosophy professor.
I couldn't really care about some of his proposals: Some of them are just designed to pander to anti-government granolas without any substantive plan to implement the plans themselves, like term-limits for members of Congress and "clean[ing] out government corruption (I've never heard that one before...)." Some of them are good ideas that Joe Biden actually agrees with, but can't get past the Senate, such as a high minimum wage, debt forgiveness, supporting unions, expanding social security, and regulating AI. On its face, these just seem like the typical third party liberal candidate: Someone who is a bit leftward of the incumbent Democrat, but is really on the same side as the Democratic Party. But here's where West's campaign makes me very suspicious: His Ukraine policy.
Cornel West has proposed abolishing NATO and cutting off American money to the Ukraine-Russia war. Let's be clear about something: If the Baltic states were not a part of NATO, Putin would be standing in the capital square of Vilnius while Russian troops stormed through the countryside of Lithuania on their way to Kaliningrad, and preparing to march on Warsaw. Putin is not acting in self-defense against an encroaching NATO, he's using that an excuse to bully western democracies. If the border of NATO extended only as far east as the Alsace-Lorraine, the Russian army would happily march their troops and tanks up to the Maginot Line if they could get away with it. Putin is a ruthless maniac who will take anything and everything he can, and weakness is something we dare not show if we want to beat this guy. Cornell West, more than anyone else, embodies weakness in the face of evil. West can try and hide behind every rhetorical curtain to pretend he isn't siding with the Russians - he can call Putin a "gangster" and "authoritarian" - but whining don't do a damn thing if America abandons Ukraine and simply watches as the Russians storm through Ukraine. Imagine if Cornel West was alive in June of 1940, and said, "We need to stop giving money to the French and should invest those billions into our communities instead." "Yes, but Hitler is a gangster and a bad guy though, so I'm not pro-Germany." Would you call him a hero for peace and love? No, you would look at such a guy and say he's in bed with Hitler and the Nazis!
Do I actually think that Cornel West is taking money from the Russians? Probably not. Is it possible? Definitely. Remember, Cornel West has been out of a job since he rage-quit from Harvard for the second time back in 2021. In the meantime, the guy has been sitting on board of academic advisers for a company that sells the "Classic Learning Test," a Christian-focused college admissions test that some conservatives have been pushing as a replacement for the SAT. Just last month, West co-authored an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal, along with the Republican CEO of that same company, Wayne Tate, praising Ron DeSantis for his "defense of the classics." If West is willing to sell his soul defending Ron DeSantis - the antithesis of any principles of classics, most importantly, seeking the truth over revisionist history - in exchange for money off of a ridiculous standardized test, do you really think he'd say no the Russians?
Again, I don't have proof, and I'm not going to claim otherwise, but the point I'm trying to make is this: Cornel West's entire campaign seems almost perfectly suited for what the Russians would want. West a liberal activist who can take away votes from Biden, which would elect the candidate that could yank American support from Ukraine on his first day of office. West thinks that NATO should be abolished, and he thinks giving weapons to the Ukrainians is a bad idea. Hmm, I wonder which maniacal dictator on the other side of the world would agree with that? Oh yeah, Putin. Cornel West's campaign is designed so thoroughly to benefit the Russian cause that an explanation of West taking money from the Kremlin actually becomes logically sound.
Jill Stein may not have empirically cost Hillary Clinton the election in 2016; in Pennsylvania, she only received 5,000 more votes than Trump's margin over Clinton. But she very likely cost Clinton in Michigan, where she received 4.65x the votes as Trump's margin of victory, meaning that if Clinton had received just a quarter of Stein's votes (probably a tiny bit more to account for a small fraction of those voters going for Trump), she would have won Michigan and its 16 electoral votes. 2016 came down to three states, but 2024 could come down to one state, and if Cornell West is getting 50,000 votes in Georgia, and Trump wins by 10,000, we can all congratulate West for ending democracy in America. Putin has supported third party candidates like Jill Stein, and there is no reason why he wouldn't do it again, now more than ever, as he continues to lose the war in Ukraine.
Just remember, this picture is real:
If West were committed to running a genuine, benign third party campaign, there are so many ways he could get his issues and ideas out there in the political universe without threatening to elect a criminal to the White House. America should be a place where the craziest, out-there ideas get put into the public forum, and get people's attention. It is, quite frankly, sad that we have a system of elections where third party candidates that receive such tiny portions of the vote can make drastic changes to our history. But this is the reality we live in - we can't change it in 16 months - so Cornel West should shut up and see the bigger picture.
All that West would have to do in order to stop threatening a second Trump presidency is to simply not run in the swing states. If he wants to campaign for possible Biden voters in California, Massachusetts, Wyoming, or Alabama, he should go for it! As long as West just doesn't put himself on the ballot in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia, I would have ZERO problem with him. None. People are entitled to their opinions, and if West doesn't threaten the safety of our democracy, he should go for it. Would I vote for him, even if I lived in a non-swing state (which I don't, because Texas might be in play)? No. Biden will make a much better President - a much better leader of a country with 330 million people, who knows how to govern with principles and compassion, and to make the tough decisions to move us forward.
Until Cornel West either runs against Biden in the Democratic primary, or decides to stop threatening him in the swing states, it is completely fair game to call him a Pro-Putin candidate.
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