There is, however, an available arena where West could still provide useful pressure by laying out the left alternative to Bidenism: the Democratic primaries. On the debate stage, at campaign rallies, and in national media coverage, West, with his prophetic voice and moral clarity—like Sanders in 2016 and 2020—could accomplish a great deal.
D.D. Guttenplan is editor of The Nation.
Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of The Nation.
As if there will be debates, LOL
Providing a "left counter" to Biden that will eventually bow out and endorse him, where have I heard that before?
At least 2016 and 2020 actually felt like they might be a moment, Bernie was filling stadiums and shit.
2015 was crazy, happened to be in Boston on a weekend when Bernie was in town. 20K people showed up. Then after Trump, and with COVID, and how fucking lost Biden was... 2020 looked pretty good.
It's wild to think how much differently so much shit could have gone. Obviously Sanders would've been pretty knee-capped by Congress, but honestly people like(d) Bernie. He was coming on a little strong to some people, the "revolution" talk was very silly, but there was really nothing impugning his motives... He just presents as a grumpy grandpa who's got about as good politics as you could hope for from someone his age in the US, and must know something to have gotten those ideas into national level electoral politics in this country.
got about as good politics as you could hope for from someone his age in the US
My neighbors are Marxist Leninists in their 90s
Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of The Nation
Well it worked well enough for him last time
Fun fact: I graduated high school with him...used to play WC3 and soccer together.
Any chance they ditch Kamala? Her likelihood of becoming president because Biden croaks might not be as high as she is, but it's definitely non-zero. Albeit it wasn't the first time around, but that was a slim fucking margin as well... Obviously I want it because it'll be funny. There's no way they can hide her as much as they do now, I want to see her in action. Even if they hide her as much as Biden, she's still going to have to interact with foreign officials and kids and "small businesses" where not everything can be scripted
Who knows? DC is impenetrable these days. We've resorted to kremlinology, analyzing who's standing next to whom to try and puzzle out who's really in charge.
There is, however, an available arena where West could still provide useful pressure by laying out the left alternative to Bidenism: the Democratic primaries. On the debate stage, at campaign rallies, and in national media coverage, West, with his prophetic voice and moral clarity—like Sanders in 2016 and 2020—could accomplish a great deal.
D.D. Guttenplan is editor of The Nation.
Man I could be editor of a magazine too then huh?
Biden will win the Dem primaries for the same reason he won last time. All the Dem talking heads will go out to the public and shame voters, who absolutely think biden is dogshit, into voting for him because "its just too risky because of Trump".
What’s the Hexbear opinion on Cornel West’s candidacy? I have no illusions that he is anything other than a social democrat … but no other candidate with any chance of success is talking about disbanding NATO, public healthcare, in short, Bernie-style policies. If he were elected over Biden (unlikely in 2024 but sometimes it takes a cycle for the public to get used to the idea of a new politician) it would be a forward step I think. Not everything but something.
He was pro Reagan. In 2011.
He co-authored a pro-desantis op-ed in the last year because Desanctimonius passed some law benefiting some ghoulish education NGO West co-founded with a Hertiage guy.
Bro makes Bernie look like Stalin.
Lmao I just read about West’s tweet about Reagan being a freedom fighter. The fuck?
I thank my dear brother Russell Brand for providing the stage for my presidential announcement! He is a progressive gem!
https://twitter.com/CornelWest/status/1666114005877010432?lang=en
your soc dem candidate will indeed tweet rumble clips with Russel Brand and they will seem entirely reasonable when you compare them next to RFK jr
His rhetoric is pretty anti-AES at times. Likes to use the label "imperalism" to describe anything Russia and China do. Very much seems like he'd try to do a tailism to win over the racist elements of the white working class.
On the other hand, he's got name recognition and calls the USA an imperialist racist nation.
So maybe slightly left of Tulsi Gabbard
