It’s not About Numbers, It’s About Integrity
Why Cornel West is Running for President
I just listened to the CSPAN interview of Cornel West and I am deeply impressed by his depth of thought, heart and integrity.
His answers to the callers were thoughtful and respectful. This is a man who can think for himself and speak in polysyllables, unlike recent POTUS candidates.
My favorite thing about professor West is his desire to abolish both poverty and US’s illegitimate wars. It seems a simple thing, but apparently these topics are not on the menu for either of the current parties (so hard to tell them apart sometimes).
He reiterates that running to “win” is not why he’s campaigning. He’s running in the hope to inspire the nation towards a moral spiritual awakening, and to reinvigorate true Democracy, why has been left bleeding and battered by both parties.
He says we can’t defeat fascism with a milk-toast political party that caves to corporate interests, we can only defeat fascism with love and integrity.
Professor West will be running on the Green Party line with Jill Stein’s help and likely be treated as horribly as Bernie Sanders was by the Dems, and have to fight for every state ballot while Dems sue to remove the Green Party ballot like they did in 2020 and 2016 doing the GOP a huge favor.
I hope he and Jill Stein use Peter Tosh’s song Gotta Walk and Don’t Look Back as their campaign song. It’s perfect.
#petertosh, #JillStein, #CornelWest, #GreenParty #Integrity, #Justice,
When the dems screwed Bernie, that was infuriating. I switched to Independent. Now I guess I’m going green, as futile as we know it is, at least it’s a choice of a real person of integrity. Talk about trying to fight “city hall”, the dark side has captured pretty much the whole of the country, and apparently the world as well. Maybe Pauline should invite Mr West on her podcast! ☮️❤️🌎
Cornel West is a much needed prophetic voice in politics and culture. He speaks from the depths of Black experience and spirituality in the USA, and that is important now also. He rightly notes that we are currently stuck with “the neofascist catastrophe” on the one hand, and “the neoliberal disaster” on the other. These two factions both respond to the competing elites, and so are actually getting more like each other all the time.
I notice also that Cornel West is aware of ecological and civilizational collapse.
Collapse awareness and acceptance - in the USA, at least - remains centered on white and mostly wealthy experience and narratives. We actually define collapse and extinction exclusively through the lenses of various white paradigms - what we normalize as “science” and “reason” for example. We also often focus on the loss of personal security and comfort for the relatively well-off while minimizing the fact that other species and non-white and poor humans have been experiencing collapse for a very long time and continue to do so in much more extreme ways than those in “developed” nations.
Ecocide continues as we jettison the poor and the Global South, but that is seldom talked about in collapse circles. Human genocide is ongoing and accelerating, as is the broader ecocide that human genocide is but one manifestation.
If we are to create any sort of beloved community in these times we need to include and center people and voices who have been excluded and marginalized.
We are out of time, energy, and materials to make any kind of soft landing. We need to prepare for impact as civilization tears itself apart. And the bigger collapse - ecological collapse - will likely overtake the collapse of civilization.
Cornel West at least appeals to people to take a path that is less violent and more loving and just.