I’m not Statesian (thank god!), but I’ve been paying some attention to Cornell West’s campaign since he announced it.
He’s not a Marxist, seems to be some kind of Christian socdem/demsoc, but I’ve noticed he’s pretty willing to denounce US imperialism, structural racism and genocidal practices. He seems to have gained some repercussion recently due to his support for Palestine, and he also has a history of cooperating with American Indigenous groups.
I know that the PSL has also announced their candidates (though tbh I haven’t heard much about them), but I want to start this discussion regarding the pragmatic decision to try and get West in one of the presidential debates.
I have no hopes of Statesians ever getting a Marxist from PSL there, but I think it’s in the realm of possibilities to have a third-party socdem to attack the DemRep duopoly for the sole purpose of building distrust from the population in both parties.
What do y’all think, does West deserve a little bit of critical support?
I strongly disagree with his choice to run as an independent (which came after his initial People’s Party run and then his opportunistic Green Party attempt, neither impressed me). He isn’t actually building a party apparatus and he isn’t in this race for any long-term gains, and that’s the only positive impact he could have. Without a labor party he’s just sucking up the oxygen from the possibility of actually becoming organized.
Fair enough, it makes sense. I guess it wouldn’t even be too harsh to say he’s basically fulfilling Bernie Sanders’s role from 2016/2020. Basically saying “there can be hope, but please don’t read Lenin or join one of the Marxist parties!”. It’s hard to have any hope for whatever will come out of the North in this electoral year.
I have hope that no candidate wins the popular vote, further delegitimizing the elections 😏
I think he should definitely be present at debates if possible (and so should PSL’s candidates) but I don’t think it’s very likely. He would be better than either main candidate and probably would raise class consciousness despite not being a scientific socialist.
in addition to what @queermunist@lemmy.ml said – he doesn’t seem to really support Palestine (IIRC he’s denounced the recent violent resistance), he’s just against “Israel” killing civilians
Yes. Anything that breaks the dupoly’s iron grip on any part of the electoral process is tactically beneficial. Not because we expect anything substantive to come from electoral means but because the process itself can be used as a platform for radicalization and agitation.
This is not to say that Cornel West will be the one to play this role on any but a very small number of issues where his role as controlled opposition “from the left” allows him to do so. Rather the opening up of debates to third party and independent candidates can set a precedent that might open the floodgates to more radical anti-establishment and anti-imperialist candidates. Regardless of the actual chances of winning of such candidates, it would be a disaster for the bourgeois dupoly to have their narrative challenged on such a large platform by non-systemic opposition.
Why vote for cornel west when you can vote for the PSL ticket? 🤷🏾♂️
The question was not about voting, it was about candidate participation in debates.
In my view, I think reaching the masses is more effective than hoping that Cornel might or might not be allowed to debate with Biden and the like. The only way Cornel would get onto the debate stage is if he had the most votes of the 3rd parties, which does come down to votes &/ polling imo.
