Cornel West, November 2024, Vote Blue Who?, and Political Praxis

 No one asked for my take on Cornel West running for president, so here we go:

1. It’s only June 2023.  The election is 16 months away.  We have been trained to see “politics” as (presidential) elections (only).  This tendency--including this unsolicited post--comes at the expense of actual material fights and political opportunities right in front of us, now.  This tendency makes some media people/companies/advertisers a lot of money.

2. To be clear, Democrats don’t actually mean “vote blue no matter who.”  The case of India Walton in Buffalo is the clearest proof of that.  She won the Democratic primary election for mayor, upsetting the incumbent.  Instead of “vote blue no matter who” though, the incumbent ran a successful write-in campaign with the backing of NY state and national Democratic party leaders.  Walton lost.  Thus, we should at least be honest: the bad faith admonition to “vote blue no matter who” is only meant for the party’s left flank.  Another Buffalo Is Possible | The New Yorker.

3. Cornel West, in his own words, on why he is running: Cornel West on Running for President, Ending Ukraine War & Taking on “Corporate Duopoly” of Dems & GOP | Democracy Now!.  I can’t disagree at all with his analysis of our rotten system.

1. Thanks to a beloved history teacher, I have been reading and listening to West for several decades.

2. West has his idiosyncrasies, as we all do, but he first fell out of favor with liberals when he, rightly, kept up his "Socratic" critique of US empire under Obama, whom liberals had already canonized and whom they continue to worship.     

4. That being said, I don’t know whether West running for president in a third party is the best strategic move, and I don’t know yet whether I will vote for him.  Here’s an alternative but of course not new perspective, encouraging him to run inside the Democratic party: Cornel West Should Challenge Biden in the Democratic Primaries (jacobin.com)

1. I voted for Joe Biden in 2020 despite his long imperial, extractive, and deregulatory senate/VP career: An Elegy for Ted McGrath: "Yes, but...but yes, at the same time": Why I will vote for Joe Biden and think you should too

2. I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 despite her long imperial, extractive, and deregulatory first lady/senate/SecState career. 

5. That being said, flippantly dismissing Cornel West’s run illustrates that Democrats have learned little in the past 8 or 25 years.  Instead of trashing him, maybe they should reflect on the party’s rightward shift in the past 45 years: Instead of Trashing Cornel West, Here's what Democrats Could Do if they Actually Cared about Social and Economic Justice - CounterPunch.org

1. After Ralph Nader in 2000, Democrats scolded the left flank, “You should have run within the party” (with no serious reflection on the weakness of Gore or on his own imperial, extractive, and deregulatory senate career).  Fine then: Bernie challenges in 2016 and 2020.  But when those were effectively crushed, what I heard was, “Well, we didn’t really mean that.  We didn't want a serious challenger in the primary. He's not even a Democrat.”

1. Tangent: recently I heard someone remark, “If Nader hadn’t spoiled and if Gore had won, we would have tackled climate change by now,” which is just laughable.  An Inconvenient Truth: great film.  Doesn’t mean Gore did take on or would have taken on the fossil fuel companies.

6. I wish Democrats would fight their right flank with as much ruthlessness as they do their left.  The recent debt ceiling negotiations (an almost repeat from 2012) are telling of their priorities: That Time Biden Was Banned From Negotiating With Republicans (theintercept.com)

7. (To be clear, the Republican party has become an unhinged fascist party.  To argue that both parties are bad is not to argue that they’re equally bad.) 

8. A reminder on India Walton/Buffalo again.  They don’t actually mean “Vote blue no matter who”: Another Buffalo Is Possible | The New Yorker

1. Walton was defeated in the general election.  It’s also similarly frustrating to watch the Dem PACs and money swoop in to oppose progressives (including incumbents) in the primaries: It’s Nina Turner Against the Democratic Establishment in Ohio 11 | The Nation 

9. Voting is just one part of doing politics.  The election is still 16 months away.  Meanwhile, here are some missed opportunities:

1. The End of the Warrior Met Strike and the Utter Failure of the Democratic Imagination - In These Times

2. Betrayal of Railway Workers Ignites Working-Class Fury Toward Biden and Democrats (commondreams.org)

10. Voting is just one part of doing politics.  The election is still 16 months away.  Here are some present opportunities, not to be missed:

1. Wabtec: Wabtec Workers Walk Out for Grievance Strikes and Green Locomotives | Labor Notes

1. The Filthy Emissions of Railroad Locomotives—and the Rail Unions Sounding the Alarm - The American Prospect

2. UPS/Teamsters: Getting the Members into Motion at UPS | Labor Notes

11. Voting is just one part of doing politics, but the constant election cycle, especially with the Trump circus, does make media companies rich.  “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,” former CEO Les Moonves admitted in 2016.  They’re doing it again, and we’re feeding the circus.

1. Mainstream outlets, for the most part, have not accepted responsibility for their part in playing up of Trump.

2. Many mainstream media outlets/liberals/Democrats still blame Russian bots, Bernie Bros, Julian Assange, or Jill Stein for Trump’s election. (They also rightly blame the bullshit electoral college).

1. Russia 2016 election interference: What’s real, what’s overhyped? - Vox

2. Exposure to Russian Twitter Campaigns in 2016 Presidential Race Highly Concentrated, Largely Limited to Strongly Partisan Republicans (nyu.edu)

3. The media then lost its mind with Trump-Russia: The press versus the president, part one - Columbia Journalism Review (cjr.org)

3. Liberals/Democrats also have a convenient amnesia when it comes to their role in the 2008 crash and in the catastrophic “global war on terror,” which I argue are root causes of the nihilism that Trump feeds on: An Elegy for Ted McGrath: Lexus trumps olive tree: The limitations of a "good liberal" (Part 1: "Golden Arches")

12. The left flank is derided for being too ideological, as if the center doesn’t hold its own ideology: An Elegy for Ted McGrath: Lexus trumps olive tree: The limitations of a "good liberal" (Part 4: "Web People").  The left flank will be derided for “purity politics,” even when many of us nevertheless turn out to vote for Clinton, Biden, or candidates we're not enthused by.

1. Check out UNITE HERE’s work in Philly in 2020: UNITE HERE, union that knocked on doors of 3 million voters—including 575,000 in Philadelphia—celebrates victory for Biden/Harris : UNITE HERE!

13. But, let’s give Cornel West and November 2024 a rest.  The election is 16 months away.  Check out these not “pure” but on-the-ground, material (and often partial) victories!

1. Chipping away at the real estate state in Jersey City and elsewhere: Socialists Are Winning Right-to-Counsel Tenant Protections Across the US (jacobin.com)

2. Building publicly owned renewables in New York: How to Win a Green New Deal in Your State | The Nation

14. The election is 16 months away.  Check out these massive campaigns we’re trying to win now.  Get involved:

1. Uninsured and underinsured people are dying now, as we speak:

1. Cap prescription drugs in NJ now: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/pass-prescription-drug-price-caps-in-new-jersey/

2. Medicare for All: Tell Congress: Pass Medicare for All! (actionnetwork.org)

15. US aid and diplomatic cover are enabling the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in real-time.  Organize to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel: Get Involved | BDS Movement
16. "There is no final victory, as there is no final defeat.  There is just the same battle.  To be fought over and over again.  So toughen up, bloody toughen up." -Tony Benn