wow. The People's Party has done it! This could transform the landscape of a very divided America.
In a very good way. Not that he'd win even if he won the popular vote. The electoral college will make sure a warmonger and divider-in-chief of their liking gets in. But at least his campaign might be a way forward to bring the populace together.
If nothing else, putting a shiv or a shank into Team D is a worthy and admirable goal, for this makes Team D take the the antiwar movement more seriously.
If Team D can blatantly cheat Sanders, who cringes like a whipped dog in response, this shows that Sanders can be ignored and taken for granted. Hell, too many of his followers even make excuses.
I hear you. Bernie is part of the system despite what he claims to champion, and the good works of his past. But seriously, both teams need shiving. Both are hatemongering, warmongering, and divisive in their own precious ways. There has not been a president in a century, maybe more, who is not a war criminal. They all have had an opportunity to show courage and stand up to the MIC. JFK did and look what that got him.
Feral you do Elmer Gantry Trump. But Bernie did miss his chance he should have run as an independent. Rust belt whites should vote with their fellow black workers, its time to end the Jim Crow divide and conquer their rich white masters have been using for over a hundred years. Cornel is the choice now.
I think your asides on Sanders are out of place if you acknowledge that the whole electoral process is a tightly controlled charade.
Would anybody utter a peep if Sanders went ballistic in condemning the Ukraine War? He’d be thrown off the one committee that he chairs, and out of sight means out of mind. He knows and you do that he can do nothing significant on his own, that he can only be judged a success if his continuous hammering on the criminal oligarchy reverberates demonstrably. The price he pays to do what little he is able to do is evident in your casual character smearing. I’m sure the oligarchs appreciate you.
No, FF's "asides" on Sanders are absolutely necessary at this turn of events. For his beautiful but too-brief moment in the sun, Bernie earned a permanent place in the hearts of those of us who can still believe in the promise of America, but his place has, through Democratic corruption and intimidation, been rendered a dry and dusty crypt by now. If you shake it, it rattles with his inert, defeated, useless bones. For those with an ounce of residual idealism, it is time to say a final thank you and good-bye to the memory of that happy, hopeful Bernie time and turn our hearts toward those who might now deserve to carry the precious burden of our collective hopes and dreams. Cornel may very well be the one. I've been looking at RFK Jr. ,but Cornel, though a long shot, is incredibly powerful intellectually and spiritually.
The Bernie Time (as you put it) was most instructive, as it showed us a great deal about the depth of contempt that Team D has for Sanders and those like him.
Cornel and RFK Jr I fear will face stiffer, more salacious opposition than Sanders has endured, and there is nothing to suggest either’s political platform would expand beyond where it is presently. I admire them both, but I don’t understand your apparent Bernie fatigue.
Writing him off like a piston that won’t fire seems to fault him for the voter dormancy that is at the core of America’s political march toward fascism.
I am not a Sanders apologist or naively arguing that he’s making a difference, but his message is simple and clear and most importantly, true. To say that his time is over, well how do you make that assessment? Was his candidacy in 2016 simply a gimmick? The American economy is due to get worse sooner than later, and material instability will likely give more urgency to Sanders’ warnings.
It feels ironic to be arguing about a player in a process that is inherently illegitimate, and worse to dismiss that person for not achieving unlikely results.
HRC? Ouch. Your aggressive verbiage betrays a weak hand. Sanders is as far left as the Senate has seen in decades, and it apparently frustrates you that he can’t reform his sycophant peers. So rather than cite the betrayal of the Democrats who have sold their seats, just go after the one who hasn’t. Classic deflection.
My wife attended the University of Chicago before Senator Sanders. I visited Hyde Park Regularly but I lived in the ghetto just South of the Midway. Before Chicago I lived in a small Northern farming Hamlet and before that in one of Canada's Aboriginal Nations that was newly sovereign. I am autistic but I am not stupid like so many "normal" people.
There are wise people at the UofC but the overwhelming number are good students and not much else. Genius is found everywhere. I am an idiot in many respects but when my dog walked onto the UofC campus his intellectual understanding was in the top percentage of intellectual insight on campus and he was charismatic.
Quebec's conservative government is left of Bernie Sanders yet the English media accuses it of fascism. I love Orwell . I love his essays but his Biblical allegory 1984 is what awakened me in 1963. I am autistic I don't do clocks and calendars very well because it always seems to be 1984.
Really? So for you a person with a long track record of speaking truth to power - promoting the well being of the “least among these” (minorities, marginalized, earth herself, disenfranchised, victims of police violence and the for- profit carceral state, the jobless, etc) to run for President is but a mere gratuitous effort to “perpetuate the identity politics culture war”? Interesting.
I've read, followed, and supported Dr. West for decades. Your assumptions and innuendo are all wrong, my friend.
Both West and Chris Hedges, in the past, repeatedly emphasize the need for the left to build power via movement politics that are outside political parties and both have criticized the dedicated of activist resources and attention join electoral politics. Both have condemned the politics of a charismatic leader.
All I am doing his holding both of them accountable to their prior arguments, which I strongly agree with.
The People's Party is a potential third party vehicle, but it needs movement horsepower, which I see no evidence of.
Hedges has also repeatedly criticized identity politics. He emphasizes the need to focus on class politics, movements, and corporate power - I agree.
Ironically, Hedges also has embraced exactly the kind of class and issues based coalition building that RFK, Jr. is attempting that avoids identity politics in favor of more "universal" politics. Many denounce this as a "red-brown" alliance.
I am sure that the Team D mainstream will only double down and keep doing so until they get tired of losing or until the antiwar movement loses voting discipline.
This is how, for instance, the right-to-life movement maintains its grip on Team R. Team D fantasies aside, the RNC bigwigs don't like the right-to-life movement all that much. You those bigwigs alone in a room and they don't talk about abortion and they really don't want to talk about it. At most, they wish that the issue would just go away.
But those same bigwigs also know the price for white evangelical support.
The RNC bigwigs are now all White Christian Nationalist fascist and they back Trump.
You underestimate the fascist cultural and political dynamics - they're not running away from that religious agenda they embrace it, are linking it to other right wing movements, and are expanding its scope into everything, from public libraries, to schools, etc and are hijacking virtually every public institution.
Interesting the bent of your comment the conclusion of which - there’s nothing anyone can do, give up. I do wonder were your son and daughter caught inside your burning house would you sit there watching because the fire hoses have holes in them?
A presidential candidacy is not the answer to building power on the left.
That requires first a movement, and then the building of a party structure. That can't happen only by celebrity candidates parachuting into awn election cycle.
I read the headline, at first in disbelief, but when it hit home, I wept in relief and gratitude. And now I have read Chris' article and my heart is full. Thank you, Chris.
Thank you so much, Dr. West! Dr. West for president!! With all my heart!
Brother West has my support no ifs ands or buts about it, but what about the very real criticisms of the People's Party leadership, Chris? Lot of allegations made there by pretty credible people.
if you watch this video by David Doel from yesterday, he gives a pretty good overview of all of the allegations, and shows you what outlets reported what - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsPXWBP9CkI - if you want to hear the allegations from the people themselves, the vanguard had them all on about a year ago, so just search vanguard people's party in youtube
the point wasn't the presenter or his opinion. the video has a pretty good overview of the allegations, sourced in the description. Sadly there are a lot of them. It's hard to find them all in one place... sexual harassment, racism, misallocated funds, a lack of financial transparency, never meeting roadmap promises like fielding local candidates, ballot access, not paying employees, firing people for speaking up about basic ethical considerations, and on and on. All of this stuff can be found in various articles if you find that dude off-putting.
I clicked on your link, and, in all honesty, I didn’t find it compelling.
The commentator reminds me of the infomercial guy who grabs your attention with a significant claim, and then spends 15 minutes explaining what he is going to tell you. If I understand the main criticisms, The People’s Party is only on 3 states’ ballots presently, and that is evidence of incompetence or stupidity, or an unacceptable lack of organizational skill.
The People’s Party appears to be led by a man who has harassed multiple women. Critics of his suitability have been purged from the party. The party has multiple critics. And this proves it isn’t run democratically.
My problem is that, without playing nicely with people invested in the status quo, the party will be cash-poor and marginalized. The undemocratic charge sounds plausible, but doesn’t prove to me that this is an intractable or deal breaking issue. Squabbling happens in all families, and this charge doesn’t appear to have legal implications.
The most damning criticism of West will come from gentle voices of reason. Some of my best friends are black socialists, but West has an illegitimate party backing him. Let the shitstorm begin.
Dr. West has a lot more power than he may realize. Included among his supporters are Americans who until this watershed moment, saw no morally right path to building a just and sustainable society utilizing the existing structures of governance, "a new society within the shell of the old," as the International Workers of the World slogan describes the goal. There are a legions of folks out here in TV Land anxious to embark on such an endeavor, many more than the smug Oligarchs imagine. We have been waiting for a leader with the ability to make clear why our politics must be driven by spiritual as well as secular needs and why our paradigm for change must include all sentient beings, not just the rich and powerful managers of the corrupt duopoly that rules the Swamp in Washington D.C. As a Cornel West admirer for years, I believe he could be the facilitator of the Miracle we all yearn for. Power to the Party of the People!
I have always seen Dr. West as a latter day prophet. I am moved to tears to hear that, however his candidacy does, he will have a national platform to speak the unequivocal truth to the masses. That someone besides Bernie Sanders will finally represent reality to a foundering republic of lost souls ruled by corruption and greed. More power to you, Cornell!
I can vote for this.
It's a chance to have the best lives we could have. I'll vote for Cornell West!
wow. The People's Party has done it! This could transform the landscape of a very divided America.
In a very good way. Not that he'd win even if he won the popular vote. The electoral college will make sure a warmonger and divider-in-chief of their liking gets in. But at least his campaign might be a way forward to bring the populace together.
If nothing else, putting a shiv or a shank into Team D is a worthy and admirable goal, for this makes Team D take the the antiwar movement more seriously.
If Team D can blatantly cheat Sanders, who cringes like a whipped dog in response, this shows that Sanders can be ignored and taken for granted. Hell, too many of his followers even make excuses.
I hear you. Bernie is part of the system despite what he claims to champion, and the good works of his past. But seriously, both teams need shiving. Both are hatemongering, warmongering, and divisive in their own precious ways. There has not been a president in a century, maybe more, who is not a war criminal. They all have had an opportunity to show courage and stand up to the MIC. JFK did and look what that got him.
The time for a mild-mannered, rule-following, norms-abiding Sanders is long past.
What is needed is a Huey Long.
Feral you do Elmer Gantry Trump. But Bernie did miss his chance he should have run as an independent. Rust belt whites should vote with their fellow black workers, its time to end the Jim Crow divide and conquer their rich white masters have been using for over a hundred years. Cornel is the choice now.
Let me make myself perfectly clear. I detest Team D, but I said not a peep about supporting Trump.
No your opinion peeps point it out. You have all the same hates and biases. Quack! Quack! I was equating Huey Long with Trump.
I think your asides on Sanders are out of place if you acknowledge that the whole electoral process is a tightly controlled charade.
Would anybody utter a peep if Sanders went ballistic in condemning the Ukraine War? He’d be thrown off the one committee that he chairs, and out of sight means out of mind. He knows and you do that he can do nothing significant on his own, that he can only be judged a success if his continuous hammering on the criminal oligarchy reverberates demonstrably. The price he pays to do what little he is able to do is evident in your casual character smearing. I’m sure the oligarchs appreciate you.
No, FF's "asides" on Sanders are absolutely necessary at this turn of events. For his beautiful but too-brief moment in the sun, Bernie earned a permanent place in the hearts of those of us who can still believe in the promise of America, but his place has, through Democratic corruption and intimidation, been rendered a dry and dusty crypt by now. If you shake it, it rattles with his inert, defeated, useless bones. For those with an ounce of residual idealism, it is time to say a final thank you and good-bye to the memory of that happy, hopeful Bernie time and turn our hearts toward those who might now deserve to carry the precious burden of our collective hopes and dreams. Cornel may very well be the one. I've been looking at RFK Jr. ,but Cornel, though a long shot, is incredibly powerful intellectually and spiritually.
The Bernie Time (as you put it) was most instructive, as it showed us a great deal about the depth of contempt that Team D has for Sanders and those like him.
Cornel and RFK Jr I fear will face stiffer, more salacious opposition than Sanders has endured, and there is nothing to suggest either’s political platform would expand beyond where it is presently. I admire them both, but I don’t understand your apparent Bernie fatigue.
Writing him off like a piston that won’t fire seems to fault him for the voter dormancy that is at the core of America’s political march toward fascism.
I am not a Sanders apologist or naively arguing that he’s making a difference, but his message is simple and clear and most importantly, true. To say that his time is over, well how do you make that assessment? Was his candidacy in 2016 simply a gimmick? The American economy is due to get worse sooner than later, and material instability will likely give more urgency to Sanders’ warnings.
It feels ironic to be arguing about a player in a process that is inherently illegitimate, and worse to dismiss that person for not achieving unlikely results.
So you're saying that he's not exactly a profile in courage. Meanwhile the war machine marches on.
As I said, the time for a mild-mannered, rule-following, norms-abiding Sanders is long past.
And his resignation in theatrical disgust from his position would gain your appreciation? Your rhetorical standards are unimpeachable. Bully for you.
What I spoke of was a shiv, not a protest. Don't endorse HRC, for starters.
Team D knows that they owe Sanders nothing and can count on his support even as they cheat him over and over.
HRC? Ouch. Your aggressive verbiage betrays a weak hand. Sanders is as far left as the Senate has seen in decades, and it apparently frustrates you that he can’t reform his sycophant peers. So rather than cite the betrayal of the Democrats who have sold their seats, just go after the one who hasn’t. Classic deflection.
My wife attended the University of Chicago before Senator Sanders. I visited Hyde Park Regularly but I lived in the ghetto just South of the Midway. Before Chicago I lived in a small Northern farming Hamlet and before that in one of Canada's Aboriginal Nations that was newly sovereign. I am autistic but I am not stupid like so many "normal" people.
There are wise people at the UofC but the overwhelming number are good students and not much else. Genius is found everywhere. I am an idiot in many respects but when my dog walked onto the UofC campus his intellectual understanding was in the top percentage of intellectual insight on campus and he was charismatic.
Quebec's conservative government is left of Bernie Sanders yet the English media accuses it of fascism. I love Orwell . I love his essays but his Biblical allegory 1984 is what awakened me in 1963. I am autistic I don't do clocks and calendars very well because it always seems to be 1984.
All this will do is perpetuate the identity politics culture war.
Really? So for you a person with a long track record of speaking truth to power - promoting the well being of the “least among these” (minorities, marginalized, earth herself, disenfranchised, victims of police violence and the for- profit carceral state, the jobless, etc) to run for President is but a mere gratuitous effort to “perpetuate the identity politics culture war”? Interesting.
I've read, followed, and supported Dr. West for decades. Your assumptions and innuendo are all wrong, my friend.
Both West and Chris Hedges, in the past, repeatedly emphasize the need for the left to build power via movement politics that are outside political parties and both have criticized the dedicated of activist resources and attention join electoral politics. Both have condemned the politics of a charismatic leader.
All I am doing his holding both of them accountable to their prior arguments, which I strongly agree with.
The People's Party is a potential third party vehicle, but it needs movement horsepower, which I see no evidence of.
Hedges has also repeatedly criticized identity politics. He emphasizes the need to focus on class politics, movements, and corporate power - I agree.
Ironically, Hedges also has embraced exactly the kind of class and issues based coalition building that RFK, Jr. is attempting that avoids identity politics in favor of more "universal" politics. Many denounce this as a "red-brown" alliance.
Good lord. Please name a weighty historical movement that shifted the dial on significant social change that did not have articulate leaders.
I am sure that the Team D mainstream will only double down and keep doing so until they get tired of losing or until the antiwar movement loses voting discipline.
This is how, for instance, the right-to-life movement maintains its grip on Team R. Team D fantasies aside, the RNC bigwigs don't like the right-to-life movement all that much. You those bigwigs alone in a room and they don't talk about abortion and they really don't want to talk about it. At most, they wish that the issue would just go away.
But those same bigwigs also know the price for white evangelical support.
The RNC bigwigs are now all White Christian Nationalist fascist and they back Trump.
You underestimate the fascist cultural and political dynamics - they're not running away from that religious agenda they embrace it, are linking it to other right wing movements, and are expanding its scope into everything, from public libraries, to schools, etc and are hijacking virtually every public institution.
Which is why so many former trumpers are running for president, LOL.
Frankly, that sounds like the kinds of excuses people make to justify loyalty to Team D.
And they are polling somewhere between 0 and 2%.
Chris Christie won't make a dent, despite his "gravitas"!!!!
Interesting the bent of your comment the conclusion of which - there’s nothing anyone can do, give up. I do wonder were your son and daughter caught inside your burning house would you sit there watching because the fire hoses have holes in them?
A presidential candidacy is not the answer to building power on the left.
That requires first a movement, and then the building of a party structure. That can't happen only by celebrity candidates parachuting into awn election cycle.
I will break my promise to myself and donate to a presidential campaign. To this presidential campaign.
I read the headline, at first in disbelief, but when it hit home, I wept in relief and gratitude. And now I have read Chris' article and my heart is full. Thank you, Chris.
Thank you so much, Dr. West! Dr. West for president!! With all my heart!
🤗👍....he has my vote...yes!
I agree. It is time to never support war criminals. Everything you both have stood for I agree with. You have my support.
Brother West has my support no ifs ands or buts about it, but what about the very real criticisms of the People's Party leadership, Chris? Lot of allegations made there by pretty credible people.
Any links you care to share?
if you watch this video by David Doel from yesterday, he gives a pretty good overview of all of the allegations, and shows you what outlets reported what - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsPXWBP9CkI - if you want to hear the allegations from the people themselves, the vanguard had them all on about a year ago, so just search vanguard people's party in youtube
Thanks Max.
My pleasure. I had really high hopes for the PP. It's a shame what happened.
the point wasn't the presenter or his opinion. the video has a pretty good overview of the allegations, sourced in the description. Sadly there are a lot of them. It's hard to find them all in one place... sexual harassment, racism, misallocated funds, a lack of financial transparency, never meeting roadmap promises like fielding local candidates, ballot access, not paying employees, firing people for speaking up about basic ethical considerations, and on and on. All of this stuff can be found in various articles if you find that dude off-putting.
I clicked on your link, and, in all honesty, I didn’t find it compelling.
The commentator reminds me of the infomercial guy who grabs your attention with a significant claim, and then spends 15 minutes explaining what he is going to tell you. If I understand the main criticisms, The People’s Party is only on 3 states’ ballots presently, and that is evidence of incompetence or stupidity, or an unacceptable lack of organizational skill.
The People’s Party appears to be led by a man who has harassed multiple women. Critics of his suitability have been purged from the party. The party has multiple critics. And this proves it isn’t run democratically.
My problem is that, without playing nicely with people invested in the status quo, the party will be cash-poor and marginalized. The undemocratic charge sounds plausible, but doesn’t prove to me that this is an intractable or deal breaking issue. Squabbling happens in all families, and this charge doesn’t appear to have legal implications.
The most damning criticism of West will come from gentle voices of reason. Some of my best friends are black socialists, but West has an illegitimate party backing him. Let the shitstorm begin.
I've committed to #DropTheDupoply & #Vote3rdPartyorStayHome. I will certainly support Dr. West!
Just subscribed. I'm pumped!
Such good news. God bless both of you.
Cornell West for President. Medea Benjamin for Vice President.
Dr. West has a lot more power than he may realize. Included among his supporters are Americans who until this watershed moment, saw no morally right path to building a just and sustainable society utilizing the existing structures of governance, "a new society within the shell of the old," as the International Workers of the World slogan describes the goal. There are a legions of folks out here in TV Land anxious to embark on such an endeavor, many more than the smug Oligarchs imagine. We have been waiting for a leader with the ability to make clear why our politics must be driven by spiritual as well as secular needs and why our paradigm for change must include all sentient beings, not just the rich and powerful managers of the corrupt duopoly that rules the Swamp in Washington D.C. As a Cornel West admirer for years, I believe he could be the facilitator of the Miracle we all yearn for. Power to the Party of the People!
I have always seen Dr. West as a latter day prophet. I am moved to tears to hear that, however his candidacy does, he will have a national platform to speak the unequivocal truth to the masses. That someone besides Bernie Sanders will finally represent reality to a foundering republic of lost souls ruled by corruption and greed. More power to you, Cornell!
How do we donate?
Cornel go, go !! Latinos for Cornel !