The Quixotic Presidential Quest of Dr. Cornel West
Why He is Running
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The unexamined life is not worth living.
— Socrates
Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will die or live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution. Pass on the torch. Join us. Give up your life for the people.
— George Jackson, (Murdered by San Quentin prison guards, August 21, 1971). Blood In My Eye, 1972
Long-time philosopher, professor, teacher, preacher, political “activist”, public intellectual, social, cultural, economic, and American political gadfly, Dr. Cornel West is running for president.
Throughout his long academic and “activist” career, Dr. West has professed from the trifecta of America’s most prestigious Ivy League institutions of higher education –Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale University. The professor now holds forth from the equally renowned Union Theological Seminary. He will now carry the presidential banner of something called The People’s Party.
To wit:
“I have decided to run for truth and justice, which takes the form of running for President of the United States as a candidate for the People’s Party,” proclaimed Dr. West via video on Twitter.
Why now…at 70-years-old, and having long ago secured his place among the most incisive, persistent and influential social and racial justice advocates over the course of the last fifty years?
Dr. West, a philosopher in the mold of every social justice advocate’s and truth teller’s/ truth seeker’s favorite philosopher, Socrates, allowed that his campaign will laser-focus on health care, living wages, housing, reproductive rights and “de-escalating the destruction of the planet, the destruction of American democracy.”
