Back in June, left-wing activist and a leading scholar on work, class, and race, Cornel West announced his candidacy for president as a member of the Green Party to little fanfare but is increasingly rousing concern among those in the Democratic party.
West has been antagonistic to both Republicans and Democrats and often bills himself as a populist alternative to the two-party system.
Sound familiar?
While you’d be hard-pressed to find two men more polar opposites in personality and policy, both Donald Trump and Cornel West appeal to voters as alternatives to current establishment politicians.
MSNBC said West’s “‘leftist’ presidential bid has right-wing DNA.”
West would hardly see the parallels. In a 2020 interview with Bill Maher, the self-ascribed non-Marxist socialist (I don’t think I’ll ever be convinced such a thing exists) called Trump a neo-fascist. He doesn’t think any more highly of Biden deeming him a “milquetoast neoliberal.”
There are whispers that, should Cornel West enter the presidential campaign in any serious way, he would split the vote among black Democrats, leaving Trump victorious in the general election.
According to an August poll from Emerson College, a Trump vs. Biden matchup has the two elder statesmen relatively close, with Trump over Biden by 2 points.
Throw West into the picture, and the results are different. Trump would win the election by +5 with Trump securing 44 percent of the vote, Biden 39 percent, and West, 4 percent.
West Uses Christianity to Persuade Both Sides
As well known for his faith as his social policies, West attempts to marry Christianity with socialism in his work. I believe the two are inherently incompatible.
Christianity speaks to a type of freedom that cannot be attained through humans alone. It is granted to us by God, not government. The faith calls us to virtuous living through personal responsibility, yet, through grace, redeems us when we fail to live up to the lofty goals set out by the Lord. Through the tenets of Christianity, we strive to be better knowing as humans, we will always fall short but are absolved of our guilt.
Christians are also called to “love thy neighbor.” Scripture often speaks of “brothers” and “sisters” in Christ. In fact, West often uses the word “brother” to describe people he probably has disdain for, like Trump.
While West is unlikely to win over any Donald Trump acolytes, he may persuade enough disenchanted voters from the left to cast their ballot for him.
He is the perfect candidate for those who subscribe to a version of Christ I like to call therapeutic Jesus. These are Christians who prescribe wholeheartedly to Jesus’s tenets of compassion and caring but aren’t much into the rule-based order in the rest of the Bible.
However, West has supported more traditional conservative platforms as well, although he is loath to call them conservative. In May of this year, West co-authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal supporting Republican candidate and current Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in his push for classical education.
West defended the classical literature tradition saying truth transcends partisanship. “Education based on values, logic and discipline isn’t Republican—it’s timeless.”
He says some of the most revered works from Galileo, St. Thomas of Aquinas, Solzhenitsyn, and MLK, Jr. were often the most controversial in their era.
“Even the most mild-mannered of philosophers stirred trouble for thinking against the grain,” West commented.
But if there’s one thing the left doesn’t tolerate well, it’s thinking against the grain.
Candidates Must Earn Votes
In addition, in an interview with Fox’s Laura Ingram, West mimicked a sentiment often put forth by DeSantis when asked about his potential to pull votes from Joe Biden and toss the victory to a Republican.
“The Democratic and the Republican party are not entitled to any votes, they have to earn those votes.”
He continued, “Democrats have no ownership over any vote. Black vote, working people, women and so forth. Republicans have no ownership. You have to earn it.”
Although he hasn’t garnered too much attention in the press, West could become a significant if not widely publicized concern for Democrats.
He may not be a serious contender for the presidential bid, but his ideas, and ability to disrupt the Democrats’ agenda should most definitely be taken seriously.
Jennifer Galardi is the politics and culture editor for 19FortyFive.com. She has a Master’s in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and produces and hosts the podcast Connection with conversations that address health, culture, politics and policy. In a previous life, she wrote for publications in the health, fitness, and nutrition space. In addition, her pieces have been published in the Epoch Times and Pepperdine Policy Review.
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