Cornel West: Running for President, Ending Ukraine War & Taking on “Corporate Duopoly” of Dems & GOP

this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman well the 2024 presidential race is becoming more crowded former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former vice president Mike Pence have both joined the Republican race meanwhile the philosophy professor and civil rights activist Cornell West has announced he's running for president as a candidate with the People's Party in a short video release Monday Dr West criticized both the Democratic and Republican parties talking about hating anybody we're talking about loving we're talking about affirming we're talking about empowering those who have been pushed to the margins because neither political party wants to tell the truth about Wall Street about Ukraine about the Pentagon about big Tech U.S announcement surprised many political observers in 2008 he endorsed Barack Obama but later became a vocal critic of the Obama Biden Administration in 2016 and 2020 he backed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries Cornell West is now running as a member of the people's party which was founded by a former staffer of Sanders after the 2016 election as an alternative to the two-party system this will be the first time the party has fielded a candidate for president according to the new Republic The People's Party has ballot access and barely a handful of States Dr West is one of the nation's most recognized public intellectuals he's a professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary he formally taught at Princeton and Harvard Universities he's joining us now from Irvine California Cornell West welcome back to democracy now it's great to have you with us can you talk about why you've decided to run for president of the United States first Sister Amy I want to salute you you are an Exemplar of the longevity of integrity and consistency and you know we go back many many decades I just want to always begin on that note you're putting a smile on brother George and sister Dorothy's face your precious parents but no my uh uh announcement of running for president of the United States to um behead of the Empire to help dismantle uh it in such a way that poor and working people would be at the very center at the very core of our vision of what a good Society actually is it has to do as you can imagine with these these very Bleak times these very desperate times so it's a kind of Act of desperation you know I'm 70 years old I've been at this for 55 years and I have a calling that flows out of the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Hessel and Edward Zaid and Chief Joseph and Dorothy Day and Grace Lee Boggs and Luisa Marino all of those are the best of America and I think we're it's such a low point that America needs to be reintroduced to its best and it's best has always been the movements for justice the struggles for Freedom the solidarity based on a fundamental commitment to the Dignity of those Sly Stone calls every day people and there's no doubt in my mind that the two-party system now is a major impediment for the empowerment of poor and working people I'm thoroughly convinced that of course the neo-fascists Republican party uh has already made it very clear that they they're they're tied to Big Business and big military big Tech and so forth and the milk toast neoliberal Democratic party seem strikes me as being incapable of taking seriously the fundamental needs of poor and working people not just here but around the world the militarism abroad seven billion dollars Frozen for Afghan brother and sister in Afghanistan and what's what's been africom and Africa and what's been going on in the Middle East thank God that you keep track of the precious Palestinian brothers and sisters and all the hell that they're catching is you have it every day and I thank God that you do why because Palestinian peoples deserve to have a visibility in terms of their suffering and ways in which they can attempt to get out from understanding would be true of course for our Jewish brothers and sisters into Russia or in France where their their rights are being violated we're wrestling would organize greed with wrestling would institutionalize hatred we saw that with our precious gay brothers and lesbian sisters and queer siblings uh in the earlier report but it's also a matter of indifference there's an indifference to the plight of the vulnerable more and more it's becoming not just the fad and the fashion it's becoming a normalized way of life and that is what leads toward wholesale fascism not just here but in other parts of the world and we've seen it of course in Hungary you see it we saw it in Brazil we can go on and on in this regard so for me it was really a matter of trying to be consistent with what I've been about for the last 55 years Cornell you talk about militarism I want to ask you about Russia's invasion of Ukraine in March of last year you told the New Yorker we must try to stop the war recognizing that the American Empire has little or no moral Authority when it comes to violation of international law and the overthrow of national sovereignty as in Latin America the Middle East and Asia you've also called Putin you've been severely critical of President Putin for The Invasion talk about your views on what happened what is happening and how the war needs to end well one I think you have the Clash of two empires the Russian Empires the deeply wounded Empire it's had its territory cut back of course its economy is shrinking and then you've got the American Empire which is the most powerful Empire in the history of the world in fact it was the 68th Empire out of the 70 going back to the beginning of the human species and so on the one hand you have the promise of the American Empire to the Elites in the Russian Empire we will not move an inch and within decades 14 of these satellite countries of the Soviet Union the former Soviet Union are part of NATO that dismissals right on the borders and boundaries of the Russian Empire now we know Empires behave like Empires I mean if there's missiles in Canada and Mexico the United U.S government would blow them to Smithereens quick we saw in Cuba 1962 so that Empires behaved like Empires they're greedy they're driven by predatory capitalists dispositions they're obsessed with hierarchy they're concerned with domination and Conquest the Alexander the Great associated with a Grand Empire so that in that regard there's no doubt in my mind that the expansion of NATO has played a uh a crucial role in the wounded Russian Empire with all of its repression all of its regimentation let us never forget about the thousands of Russian brothers and sisters who are going to jail in opposition to Gangsta Putin's criminal invasion but he's pushed against the wall and he responds that's how heads of Empire respond so we've got to be in solidarity with the suffering of Ukrainian brothers and sisters but we have to recognize NATO is a instrument of American Imperial foreign policy we've seen it over and over again and so we're witnessing a proxy war there must be a ceasefire there must be a stopping of that war why we're on the road to nuclear the last thing we want to see my dear sister and as president what exactly would you do to stop that war oh one is I I I would pull back on the U.S military supporter I would sit down with the Elites from the Chinese Empire giving all of their forms of regimentation and repression in their own uh context think about our precious Muslim brothers and sisters in China the Cougars but I would sit down with the Chinese I would sit down with the ukrainians I would sit down with the Russians say we're going to stop this war and we're going to come up with a a plan a process with a variety of voices heard to make sure that the suffering stops and we understand and we're honest about the larger context of the war and unfortunately we just don't get this kind of perspective you know in corporate media thank God for democracy now and uh thank God for a few other venues to try to tell the truth about this because you know my dear sister Amy that I am I'm a jazz man in American politics and jazz is about blues and blues is about catastrophe lyrically expressed and candidly confronted and artistically transfigured and the catastrophes have to be wrestled with it can be ecological ones it could be economic ones of grotesque wealth inequality it can be social ones political ones psychic ones and then there is Swing which is a different conception of time so we have ways of authorizing a better future given what seemed to be all of the closed Roots all of the foreclosures all of the Alternatives trumped so you have to make sure that the vitality and energy that you have swings in such a way that you never lose hope in having solidarity with oppressed people around the world and of course the third element is improvisation and improvisation is about what well it's not just an artistic skill the Ron Carter's genius is like that's still I remind us it's also a form of practical wisdom as Freedom Fighters we got to be improvisational got to be flexible we've got to be fluid we got to be protein we got to learn how to listen we can't be dogmatic we can't be ossified we can't be petrified and how we look at the world and right now we have to have presidential debates and politics in which people who look at the world look at the world through the lens of what the great France Fanon called The Wretched of the earth people and working people no matter what color gender sexual orientation national identity or region Cornell you were a surrogate for Bernie Sanders in fact in 2016 he chose you as one of the people to write the Democratic party platform have you talked to him about your campaign you deciding to go outside the two-party system he ran as an although he is an independent and a socialist he ran inside the Democratic party and has he given you advice no no I haven't talked to Bernie recently we just did a wonderful event based on his wonderful book but brother John Nichols uh there in Brooklyn Academy of Music we had a wonderful time sister Jane in my beloved wife Anna heat that we we had a wonderful time with him and Bernie will always be my brother I've got a forever love for that brother we just have disagreements I don't think he would be surprised though because I of course supported the greens sister Jill Stein after I'd supported him just like I'd go back to the great Ralph Nader and a lot of people try to view those two as spoilers they're not spoilers at all you had mediocre neoliberal candidates who could not Galvanize the public so you don't blame it on the weaker parties and you'll never we will never actually be able to deal with the escalating fascism in America with milk toast neoliberalism you just end up with caretaker government you end up with postponing the collapse of democracy as my dear brother Jeff Stout says well you have to get at the roots of fascism which means I'm going to Trump country Sister Amy I'm going to talk to those white brothers and talk to those white sisters and say quit scapegoating the most vulnerable let us confront the most powerful I don't have a minute for any kind of a xenophobia but at the same time I know you're catching hell I know many of you have been losers in corporate globalization you've been pushed against the wall by big monopolies and and oligopolies you have difficulty trying to engage in any kind of unionization you have to transform and transpose and filter your fears through different means rather than following a neo-fascist Pied Piper we got to be able to speak to these folk directly and as fellow citizens and I plan to do that and of course I come out of the black tradition and so I've got to wrestle with my own black bourgeoisie I got to wrestle with my own black politicians who reinforce the neoliberal hegemony in the black community and I got to do with lovingly but I'm going to do it in a very direct way that they in many ways have given up on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr they've become intoxicated too often with the felicities of Bourgeois existence intoxicating with the wine of the world as the great negro national anthem Lift Every Voice says but we got black poor black working people catching hell mass incarceration crime against humanity who's a major architect of mass incarceration Joe Biden Invasion occupation of Iraq how many precious Iraqis killed at least half a million Iraqi life has exactly the same value as a life anywhere else in the world as a Palestinian life with Jewish life a Lithuanian life an Ethiopian life perform in life whatever Professor West I wanted to go to one of your first campaign videos which features a clip of an interview you did with podcaster Joe Rogan last year Spotify faced a wave of calls to remove Rogan from its platform for for promoting misinformation about covid-19 but also after this video resurface showing Rogan using the n-word on his show two dozen times there's one play clip it starts calling them you had people like um India ARA and others um actually pull their music from Spotify she would later put it back on and said she felt like she'd accomplished a lot and pointing out what he was doing especially and using the n-word can you talk about why you featured him in your campaign ad well one is it's an attempt to show that we have to have a realignment which means you have to be able to speak to people you have some deep disagreements with and uh I mean brother Joe Rogan you know he said a number of things that I have you know deep disagreements with I I don't think that censorship for the most part is the proper or appropriate way I I I I really don't I think that people must be free to express themselves but you would hope that they would have respect for others especially uh uh Black Folk indigenous peoples gay brothers lesbian sisters Jews Muslims Arabs those who traditionally have been been degraded but I think it's very important that we have conversations across ideological and political lines and therefore they're going to say it's sometimes some things that we have to call into question we keep them accountable I'm glad that the great indianari did that that that's a beautiful it's a beautiful thing that she has the right to do that as well to keep him account but I am suspicious of this censorship because usually the censorship in the end zeroes in on Freedom Fighters love Warriors the wounded healers think of the great Paul Robeson you think of Claudia Jones you think W.B Du Bois you think of Louisa Marino who I'd mentioned one of the greatest of the Latino Freedom Fighters yeah in the last 150 years who was deported to Guatemala because she supposedly had communist associations and so forth so that that kind of censorship is something that I'm very very uh uh suspicious of I've Got Deep libertarian sensibilities in that regard I'm India Larry also said she's against cancer culture and ultimately went back on Spotify um so uh you know democracy now we ask very critical questions I also want to read from a new Republic article about your candidacy and about the People's Party the article States quote while the party began in 2017 with Noble roots to form a new political party independent from corporate money and influence it's been marred in troubling allegations as well as broader organizational dysfunction numerous sources of corroborated sexual harassment allegations against Party founder Nick Rana last year former party member Paula Gene Swearingen said she'd witnessed Verona try to force himself onto former party executive directors on a day who confirmed the allegations herself numerous party board members were apparently forced out for encouraging investigations into the allegations and questioning whether Brana was still fit to lead the party unquote Brown has also praised The prominent anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy Jr who's also are running for president but as a Democrat he described Kennedy as a quote courageous leader whose environmental and vaccine advocacy has illuminated issues that few dare to confront so he's the founder of the party that you're running with the People's Party talk about why you chose the People's Party and if you would like to respond to those allegations and also the bigger point of why you didn't choose for example if you wanted to be outside the race the green party which has more ballot access but that's a lot there Cornell yeah no indeed and I appreciate that question too my dear sister I mean I mean I have a great love for my green party brothers and sisters I've worked twice with them and so I have nothing against their third party operations it would be nice if we had even a coming together but that's something that is for a different show but in terms of the history of the People's Party you know I was there at the founding there's no doubt about that and I've been a kind of honorary member of the board even though I haven't participated so I haven't followed all of the insides and outsides of what has happened it strikes me that there's been some very bad and ugly moments there's no doubt about that but I don't want to adjudicate as to who actually is guilty or who's actually innocent because I just don't know but there has to be accountability and especially when it comes to sexual harassment in terms of the sisters of any color that those are very very important issues arrested with and very serious charges in that regard but as I said before that for me I I wanted to be able to bring a serious critique to bear on the corporate duopoly and uh the People's Party and it's Inception and then its vision is a populist one so you got a number of different voices heterogeneous has got a it is very loose a lot of people say well is it an organization at all I mean it does anything hold it together and so forth and so on well that we shall see those are very important questions I don't want to act as if uh that they aren't serious challenges but I think that uh if we can deliver uh in such a way that we are treating each and every working person and poor people of any color with great respect in this campaign if we can raise voices to shape the discourse and dialogue in this campaign if we can not just bring pressure to Bear but begin to point out that the choice between Neil fascist brother Trump criminal in so many ways and the milk toast Biden who's so tied in the corporate wealth and corporate power they can have austerity in the recent depth ceiling agreement and steel allowed military expansion that we might be able to go much further further than a lot of people think a lot of people think but that history you know has to be wrestled with I don't I don't want to downplay that at all I just hope that we really do keep the focus though on um um what can be done at this particular moment not to erase the history but to make sure that as we make history in this moment that we are doing all and everything we can so Cornell West what would you do particularly working people are at the center and what would you do about immigration rights right now in this country about Reproductive Rights right now in this country and about this incredible threat to the country the greatest domestic violence threat which is white supremacy you were at the unite the right rally in Virginia not participating in it but there when you saw the neo-nazis March threatening you absolutely I mean Brother Martin used to say that the bombs that we drop abroad land at home the militarism around the world comes back to haunt us and we've got police departments that are militarized you have to break the back of the culture of Silence of the police departments that think they can get away with mistreating brutalizing sometimes murdering fellow citizens and as you know those fellow citizens are disproportionately black and brown But it includes all colors in terms of police murders every year at the Washington Post and other newspapers keep track of but you've got this as as a president you've got to use whatever Charisma whatever language whatever eloquence you can to try to ensure that you set it atmosphere such that mechanisms of accountability not just in police departments but at the workplace we need workers controlling Rick wolf and others have talked about not just at the workplace but in our cultural life the organized greed has been on steroids commodify everything everything for sale everybody's for sale that must be radically called into question and as a leader you call for Spiritual Awakening moral Reckoning and try to in some sense exemplify that not just in your policies you see but in your tone Cornell we have 10 seconds in your vision well I want to thank you so much but but immigration though you got to treat each immigrant with dignity oh that's the beginning part but I know we got a longer discussion on that Dr Cornell West has just announced he's running for president with the People's Party philosopher author critic actor civil rights activist and professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary author of many books I'm Amy Goodman thanks for joining us

Channel: Democracy Now!

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Length: 25min 47sec (1547 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2023