2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Heading Back to South Carolina with Cornel West in Tow [View all]dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)I like how Bernie is so skilled at not insulting the corporate Democrats he caucuses with in the Senate, nor the ones he opposes in the POTUS primary. It's an excellent skill that serves Bernie, and the Democratic Party, well, even though the points of disagreement are substantial.
When West criticizes Obama, he does so without that well-honed political skill that Bernie has. So therein lies the risk. But when West criticizes Obama, or other people he (and I) views as corporate sell-outs, he truly has the nation's best interests at heart. West cares, a lot. He will call out what is wrong, and he'll do it without hedging. It's good that Bernie isn't that way, but it's also good, IMO, that he's brave enough to place correct ideology above political expediency.
Bernie's campaign is not about business as usual. If that's what you want, there are plenty of other candidates to support. We need a drastic change in this country, for a number of reasons, it is late and there is little time to correct our course. We need more change than electing one person to the presidency can bring. Which means we need to change the dominant political paradigm, the one that says you can get elected as a centrist candidate with corporate backers and just provide a more sane but fundamentally similar vision to the one a Republican would bring. We have to change the entire discussion of what needs to be done, and why. West is a voice for that. We won't get our course correction supporting lessor of two evils, we won't even avert disaster that way, it's the same path we've been on and it leads straight to oblivion, seriously, oblivion. Oh man I so wish it was not true, but that is really where things are at, it's extremely dire.
West gets it, as does Bernie.