Very nice conversation you have here with Bugenhagen. I wanted to like Cornel West, but he just does not do it for me. Cornel has some pretty big plusses. He will state his opinion even if it goes against his own interests, such as some of his critical comments about Obama. This suggests honesty and a willingness to be guided by principle rather than partisanship. Biden's biggest leadership failure is his seemingly looking too much through the lens of how something might affect the DNC or himself personally, rather than what might be optimal for the country, given the situation at hand.
It seems we both share the angst that we are not being presented by our politicians. However, it also seems you are being a bit unreasonable in your expectations of what a political party can do. For example, a political party, especially a large political party, has many imperatives and obligations. Without money, political campaigns fail. To get money, deals have to be made. These deals tend to diminish various resources available to constituents, other than some kinds of handouts, perhaps. The benefit of establishment politics is continuity of government which tends to benefit economic policy, foreign relations, and even domestic policy. An important issue is the relationship between the establishment and large corporations have become way too close, causing a severe decline in ethical conduct and consumer protection. Our Constitutional rights are often unfairly subrogated by employment agreements, leases, user policies, etc. Corporations often fail nowadays to fulfill implicit and explicit obligations towards their customers. This environment creates headwinds that may dampen consumer demand over time for product and services, weakening our economy and creating a cycle of corporations asking for Government help in exchange for campaign contributions or whatever, ad infinitum.
Based on the preceding, a way forward for Cornel might to address various consumer issues in way that suggests reforms rather than draconian mandates against large corporations, AKA large employers.
There were many coordinated political based riots during the Trump Administration. Some were at least partially justified because of certain police shootings. Other riots were simply politically based. Small business owners lost their businesses during these riots. Large businesses closed their doors permanently, reducing local economic potential for the people who needed it most. Given Cornel's past and current interests, it seems likely that he helped coordinated these riots, or at least knows who did. Worst yet, there appears to be an ongoing effort involving Bernie Sanders and probably Cornel to instill such divisiveness in their young constituents as to manifest as hate against older generations. I have seen the look of hate through the eyes of a few teens to early 20's since 2016 and saw it again as recently as last week. I have high confidence my perceptions reflect reality. Ironic, because Sanders is in his 80's and Cornel is in his 70's. It appears Progressives are trying to influence and turn our youth against us in their selfish pursuit of power. Look at Bernie Sanders promoting Socialism while owning four houses, for example. Worse yet, it appears there are serious shortcomings in their knowledge of what a viable, self-sustaining economic system is. US Foreign relations would likely suffer as we would be seen less competent in the eyes of the world. The US with it high debt load and seen as less competent? What happens then? Financial outflows will diminish the US Dollar as reserve currency leading to higher inflation, reduced capital investment causing weakened economic and innovation potential which will impair us competitively, ultimately reducing our standard of living.
Biden, Trump, and West each have their plusses. And minuses. Too many minuses. So we have another least of the worst choice for POTUS. Any candidate who appears to be actively causing dissention among the American people is summarily disqualified from consideration in my view. By this standard, West is eliminated. Analyzing Biden is more complicated. On the one hand, Biden's is against attempting to expand the Supreme Court and increasing the number of US states, both of which are clearly in his party's best interest. Has to be very tempting to an otherwise very partisan President. If Biden gets reelected, there is a good chance Kamala Harris will finish out his term. If that transpires, do we end up with a progressive that will give us the same issues that a West Presidency would bring us? Biden has been silent on the obvious political persecution of his political opponent, Trump. Perhaps the establishment DNC and RNC made a deal where the DNC could do whatever they want against Trump as long as they don't try to mess with the SC, etc. Trump has done some anti-establishment things, but has also furthered establishment goals. Not all of this has been to the benefit of the American people. Another fair question is, can Trump be an effective leader at this point? If Trump is elected, will he be consumed with getting "Revenge" against the Democrats, to the point of affecting his governance of our country?
Personally, I choose Trump. Yes, we will be going through another four years of Hell. However, with Trump, we are more likely to get though it than risk being stuck in Hell forever by West or Biden/Kamala.
