Yesterday, June 5, 2023, Dr. Cornel West made his announcement for candidacy for President of the United States, and this could spell trouble for the black vote.
Dr. West promised to fix a lot of the problems in the country with the promise to fix all of our problems. Dr. West claims the country is lying to us about Ukraine, the economy, racism and more but he's not only doing so at the wrong time, but this is part of an agenda.
Dr. West is personally going to split the black vote at a time we don't need to split. With the country losing a lot of freedoms with book banning, the LGBTQ community facing opposition, Hispanics in Florida, facing discrimination, the reversal of Roe vs. Wade and more, we don't need to lose advantage we have to get any of this fixed. Whether you believe it's Joe Biden or not, he's the only one with enough votes (and unbelievably, his record shows it) he has proven himself enough to be reelected. Check out his record on www.whitehouse.gov. I'll soon have an article on Biden's accomplishments soon.
First off, Dr. West is going to need to win over the entire country and not just black folks. That's his first weakness. He's a gift to the Republicans because while he'll not get a single Republican vote, there will be a few blacks (on the left & undecided) who will vote for him. The mistake being made (if he's really running) you must win all races of people. Not just black folks. While we have suffered the most, we aren't the only disaffected group in this country. What is his plan for immigrants? What is his plan for the LBTQ community? We already know you say you're down for black folks, but your plans are going to have to go through two houses of Congress and an agenda with just black folk in it will not always fly. There are Executive orders, but you have so many, and they have expiration dates.
"But H.D., you're so negative," I'm sure some of you are saying.
"No, I'm being real. First off, as I said earlier, Biden has done enough for the country to deserve a second term. For example, the Unemployment Rate is at 3.7% while Black Unemployment is at 5.2%. Black Unemployment went up from April's 4.7% but it's down from 12% from when Trump was in office. Now, if you bring up Covid, that was Trump's fault as well because he allowed it to run rampant here in the U.S. but that's for another blog.
Also, between the Anti-Lynching law that was signed in March of last year, the cap of insulin for seniors at 35 dollars, and the infrastructure bill which will help everyone including more jobs, Biden has done a lot to earn the votes he's going to get. We must get real about not just what we want, we also need to investigate how government works.
Presidents have limited power because without Congress they won't be able to do much at all. That's why I've been preaching giving presidents you vote for the gift of a majority in the House and Senate in the Midterms (yes, Midterms matter as well). Republicans already have this down, they just hope you all don't figure it out.
If Dr. West was serious about changing laws, he'd run for either the House or the Senate where the laws are really made and changed. He could even run as an Independent and still have a chance. He knows the presidency holds less power which tells me he may be a pawn for someone. Someone who sees who the real enemy is. Someone who watched people take our term "woke" and turned it into something evil. He sees the real division but wants to blame the ones who are trying to do something (Democrats) by not working fast enough.
In my Randy Jackson voice about the Cornel West announcement, "It's going to be a no from me dawg."