{"id":585222,"date":"2023-08-01T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/cornel-west-bid-prompts-worries-from-progressives-i-just-wish-he-wasnt-doing-it\/"},"modified":"2023-08-01T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T10:00:00","slug":"cornel-west-bid-prompts-worries-from-progressives-i-just-wish-he-wasnt-doing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/cornel-west-bid-prompts-worries-from-progressives-i-just-wish-he-wasnt-doing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"#Cornel West bid prompts worries from progressives: \u2018I just wish he wasn\u2019t doing it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/07\/news-illustration_073123mm-ap-see-credits_cornel-west.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Progressive lawmakers are voicing concerns over Cornel West\u2019s third-party bid, worried that a figure they respect could cripple President Biden\u2019s prospects in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>West launched a Green Party campaign earlier this year to inject more leftism into the election cycle. He\u2019s challenging both the Democratic and Republican establishments, raging against them in equal measure and raising the stakes of being a spoiler in the fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Now, with the Republican nomination of former President Trump seeming more and more plausible, progressives are becoming more outspoken about their worries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he has a very long record of service and academic thought leadership,\u201d Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told The Hill last week.\u00a0\u201cI think just right now, given the Electoral College, it\u2019s very difficult to square the very real threat of a Republican presidency \u2026 [with] the risk of giving up the very small margin of electoral votes needed to ensure that President Biden wins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Until recently, lawmakers on the left didn\u2019t feel much need to voice any reservations they had about West. When he first announced he was running for president in early June, he did so under the grassroots People\u2019s Party, without much fanfare. Democrats weren\u2019t really <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>lauding him but weren\u2019t criticizing his bid, either; there seemed little cause for concern on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n<p>The shift happened after West changed his affiliation to the Green Party just a few weeks later. The move promoted bad recollections for Democrats of 2016, when third-party nominee Jill Stein captured enough votes that election analysts said helped contribute to Trump\u2019s edge in certain states.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The difference now is that West, unlike Stein, is a revered part of the progressive movement who has garnered goodwill from sitting members of Congress for his activism on behalf of working-class people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI care about the quality of your life. I care about whether you have access to a job with a living wage, decent housing, women having control over their bodies, health care for all, de-escalating the destruction of the planet,\u201d West said in his launch video this summer.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Some liberal lawmakers also personally know and like him, having crossed paths with him over the years. He worked as one of Sen. Bernie Sanders\u2019s (I-Vt.) top surrogates in 2020. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who served as a campaign co-chairman for Sanders, has expressed kind sentiments about him despite publicly supporting Biden this cycle.<\/p>\n<p>Biden has earned overwhelming support from the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), and no elected progressive has primaried him. Even Ocasio-Cortez, who has at times been critical of the president\u2019s policy decisions, officially endorsed his reelection bid. And Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the left-leaning CPC, threw her support behind a Biden reelection effort even before he formally announced, despite initially backing Sanders in the Democratic primary last election.<\/p>\n<p>The progressives coalescing around Biden are starting to share their concerns about the damage West\u2019s bid may cause to the president\u2019s reelection effort.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass), a prominent member of the CPC, credited West as a \u201cthoughtful guy.\u201d McGovern has had close proximity to West over the years in Massachusetts, where the philosopher and historian taught at Harvard University.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But McGovern didn\u2019t mince words about his third-party bid.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe stakes are too high this year, especially if Trump is the nominee,\u201d he said. \u201cI think everybody, including the most progressive elements of our country, need to protect our democracy by stopping Donald Trump and supporting Joe Biden.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>McGovern said he was worried about a scenario in which West gained enough traction to help the GOP nominee win again.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI worry about those things because Cornel West is a very effective speaker and can be very persuasive,\u201d he said. \u201cI am not here to question his motives or bash him, because I\u2019ve followed him for many, many years, but I just wish he wasn\u2019t doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moderate Democrats have been quick to paint West as a potential spoiler running a glorified vanity campaign. They\u2019ve been the most publicly against possible challengers to Biden and third-party bids, including from their own centrist flank No Labels, a group that wants to recruit a credible third-party rival.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Progressives, on the flip side, are often critical of the country\u2019s two-party system and have been hesitant to outwardly dissuade West or other progressives from competing for the White House. Their wing proudly embraces intraparty primaries and outside bids when necessary to push a progressive agenda. Many believe that\u2019s often better than the status quo, and it\u2019s how several prominent progressive lawmakers rose to power themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One Squad member, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), is personally familiar with the power of insurgent campaigns. She was elected to the House in 2018 after ousting longtime Democratic Rep. Michael Capuano (Mass.) by running on a more liberal platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While Pressley is still a staunch progressive, she\u2019s more measured in her approach to the presidential election.\u00a0Asked about West\u2019s bid, she tiptoed around the issue but noted the popularity of his ideas.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThe CPC is the largest ideological caucus in Congress, which I think proves that, as the caucus continues to grow, their progressive ideas are popular,\u201d Pressley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs much as they try to fringe and marginalize them, people want transformational change like universal basic income, like unionization, like reparations,\u201d she said, careful not to criticize the platform that liberal candidates have run on each cycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The anxiety around West is also illustrative of the broader concerns Democrats have about Biden. They understand that his approval rating isn\u2019t where they\u2019d like it to be, and that Trump still has a firm grip on the Republican Party. They also see poll after poll indicating that at least some percentage of voters want someone else as the Democratic nominee. In another sign of the frustrations surrounding Biden, moderate Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) has been eyeing a possible primary challenge against him.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Defenders of West\u2019s candidacy, however, feel strongly that it\u2019s important to let voters decide whom they prefer in an open election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo progressive lawmakers who prefer to name-call and to label him as a spoiler candidate, please take a moment to remember that votes are always earned and never given,\u201d said Cullen Tiernan, a progressive activist based in New Hampshire who has been critical of the party\u2019s establishment class. \u201cToo many of these lawmakers have changed from, \u2018We will push Biden left,\u2019 to now, \u2018We will endorse anything he does.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs Dr. West says, \u2018You can\u2019t save the people if you don\u2019t serve the people,\u2019 and I ask: Who are you serving by trying to eliminate voices from a democratic process?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Cheyanne Daniels contributed.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2023 Nexstar <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Media<\/a> Inc. 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West launched a Green Party campaign earlier this year to inject more leftism into the election cycle. He\u2019s challenging both the Democratic and Republican establishments, raging against them in equal measure and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":585223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/07\/news-illustration_073123mm-ap-see-credits_cornel-west.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[4997,134343,144104,74316,124783,134825,991,136404,137508,134345],"class_list":["post-585222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","tag-campaign","tag-cornel-west","tag-green-party","tag-international","tag-jim-mcgovern","tag-joe-biden","tag-ro-khanna","tag-smart-cities","tag-state-watch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}