Hi All,
Please indulge me for a moment. I have some words to say about Cornel. Please consider this as an expression of my ideas, not as an invitation to a debate. Of course comments are welcome, but don’t be offended if I don’t join. I’ve spent a fair amount of time on this, and am pretty done.
The impetus for this diary is a conversation I had online with one of Cornel’s supporters. This person was relatively reasonable, which allowed me to freely explore and express my misgivings. I don’t expect this person will change their vote, but I offer my thoughts as a stimulus for those of you who encounter reasonable voters who are considering him.
Before continuing though, I need to recognize a very odd resonance between many of the Cornel supporters and the MAGA ones. I find in both a strong tendency to reason from an emotional intransigence. To be clear, I am not a proponent of the supposedly emotion-free realpolitik embodied by the likes of the repulsive Kissinger. Passions are important for positive change, but they also have their dangers. Frankly, both of these groups appear to assume they are making principled stands while, in fact, they are so tenacious in their adherence to their biases as to blind themselves to inconvenient considerations.
Here is a link to the Cornel statement to which I am responding. To be fair, I limited myself to the first page because that was more than enough.
www.cornelwest24.org/…
I am going to unpack Cornel’s statements as unemotionally as I can, but I will tell you upfront that I find them to be more than a little provoking :
“If I were President, I would sit down with China’s President Xi to talk about these existential crises of climate and war.”
The idea that Xi will sit down for a sincere, straightforward and agendaless conversation about these issues, is naive in the extreme. Anyone who has even cursorily followed Xi since his accession should understand that he is closely watching the Russian invasion and looking for his own opportunity to invade Taiwan. His navy and air power have been pushing very aggressively around that democracy. China’s political arm has been ruthless in its efforts at crushing any international support for Taiwan. That Cornel thinks he will have substantive conversation with President Xi about war, while Xi is preparing to start one, is less than perceptive.
From the standpoint of international relations it is frankly stunning that Cornel is unable to absorb the reality that allowing Russia to gain, even partially, from their unprovoked, illegal invasion will be interpreted by Xi as proof the international community will not stay the course in defending democracies. The same message will be absorbed by N. Korea re their plans to invade the S. Korean democracy. Other petty tyrants around the globe will notice too. His shortsightedness is that by trying to end one invasion through negotiation he will be setting in motion more devastating ones.
Regarding the environment, Xi has made it more than clear that he has little regard for it. He’s been projecting Chinese economic hegemony all over Africa and S.E. Asia, not in a supportive, cooperative, or environmentally conscious way, but by ruthlessly seeking to dominate them.
“I would urge him to use his leverage as Russia’s number one trade partner to push Putin to the negotiating table…”
That Cornel thinks his professorial powers at ‘urging’, (even from the position of POTUS) will move Xi to expend China’s influence for some altruistic ideal borders on delusional. And, even if Xi does, Cornel should at minimum recognize how very unlikely it is that Putin will be persuaded to move off his genocidal agenda. Any serious student of Putin will tell you that the only way he will stop is by being convincingly defeated.
It also is exceedingly strange to read Cornel so blithely slander President Biden as someone “walking us into a nuclear WWIII, while robbing money from poor and working people to fatten the bank accounts of war profiteers at the Pentagon trough” while personally planning to to sit down for ‘a discussion’ about war and the environment with deeply corrupt totalitarian leaders who are actively destroying ethnic cultures. This is not a balanced approach.
“...and I would promise to do the same with Zelensky.”
About this I really have to restrain myself. Neither Cornel or nor any other westerner has even a tiny right to push the Ukrainians to negotiate with a megalomaniac who has been committing egregious war crimes, kidnapping vulnerable children, engaging in horrific slaughters, and who is more than clear about his plan to eradicate Ukraine. I am unable to find the words to tell you how repulsive I find this.
“President Biden is sending barbaric cluster bombs that will blow off the hands of Ukrainian children for years to come.”
This is deeply simplistic and self-serving, Here are a few reasons why:
- The Russians are and have been using these weapons throughout this invasion.
- The Russians have been using cluster munitions in urban environments because they don’t care about Ukrainian children. Ukrainians will not do this to their children.
- Russian cluster munitions have a 25 - 30% dud rate. (Duds are what endangers civilians.)
- America’s have around a 3% dud rate.
- Ukraine has been struggling against Russian artillery. Without these munitions Russia would be much freer to obliterate Ukrainian towns and villages, several of which no longer exist.
- Ukraine is tracking where they use these munitions for future cleanup.
- Russia has ‘seeded’ minefields that are multiple kilometers deep and wide. These are composed of anti-armor and anti-personnel mines. Where is Cornel’s outrage at this? Where is his concern for those who must farm these fields? Where is his mention of the children endangered by this?
- Russia has consistently targeted civilians (e.g. children) over and above military sites. They are not conducting a military action. They are conducting a terror campaign, which is genocidal at its core. Cornel’s silence and lack of outrage about this is barely forgivable.
- That Cornel appears to assume he, from his high seat of virtue, is entitled to choose for Ukrainians how best to protect their children is more than a little narcissistic. There is hubris here.
- At a minimum, Russia has kidnapped 19,000 children. (These are only the ones whose names are known.) Russia has already created camps and organizations that force the Putin version of Russian ‘history’ (i.e. Ukraine never existed) on them. These children are being groomed to support the dear leader and to become cannon fodder. Along with this, Russia has deported thousands adults in their plan to destroy any Ukrainian identity. Russia is intent on replacing them with ethnic Russians. Putin also is planning additional gulags. But, hey, let’s push Ukraine to give in.
“It is unconscionable to spend over $100 billion to continue the war in Ukraine, while 34 million people at home…”.
What follows in this statement is classic whataboutisms and obfuscations. I don’t have time to disassemble all of them here, but they are red herrings.
“I would also stop the ridiculous and dangerous saber-rattling against China…”.
Chinese pilots and ships have been going out of their usual areas, aggressively and dangerously maneuvering close to Taiwanese and American ships in contravention of international law. China has been initiating this ‘saber-rattling’, not Taiwan or the U.S. That Cornel assigns all responsibility for this incorrectly, seriously draws into question his ability to sort reality from his biases.
Cornel has made himself appear to be someone who is unable or unwilling to grasp any nuance of international relations that doesn’t support his predisposed personal view. He has wildly overestimated his abilities. He has staked out positions that are very likely to lead to additional abandonment of democracies, and encourage repressive regimes to invade their less-powerful neighbors. He has performed outrage only for those situations that serve him and has ignored those that don’t. He has spoken about his concern for Ukrainian children but remains silent about war crimes against them.
And, finally, he is so deep in his own self importance that he blithely ignores the real possibility that he will pull just enough votes to allow the scummiest, most anti-democratic, narcissistic, and felonious huckster POTUS in the entire history of our nation back into the seat of power.
Cornel for president? No.