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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   38487 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 5, 2023

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1. How viable is Dr. West as a third-party candidate?

As viable as any other third party candidate, which is to say not at all. Like, what is the group of people that (1) West appeals to more than Trump or Biden and (2) constitutes a majority of voters in sufficient states to win those states and the election? I submit there is no such constituency.

2. Are viral speeches still the greatest arm in an Outsider Politician's arsenal?

Probably? I suspect one of the biggest issues for Outsider Politicians is a lack of name recognition. Those Outsider Politicians that have been the most successful are those (like Perot and Trump) that had the most name recognition from before their candidacy. Viral speeches are one way for candidates to get their names out there.

3. Will this campaign introduce trepidation in the academic veneration of Black Americans?

Wat. The Ivy League has trained a hell of a lot more than two detractors of their "party-ideology!" Including several actual Presidents who were arguably opposed to their ideology. Why would Cornell West running for President (winning or not) change anything?

4. What new ideological platforms will be introduced to navigate the thorny task of denigrating a formerly sacred opponent?

There won't be any because it won't be necessary. The likelihood that West gathers the requisite support that doing anything to oppose him is necessary is remote. They'll just ignore him like basically every other third party candidate.

I think most of your points are spot-on. However, I think I don't quite agree with this:

The likelihood that West gathers the requisite support that doing anything to oppose him is necessary is remote.

There is a small-but-not-vanishingly-small chance that West could play spoiler in the general election. In 2016 and 2020, the election outcome could have been flipped by changing a relatively small number of votes in a few key states, such as Wisconsin. Here "relatively small" means something like 30,000, which, for reference, is about 1% of the Wisconsin electorate. It doesn't seem impossible that West, if he really ends up participating in the general election, would be able to get 1% of the vote in key states. I think it's not too likely and it's also likely that in a close election between Trump and Biden, West would exit the race rather than play spoiler. But I don't think it's impossible.

Also recall that when another West ran for president in 2020, the Democratic party took active steps to try to prevent him from appearing on the ballot in Wisconsin for fear that he would hurt Biden's chances there.

I largely agree. I guess I was thinking of opposing him in the sense he had a viable path to victory. I agree the potential to play spoiler is much higher.

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