The 2 party system is horseshit, but this is your recurring reminder that the greens are not worth your vote.

Any party serious about affecting change does so at the local level first. The fact that the greens consistently try to get attention with symbolic candidacies at the national level while being fuck all out of touch with school boards and local politics paints them as diva opportunists at best and bad faith progressive spoilers at worst.

This is coming from someone who agrees with most of West's platform at face value

I’ve noticed an increase in “bOtH sIdEs!11!!!” bullshit on Lemmy lately, along with your usual cadre of dumbfucks who will be manipulated into tacitly supporting the republican traitor filth. And I’m betting it’ll steadily tick upward.

As bad as that debt is, it would be worse if it just up and mysteriously disappeared one day.

I hope folks are watching it like hawks.

I like Doctor West as a person, he's a fascinating guy, and a great speaker, but nobody in that much debt should be anywhere near elected office.

I think Cornell West made great contributions to philosophy. As someone with pragmatist leanings I enjoyed his works. I don't want him in a congressional or executive government role.

It's really a spoiled vote to vote third party. People can whine about how it's unfair, but it still won't change anything. Do you really think spoiling your vote will show it to the big guys? Well guess what? Now they're no longer in power and the other side is rejoicing in their own victory. Meanwhile there are those who understand that they won't get everything that they want, but at least they won't have a side that will try to take away their rights by nominating and then confirming a right-wing justice to serve for life on the Supreme Court.

If I'm going to have a crook in office, I'd rather they be a crook that awakens people to the issues that matter such as medicare for all and ending the drug war. The bar is just that low

Couple of points: I like Cornel West. I used to listen to him regularly on the Tavis Smiley Show, and while I disagree with his religion, I generally approve of his politics.

The amount he owes is concerning, because it makes him vulnerable to undue influence, in the same way that Trump was. I don't really care that he owes back taxes, the child support is a problem IMO. People should take care of their kids, period. He's got the money to do it.

That said, I don't want him running as a Green; I want him running as a Democrat. Greens are largely fringe candidates, and the votes they win are votes that would likely otherwise go to Democratic candidates. Unfortunately, in our current system, that makes it probable that, unless there's a similarly popular Libertarian candidate taking votes from the Republican candidate, that the Republican is more likely to win. I am not a fan of Democrats; I find that they are unwilling to go nearly far enough on most things, and I strongly oppose their stance on 2A rights. But I oppose Republican far, far more. Given that I have a practical choice between Dems and Republicans at a national level, I'll vote Dem 95% of the time (I think I've voted Republican once or twice, but I honestly don't remember who, or under what circumstances). If Greens can demonstrate, through local and state level wins, that they have the power to win national elections, then I'll be happy to vote Green. And I do vote Green at a local level. But so far, they just aren't winning locally or at state levels in sufficient numbers to indicate that they have a snowball's chance in hell of winning a national election, much less a presidential election. West shoudl step aside once he's made a strong showing and convinced Biden to adopt some of his platform.

Guess that helps explain how he ended up on the Republican payroll.