Cornel West talks Ferguson, Hillary, MSNBC
No, the thing is he posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national security presidency. The torturers go free. The Wall Street executives go free. The war crimes in the Middle East, especially now in Gaza, the war criminals go free. And yet, you know, he acted as if he was both a progressive and as if he was concerned about the issues of serious injustice and inequality and it turned out that he’s just another neoliberal centrist with a smile and with a nice rhetorical flair. And that’s a very sad moment in the history of the nation because we are—we’re an empire in decline. Our culture is in increasing decay. Our school systems are in deep trouble. Our political system is dysfunctional. Our leaders are more and more bought off with legalized bribery and normalized corruption in Congress and too much of our civil life. You would think that we needed somebody—a Lincoln-like figure who could revive some democratic spirit and democratic possibility.
That’s exactly what everyone was saying at the time.
That’s right. That’s true. It was like, “We finally got somebody who can help us turn the corner.” And he posed as if he was a kind of Lincoln.
Yeah. That’s what everyone was saying.
And we ended up with a brown-faced Clinton. Another opportunist. Another neoliberal opportunist. It’s like, “Oh, no, don’t tell me that!” I tell you this, because I got hit hard years ago, but everywhere I go now, it’s “Brother West, I see what you were saying. Brother West, you were right. Your language was harsh and it was difficult to take, but you turned out to be absolutely right.” And, of course with Ferguson, you get it reconfirmed even among the people within his own circle now, you see. It’s a sad thing. It’s like you’re looking for John Coltrane and you get Kenny G in brown skin.
Full interview: http://www.salon.com/2014/08/24/cornel_west_he_posed_as_a_progressive_and_turned_out_to_be_counterfeit_we_ended_up_with_a_wall_street_presidency_a_drone_presidency
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and I know he's always seemed harsh against Obama...so many didn't like him...but, he does get down into the weeds when we look at what's going on today which looks like a revisit to MLK's March time.
And, I remember that time ....all too vividly...and I guess some expected to much, in this day and age, from a President who was barely born at that time and was raised in Hawaii ...far away from it all and had an International Upbringing due to his mother's work and profession and that his Grandparents were making a new life in multi-cultural Hawaii...and weren't involved in the Civil Rights Movement here in the USA..
He certainly wasn't immune from it...but he didn't live it..and he is trying to make up for centuries of repression that he had no experience of. I think he's doing the best he can with relating...but Cornell West should have been consulted and he wasnt...because he was too radical and our Dem Party didn't want any of that. So...now we revisit the 60's with the Cops going after "people of color" ....and we've got to fix it all over again...
He just isn't that involved with it.. It was left up to Eric Holder...and Holder is the one who should be accountable because he DID have that experience of being "Black" in America....
I can't stand Kenny G.