Cornel West: Bernie Sanders an Insurgent on Par with Jesse Jackson

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/09/22/cornel-west-bernie-sanders-insurgent-par-jesse-jackson

Bernie Sanders is as much an insurgent as Jesse Jackson was, according to Cornel West, who worked for both Jackson campaigns and is now the socialist Democratic presidential candidate’s most high-profile black backer.

“Absolutely, no doubt about it,” the academic and campaigner told the Guardian. “There are some similarities and elective affinities.”

Jackson ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988, winning 6.6m votes and 11 states in his second campaign, and his run was “historic”, West said.

But “the Sanders campaign is even more progressive than Jackson’s were, because his critique of Wall Street is more direct,” West said in an interview last week.

What Jackson had – and Sanders does not – was strong black support. But, said West, “that’s what we are going to get – once black people find out who Brother Sanders is”.

West said he thought African Americans would rally behind the white guy from the Ben and Jerry’s state who is not “a household name” when they discovered he was for economic reforms such as free tuition at public universities, single payer healthcare and “closing tax loopholes for oligarchs”, he said.

“In my mind, the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement will recognize that Brother Bernie is much stronger on people, on economic justice, and on racism than any other candidates,” West said.

[Enthusiast]

1. Kicked and recommended!

[aspirant]

2. Brother Cornell

is starting to bring it