So, Cornel West is running for president, and I wanted to look at his platform a while ago, but he didn't have much. So, I decided to go back for a second go. Sadly now, he seems to have even less, with his platform whittled down to 3 points rather than 6 or so. So, let's go over this:
Dismantling the Empire
Vastly cutting back on military spending, dissolving non-defensive security alliances, including NATO and AUKUS, dismantling the global network of over 800 military bases and severing the link between U.S. foreign policy and corporate profits to respect national sovereignty and the principle of self-determination for people. The USA should be a decent and dignified nation among nations rather than an imperial power dominating every corner of the globe. Withdrawing foreign aid to Egypt, Israel, and any other countries violating the human rights of subjugated peoples. Increasing humanitarian aid to poor and vulnerable peoples around the world. Enabling international peace by highlighting ecological sustainability, abolishing nuclear weapons, and promoting diplomatic processes.
To be blunt, NO, HELL NO. I really find "anti war" leftists to be delusional. We are in an international power struggle against other countries like Russia and China that fundamentally have different values. And we need to maintain an extensive network of bases well beyond our borders to protect not just ourselves, but our allies and vital interests abroad. We can't just go back to isolationism. We do what we do for a reason, and while it's costly, it's only 4% of GDP. For all the talk of "this is why we don't have universal healthcare", uh, no, not really, healthcare is 18% of GDP, and if we cut our military to be in line with the rest of NATO we'd be down to 2%, which would save $400 billion or so, but still, that's not actually a massive amount given what progressive plans for things like UBI, healthcare, or a green new deal cost.
And honestly, while I do admit we could cut back, we still need enough to be able to fight a two front war against russia and china simultaneously, if that were to ever be a thing. I really think a military budget of $600-700 billion would be good, rather than $800-900 billion, especially since Russia spends $84 billion and China's is $224 billion. Being able to double that would give us a significant tactical advantage, but at some point it's just overkill.
Really, it's like leftists are just living in fantasy land on this one. In terms of ideals, I see where they're coming from. I didnt like Iraq or Afghanistan for instance, and I would like to spend less on military so we can spend more on other stuff. But look at Russia going to war with rusty AKs, and here we are with state of the art equipment, you get what you pay for, and if you want results, you need a beefy budget.
So yeah, cut a little, but, but don't go insane, that's my take on this situation.
Unleashing Democracy
Massive investments in satisfying the social needs of everyday people. Medicare for all including humane mental healthcare, decriminalization of drugs, and creation of humane rehabilitation sites. decent housing for all, quality education for all, free college tuition for all, and jobs with living wages for all. Abolishing poverty and houselessness. Targeting the vicious legacy of white supremacy by ending mass incarceration, demilitarizing policing (abolishing Cop-Cities), and promoting reparations for past unjust treatment of Black people. Prioritizing the empowerment of indigenous peoples. Protecting the reproductive rights of women and ending all forms of patriarchy. Securing the rights of LGBTQ+ and Trans-Peoples. Treating every migrant and asylum seeker with dignity and implementing fundamental changes in immigration policies. Public financing of elections with rank-choice voting, eliminating the Electoral College and a national holiday for voting. Democratizing unaccountable monopolies and oligopolies with workers' control.
He's literally packing like 20 positions into one here, so let's discuss each.
Medicare for all- based
Decriminalization of drugs- based
Humane rehabilitation sites- based
Housing for all- based
Quality education- based, really hitting most of my concerns minus UBI so far
Free college- based
Jobs with living wages- eh, sticking to traditional leftism, are we? And that's where much like with bernie, williamson, hawkins, what have you, i diverge ideologically.
Abolishing poverty and homelessness- based, but how? Jobism? Ugh. Just give UBI dude.
Ending mass incarceration- based
Demilitarizing police- Eh...im mixed here. I do think police are too militarized, but sometimes you do need that stuff (see; January 6th). You dont want criminals outgunning cops. But yeah, a normal cop probably isnt gonna ever need more than a 9mm 99.9% of the time. So give them a glock or a sig sauer, we dont need military APCs with AR15s and blah blah blah. That's for special units. Not normal situations. Speaking of which, for as much as the left hates mass shooters, why dont they want the cops to be able to get in a gun fight with a heavily armed mass shooter? Just saying. Some of these mass shooters are insane, and go around with assault rifles and body armor, and that's when you dont just want regular police with glocks fighting back, ya know?
Still, seeing how the police acted during 2020 and the BLM protests at times was disgraceful and sometimes yeah the definitely need to be toned back. Still, isnt the answer to improve police practices while still keeping the gear on hand for certain situations like mass shooters and january 6th type riots? I think so. it's not a funding problem, it's a police practice and discipline problem.
Reparations- *rolls my eyes*, no, just no. See the post I made today about me opposing weird identity based policies.
Empowerment of indigenous peoples- Uh...explain.
Protecting reproductive rights- based
Ending all forms of patriarchy- Given what this has come to mean, (see: Rammstein), can we NOT?
Securing rights for LGBTQ and trans people- based
Immigration stuff- while we should be more humane, i kinda would like to see details here.
Public elections with ranked choice voting- based
Other democracy reform- based
Democratizing monopolies with oligopolies with worker control- Eh....i dont think socialism is this end all be all, but I'm not opposed to market socialism to be honest.
So what do we think here? Well, he has some alignment with my major policies, as well as some divergences. He supports a lot of things i like, while in typical leftist fashion going too extreme on other issues for my tastes. All in all, he's your typical green style leftist.
He doesnt really discuss policy details here. I like policy details. But all in all, he's decent.
Like, remember what I say in comparing him to Biden. Leftists tend to be better on healthcare and education, worse on climate, about the same on minimum wages, and both seem clueless on UBI.
As such, I do have a slight preference for leftists this time around, but it's not as huge as you'd think. All things considered I would take, in a vacuum, cornel west over Biden, but Im not really particularly motivated to vote third party as a way to stick it to the dems this time around. The differences aren't enough to do so and most of my desire to go third party this time around comes from the dems being undemocratic themselves. It's a knee jerk "stick it to the man" type situation and yeah. I just dont think this is the election cycle for that.
With that said, let's discuss his third plank.
Saving The Planet
Fighting back against the escalating ecological catastrophe by targeting the corporate greed of fossil fuel companies and resurrecting the Green New Deal. Shifting from extraction and emission to regenerative and renewable energy. Eliminating the environmental racism that disproportionately damages the life chances of poor people, especially poor people of color here and abroad. The future of life on this planet depends on this fundamental shift!
Eh, sadly im more aligned with biden here. I dont like the green new deal, I think biden's plan gets the sausage made on renewable energy for a fraction of the cost, and the focus of the GND is to do FDR style jobs programs and that sort of thing, which doesnt resonate with my ideology.
And the focus on "environmental racism", yeah, i mean, we should address that when we can, but i really hate how we have to inject postmodernism into everything.
So...all in all, where do I stand?
On plank 1...I'm for Biden. On plank 3, I'm for Biden. But plank 2 is where the majority of the policies are, and there I'm more mixed. Leaning toward west over Biden, but it's not as strong as you'd think.
Idk, I'm just growing out of leftist politics to some extent. Yes, we need to be more progressive than Biden, but, as I said, my own ideology had diverged from the traditional left, to the point that I no longer really see a compelling reason to vote for leftists over liberals. Maybe for medicare for all, a policy Ive been signalling willingness to compromise on recently due to the sheer cost of it (seriously if biden actually followed through on his public option with universal automatic opt in, I would be satisfied at this point), and maybe on free college/student debt forgiveness, but biden has compromised there too.
Idk, like, I literally think biden has done a good enough job, and has shifted left enough to largely satisfy me here. Sure, leftists are a bit better on certain policies of high priority for me, but looking at the entire package deal, outside of that narrow purview, I'm basically more liberal. I'm pro ukraine, cutting the military budget isnt a high priority, and i literally would prefer biden's BBB approach to the green new deal.
THis is why Im not really feeling leftists this time. Even if Im not happy with Biden, going for a leftist means prioritizing some of my original priorities (education and healthcare) over ALL other issues, in a very narrow way. But all things considered, on many other priorities, I see them as functionally similar (neither are pro UBI, both are for higher min wage), and if anything for every policy i agree with west more on, there's a policy I'd say i agree with biden on more.
In net I think in a vacuum I would still mildly prefer west over biden, but it's kinda close. Like, again. This is why i keep saying im not passionate about leftist alternatives. Unless UBI enters the mix, I'm not really motivated enough to go for the full on leftist this time.
Like, let's go with my most broad metric. Measuring the candidates.
UBI (10): 0 Biden, 0 West
M4A (10): 3 Biden, 10 West
Economics (10): 6 Biden, 8 West
Social issues (10): 8 Biden, 6 West
Foreign policy (10): 10 Biden, 0 West
Ideology (20): 10 Biden, 15 West
Commitment (15): 5 Biden, 15 West
Experience (15): 15 Biden, 5 West
Overall: 57 Biden, 59 West
Like, West wins....but only by 2 points. You see the problem? I can't really be bothered to vote for a third party candidate if they barely beat the democrat in my broadest metric.
Last time around I had Bernie with around 80 points and Biden with 40. Now, there's a lot of reasons for this. First of all, my ideology has shifted slightly to the right, or more specifically more toward Yang styled human centered capitalism. Im no longer as enthused by "leftism". Second, I am flat out more liberal on both social policy and foreign policy than leftist. Third, Biden actually did a better job than I thought he would so my score for him went up. And fourth, most leftists following in Bernie's footsteps are much weaker than Bernie. They often take more extreme stances (like on foreign policy), and they often lack the polish and experience. Like if I was to go over Bernie again, this is how it would go:
UBI: 0
M4A: 10
Economics: 8
Social issues: 8
Foreign policy: 6
Ideology: 16
Commitment: 15
Experience: 15
Overall:68
This is lower than his 2020 from me, but simply being slightly more moderate here and there on like foreign policy got him a lot of support. And having more experience also got him a lot more support.
So yeah. West is weaker than Bernie. So is williamson.
Anyway, i could go on with more detailed metrics on policy, but I kind of did sum up what would happen. West better on M4A and free college, but worse on climate, and the same on a lot of other issues. Slight win for west, but not enough for a protest vote.
And yeah thats where i stand. I just cant be bothered to endorse him for a protest vote. Even if he is slightly favorable to Biden for me. Because I am more moderate on a lot of issues and think biden is a much stronger candidate than west all things considered. I just dont align with leftists and think theyve gotten too extreme. And again, no one is really paying attention to UBI as a policy and that's literally my #1 priority. So yeah.
No comments:
Post a Comment