Cornel West’s third-party presidential campaign is stirring up unpleasant flashbacks to 2016 for members of the Democratic Party, some of whom are starting to grow anxious about the effect it could…

Cornel West recently announced he is running for president as a Green Party candidate, challenging President Biden in 2024. Some Democrats worry that West’s candidacy could split the progressive vote and help reelect Donald Trump if he is the Republican nominee again, as Jill Stein’s campaign did in 2016. However, West has supporters who see his run as a way to push Biden further left on issues. Still, even some progressives acknowledge West could hurt Biden’s chances of reelection. Democrats argue that beating Trump and enacting progressive policies requires electing Democrats first.

    • slartibartfast42@beehaw.orgEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      Instead of “just leaving this here”, how about you actually clarify what you’re implying? It sounds like you’re accusing Jill Stein of being a Russian asset, and I think it’s really irresponsible to make this kind of accusation in a vague way that gives you plausible deniability.

      • sorchist@beehaw.orgEnglish
        15·
        1 year ago

        I don’t know for sure who is and isn’t a “Russian asset” for any given definition of “Russian asset.”

        I mean, there was this, but she assures us that it meant nothing.

        https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/06/jill-stein-says-nothing-happened-at-her-dinner-with-putin/

        But in any case, the third party candidacy of the Green Party was absolutely a tool for Russia in 2016 to peel off potential Democratic voters to elect Trump, and I would expect the same games to be played this year. Specifically the Russian troll army, the Internet Research Agency, created faux Black voices on social media platforms and, after accumulating sufficient followers to have a large platform, attempted to convince Black voters to either not vote at all or vote third party.

        Look, I love pretty much everything Cornell West stands for, but this seems like an incredibly unwise move, to put the best possible face on it.

        • slartibartfast42@beehaw.orgEnglish
          6·
          1 year ago

          OK, so you want to have your cake an eat it by implicitly accusing her while saying you just don’t know.

          Anyway, I think you’re giving the American voters too much credit if you think they couldn’t elect Trump without Russia’s help. You’re also vastly overstating the size and influence of the Internet Research Agency. If it truly was a Russian attempt to influence US politics, it was a deeply unserious one.

          • HQC@beehaw.orgEnglish
            8·
            1 year ago

            The 20216 election was incredibly close. It doesn’t take much to influence the final result with narrow margins, especially when considering our archaic voting system which significantly over-represents less populated areas (i.e. changing a few hundred votes in one district can be more influential than another district with 10x as many voters if all of those voters are more politically consistent).

            • slartibartfast42@beehaw.orgEnglish
              5·
              1 year ago

              There were plenty of other factors that may have pushed Trump over the line, and most of them come down to Hillary being a bad candidate.

          • sorchist@beehaw.orgEnglish
            3·
            1 year ago

            RE: “oh, so you want…”

            I’m not really into argument-by-psychic-powers-or-psychoanalysis so when you open your reply by telling me you’ve read my mind, I’m done.