Cornel West: Bernie, Hillary or Revolution in the Streets?

[kgnu_fan]

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/9/bernie_hillary_or_revolution_in_the

AMY GOODMAN: Interestingly, most people are staying home. Now, I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but even with all of the attention, looking at Pew Research on who’s coming out to vote, through the first 12 primaries of 2016, combined Republican turnout has been 17.3 percent of eligible voters, and that’s the highest number since any—of any year since 1980. Only 17.3 percent of the eligible voters. Democratic turnout so far is 11.7 percent. That means, you know, close to 90 percent are not participating, the highest since 1992 with the notable exception of the extraordinarily high turnout in 2008. Now, in Michigan, Democratic vote was up, and certainly Republican vote was up. But that shows you how low it has been. Most countries, vast majority of people vote in the industrialized world. In the United States, if we have half the people voting—and these numbers are 17 percent of Republicans, 11 percent of Democrats.

CORNEL WEST: No, it’s a sign of the democracy that’s anemic. It’s a sign that people just know the system is rigged. It’s a sign that they know big money dictates and shapes the destiny of the government and the society. Unfortunately, the dominant response is one of staying away rather than trying to participate and reshape it. So we can understand, in a certain sense, the apathy, but the apathy is in no way justified. We’ve got to participate, not just in the ballot box, but, as Sister Melina says, we’ve got to hit the streets. We’ve got—we have to have organizing and mobilizing and have to be willing to go to jail. And some of us, actually, have to be willing to die.

[JaneyVee]

1. Dangerous rhetoric.

Some of us have to be willing to die?

[UglyGreed]

4. That is what happens

when the rich become greedy overlords.....history tends to repeat itself from time to time....

[JaneyVee]

6. Gotta laugh at anyone who...

Isnt willing to lead by example on their own dangerous rhetoric.

[UglyGreed]

11. Let them eat cake

[LexVegas]

2. The only advocate worse than Killer Mike is Cornel West.nt

[kgnu_fan]

3. Already many people are killed on the street. Don't ignore.

CORNEL WEST: But, Sister Dolores, Dolores—but, Sister Dolores, you know that that kind of language against precious black youth is not just vicious, it justified the expansion of an ugly prison system, those families that were broken, those folk who they brought in, incarcerated, their lives often destroyed. So it is not just a matter of speech and having a conference; we’re talking about a language tied to actual policy. Same is true with welfare in 1996. We were there together. They pulled the rug from under poor people. That was Hillary giving speeches for that, too. And they had what? A black woman, when Clinton’s signing the bill, doing what? Falling right into the demonizing and vilification of black women. And you say, "Well, black people are voting for them." But black people often vote against their interests following a "misleadership class"—the wonderful language of Glen Ford and the others.

So we have to be honest, just at the level of morality and spirituality, since we’re both—we’re both religious, too. And that’s why I can’t see Hillary having the kind of integrity and conviction Bernie Sanders, one of the reasons why he has trouble in Congress is, Congress is site of legalized bribery and normalized corruption. So you don’t have integrity in Congress. That’s why you’ve got 8 percent of Americans who approve of Congress. They don’t have the truth telling. They don’t have the justice witnessing that one would want. Bernie Sanders does. He cuts against that grain.

And now that we’ve won in Michigan, we’re going to turn this corner. We’re going to bring the neoliberal era to a close, my sister. We’re going to fight the neofascism of Trump in the name of neopopulism. And we’re going to invite you to get on the Bernie Sanders love train.

[JaneyVee]

8. "The Bernie Sanders love train"

His entire campaign is about anger, cynicism, and "us vs them".

And then there are the Berniebros....

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. Professor West has lost the thread

Good lord.

[geek tragedy]

7. "And some of us, actually, have to be willing to die."

And then he added "I will salute their sacrifice from my expensive home in Cambridge."

[JaneyVee]

9. Dude makes $40,000 per speech.

[SidDithers]

10. "Let's you and him fight!"...

West is a joke.

Sid

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. Can you imagine if one of Hillary's foremost surrogates said that?

"And some of us, actually, have to be willing to die."

[MohRokTah]

12. DAmn, Cornel West has lost his mind!

[MineralMan]

13. Desperation speaks loudly. nt

[Octafish]

15. Because nothing says ''Democracy'' like ''Shut up.

CORNEL WEST: No, it’s a sign of the democracy that’s anemic. It’s a sign that people just know the system is rigged. It’s a sign that they know big money dictates and shapes the destiny of the government and the society. Unfortunately, the dominant response is one of staying away rather than trying to participate and reshape it. So we can understand, in a certain sense, the apathy, but the apathy is in no way justified. We’ve got to participate, not just in the ballot box, but, as Sister Melina says, we’ve got to hit the streets. We’ve got—we have to have organizing and mobilizing and have to be willing to go to jail. And some of us, actually, have to be willing to die.

[kgnu_fan]

16. The elite class sucks blood from people of 99%. Leave them dead.

[kgnu_fan]

17. This needs to be told again. nt