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JonLP24

(29,322 posts)
17. What is that based on
Mon Apr 27, 2015, 11:06 AM
Apr 2015

He said "long before his intellectual" splits which he can't deny, there is no wavering there which cannot be said of Dyson who did make it personal by comparing Obama to Pharoah & certainly makes it personal here or the MSNBC colleagues but West's claims is they evolved into cheerleaders. I don't know former issues with MHP & Princeton but I may not go there, they were certainly slamming him constantly bringing up he is jealous. Always with the jealously but I don't buy it.

This is the source Eric Dyson cites & it is an intellectual argument

No one grasps this tragic descent better than West, who did 65 campaign events for Obama, believed in the potential for change and was encouraged by the populist rhetoric of the Obama campaign. He now nurses, like many others who placed their faith in Obama, the anguish of the deceived, manipulated and betrayed. He bitterly describes Obama as “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.”

“When you look at a society you look at it through the lens of the least of these, the weak and the vulnerable; you are committed to loving them first, not exclusively, but first, and therefore giving them priority,” says West, the Class of 1943 University Professor of African American Studies and Religion at Princeton University. “And even at this moment, when the empire is in deep decline, the culture is in deep decay, the political system is broken, where nearly everyone is up for sale, you say all I have is the subversive memory of those who came before, personal integrity, trying to live a decent life, and a willingness to live and die for the love of folk who are catching hell. This means civil disobedience, going to jail, supporting progressive forums of social unrest if they in fact awaken the conscience, whatever conscience is left, of the nation. And that’s where I find myself now.

“I have to take some responsibility,” he admits of his support for Obama as we sit in his book-lined office. “I could have been reading into it more than was there.

West says the betrayal occurred on two levels.

“There is the personal level,” he says. “I used to call my dear brother [Obama] every two weeks. I said a prayer on the phone for him, especially before a debate. And I never got a call back. And when I ran into him in the state Capitol in South Carolina when I was down there campaigning for him he was very kind. The first thing he told me was, ‘Brother West, I feel so bad. I haven’t called you back. You been calling me so much. You been giving me so much love, so much support and what have you.’ And I said, ‘I know you’re busy.’ But then a month and half later I would run into other people on the campaign and he’s calling them all the time. I said, wow, this is kind of strange. He doesn’t have time, even two seconds, to say thank you or I’m glad you’re pulling for me and praying for me, but he’s calling these other people. I said, this is very interesting. And then as it turns out with the inauguration I couldn’t get a ticket with my mother and my brother. I said this is very strange. We drive into the hotel and the guy who picks up my bags from the hotel has a ticket to the inauguration. My mom says, ‘That’s something that this dear brother can get a ticket and you can’t get one, honey, all the work you did for him from Iowa.’ Beginning in Iowa to Ohio. We had to watch the thing in the hotel.

<snip>

Obama and West’s last personal contact took place a year ago at a gathering of the Urban League when, he says, Obama “cussed me out.” Obama, after his address, which promoted his administration’s championing of charter schools, approached West, who was seated in the front row.

“He makes a bee line to me right after the talk, in front of everybody,” West says. “He just lets me have it. He says, ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself, saying I’m not a progressive. Is that the best you can do? Who do you think you are?’ I smiled. I shook his hand. And a sister hollered in the back, ‘You can’t talk to professor West. That’s Dr. Cornel West. Who do you think you are?’ You can go to jail talking to the president like that. You got to watch yourself. I wanted to slap him on the side of his head.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/the_obama_deception_why_cornel_west_went_ballistic_20110516

So the personal side of the betrayal was one of two arguments in 3 pages but the inauguration tickets wasn't the only part of it but it is odd Eric Dyson cites that page for the jealously stuff but cites Alter's book "Obama's enemies" for the Obama confrontation but like I said not the only story

This was maybe America’s last chance to fight back against the greed of the Wall Street oligarchs and corporate plutocrats, to generate some serious discussion about public interest and common good that sustains any democratic experiment,” West laments. “We are squeezing out all of the democratic juices we have. The escalation of the class war against the poor and the working class is intense. More and more working people are beaten down. They are world-weary. They are into self-medication. They are turning on each other. They are scapegoating the most vulnerable rather than confronting the most powerful. It is a profoundly human response to panic and catastrophe. I thought Barack Obama could have provided some way out. But he lacks backbone.

Only one comment - Eric Dyson is not attacking from the right OKNancy Apr 2015 #1
He's attacking from Dr. West's right, seems to me. Ken Burch Apr 2015 #2
didn't seem that way to me... I mean West called Obama the "global George Zimmerman" OKNancy Apr 2015 #4
It would have been better if he'd published his piece in The Progressive, or The Nation Ken Burch Apr 2015 #6
I read an interview. He explained that OKNancy Apr 2015 #7
He cites the former editor's slams on Race Matters twice JonLP24 Apr 2015 #16
Thank you. That inaccurate portrayal in the OP just renders the rest of it kinda moot imo. Number23 Apr 2015 #10
Yeah - because Dyson is on the right *smdh* JustAnotherGen Apr 2015 #13
"Do these people ever get out of the white liberal bubble and get out in the world?" Number23 Apr 2015 #21
Every time I hear what huge Obama supporters people are Egnever Apr 2015 #22
Many black folks I know felt the same. That white people are still so inherently racist they would Number23 Apr 2015 #23
Nope they weren't wrong about that Egnever Apr 2015 #24
I know.. I'm not engaging anyone who accuses Michael Eric Dyson for calling out the disingenous, Cha Apr 2015 #33
My main issue with him is that he uses long words when short words will do. Cheese Sandwich Apr 2015 #3
West isn't making intellectual arguments, he made onecaliberal Apr 2015 #5
What is that based on JonLP24 Apr 2015 #17
I stand by my statement. When you attack onecaliberal Apr 2015 #20
I dislike his jacket. Katashi_itto Apr 2015 #8
Inaguration Tickets.nt bravenak Apr 2015 #9
I know, huh? Key Cha Apr 2015 #34
I knew somebody would feel me. bravenak Apr 2015 #35
Psychic, you! Cha Apr 2015 #37
His habit of using name calling in an attempt to shame others for one mythology Apr 2015 #11
Damn. There's the answer. randome Apr 2015 #19
Damn well said Egnever Apr 2015 #25
Wow.. I join the other posters in saying.. Well Done, mythology! Cha Apr 2015 #38
Some reasons here JustAnotherGen Apr 2015 #12
"Something irrational is going on,” Dyson said.." Precisely, Gen! Cha Apr 2015 #36
His very nasty treatment of President Obama, among others. pnwmom Apr 2015 #14
The best thing to do, honestly JonLP24 Apr 2015 #18
His willingness to associates with anti-Semites like Kevin Barrett and Medea Benjamin...nt SidDithers Apr 2015 #15
Medea Benjamin is not an antisemite. Ken Burch Apr 2015 #28
She attended a conference full of anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers. tammywammy Apr 2015 #30
Did you actually read what she said about attending that conference? Ken Burch Apr 2015 #31
"Attacked from the right"??? ... 1StrongBlackMan Apr 2015 #26
Needs a spin off n/t JustAnotherGen Apr 2015 #27
What I said.. Cha Apr 2015 #39
I respect Dr. West and his right to speak his mind, 6000eliot Apr 2015 #29
Dyson is a self important, establishment taintlicking hack trying to get good inside track TheKentuckian Apr 2015 #32
He's a narcissistic blowhard ,regardless of his politics. sufrommich Apr 2015 #40
My primary issue with Dr. West (that I am willing to discuss in this forum) ... 1StrongBlackMan Apr 2015 #41
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