Wednesday, July 08, 2020

Should we take Kanye West's presidential bid seriously?

When I first read about the possibility of Kanye West standing for US President in November 2020, I thought it was a joke. But apparently, it's an all-too-real possibility.
West is an over-rated rapper, fashion designer and a Black man, of course. But he is also a billionaire, a pretty bizarre and loopy human, and a rabid Republican and supporter of Donald Trump.
So, why then would he want to stand AGAINST Trump in November? The theory is that many Black Americans would automatically vote for West and, given that most Black people are natural Democratic voters, that would reduce the Democratic vote and drive a wedge through the anti-Trump vote, thus allowing their man to coast home.
It's a ridiculously cynical move, and predicated on the idea that Black people can't think for themselves but would just vote in knee jerk fashion for any Black guy, regardless of his policies (or lack thereof), or indeed his level of sanity. Unfortunately, whether you like him or not, West is a cooler and more interesting guy than Joe Biden - not a difficult feat - so the idea is perhaps not completely daft.
However, some people are of the opinion that, were Yeezy to throw his hat into the ring, there is just as much of a probability that he would attract Black Republican voters (yes, there are more than you might think) away from Trump, thus defeating the object of the play.
Time, though, is getting short, and West needs to move fast if he wants to get on to the ballot as the candidate of some small political party that might be willing to deal with him. The deadlines for registering as the presidential candidate of a party have already expired in a few states, and several more will expire this week. If, on the other hand, he wanted to register as an independent, he would need to get thousands of signatures from right across the country before the August deadline for that kind of registration. Or, finally, he could just rely on his supporters writing his name in on their ballots, which is, amazingly, also an option, albeit a less effective one.
West has the support of his wife Kim Cardashian and Tesla owner (and equally loopy) Elon Musk, although who knows if that is a positive or a negative these days. But West has threatened to stand for President before, and not followed through. He has also talked about standing in 2024, not 2020, so who knows what he is really thinking. It's pretty difficult to take the guy seriously were it not for his money and influence ... and his sheer wackiness and unpredictability. Psychologically, West is probably a delusional narcissist and egomaniac with a God complex, but, as we have seen, that is no bar to the presidency.

UPDATE
West has taken the interesting democratic ploy of paying people $10 each to endorse his candidacy, and to get him on the ballot. And even then he has managed to mess up: 1,928 of his 3,218 signatures in Illinois were ruled invalid, leaving him short of the 2,500 signatories required to allow him to run for president in the state. Unbelievable cynicism and ineptitude!

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