In the wake of Donald Trump’s
election victory over Hillary Clinton, some progressives are now pushing a
shake up of the Democratic Party’s leadership in efforts to reform the party.
But Dr. Cornel West says the Democratic Party can’t be reformed. During the
Democratic primary, West endorsed Bernie Sanders. Sanders later picked him to
serve on the Democratic platform committee. After Hillary Clinton won the
nomination, West made headlines when he endorsed Green Party presidential
candidate Jill Stein. For more we speak with West about the Democratic Party
and what organizing looks like in the wake of the election.
TRANSCRIPT
AMY GOODMAN: So, a
lot of questions, and I encourage people to watch the full hour at
democracynow.org. You were a big supporter of Bernie Sanders. You served on the
Democratic Platform Committee on behalf of Bernie Sanders. Do you think he’s
right to re— work on reforming the Democrats rather than focus on building a
new party? He is leading a movement called our revolution. He has said we have
to work with Donald in different ways. He says to the people who supported him.
Elizabeth Warren, in the last day, has said she is not so clear she’s going to
be working with Donald Trump. I mean, very interesting when Barack Obama came
in, Mitch McConnell made it clear they won’t work with Obama at all. But, what
are your thoughts on all of this, the inside/outside strategy?
CORNEL WEST: Well, I
think there’s going to be a lot of different responses. I have a deep love and
respect for brother Bernie Sanders. I always will. I don’t always agree with
him. I’m not convinced that the Democratic Party can be reformed. I think it
still has a kind of allegiance to a neoliberal orientation. It still has
allegiance to Wall Street, the very victory of Nancy Pelosi is a sign that
neoliberalism is still hegemonic in the party. I hope that Keith Ellison is
able to present a challenge to it. But, my hunch is —
AMY GOODMAN: — as
head of — if he makes it is head of the Democratic National Committee.
CORNEL WEST: If he’s
head of the DNC. But my hunch is the Democratic Party has simply run out
of gas. I mean, this is a party that couldn’t even publicly oppose TPP when
we debated that in the Platform Committee. And that’s just one small example.
Couldn’t stop — couldn’t vote to stop Fracking, and so on. So, it’s still so
tied to big money.
AMY GOODMAN: Even
though Hillary Clinton had changed her position, because of the pressure of
Bernie Sanders on TPP?
CORNEL WEST: Exactly,
and tight there in the debates, they got the word from the White House, we
didn’t want to embarrass the president. Embarrass the president? What about the
poor and working people who are dealing with the suffering? Is that less
important than embarrassing the president? And they were very clear about that.
And I pushed and pushed and pushed. Here’s somebody — they can’t even talk
about the Israeli occupation honestly. The president uses a language in 2009,
they can’t use it in the platform. Why? Because they tied to the lobby, they
tied to APEC. So that, when you have those kinds of restraints on you,
these albatrosses around your neck, how are you going to be a party for the
people? How you going to be a party for working people, poor people. How you
going to be a party for those brothers and sisters in Yemen who are dealing
with US-supported troops and bombs killing them, mediated with Saudi Arabian
government? How you going to deal with the Palestinians, deal with the Israeli
occupation? How you going to deal with Africans, the expansion of afrikom, and
so forth? There has to be some integrity and moral consistency. And
unfortunately, the Democratic Party just strikes me as not being able to meet
that challenge. But, I’ll work with brother Bernie Sanders and others both out
of love and because I know in his heart he’s got a certain deep commitment to
working people. But now, even as an independent socialist, he’s behaving as a
New Deal liberal.
AMY GOODMAN: What does that mean?
CORNEL WEST: That
means that he is a — well, a Democratic Socialist is a radical who’s critical
of the system. A New Deal liberal works within the system and doesn’t want to
bring massive critique for structural change. And I can understand it because
he’s inside. But those of us who are outside and free, we’re going to tell the
truth. We’re going to be honest. We will have certain kind of moral and
spiritual integrity. And no matter how marginal that makes us, we’re not, in
any way, going to become well-adjusted to this injustice out here.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re
going to break and come back to what’s happened in North Carolina, and then
you’re headed to North Dakota. So, we’ll talk about that. Dr. Cornel West,
Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He endorsed Bernie Sanders, and was
served on the Democratic Platform Committee. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be
back in a minute.
