Third-party ‘spoiler’ candidate Cornel West says Democratic Party is ‘beyond redemption’

Green Party presidential candidate Cornel West came out swinging against the Democratic Party establishment and progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for endorsing President Biden.

West — a high-profile racial activist and academic who Democrats worry may spoil Biden’s re-election bid in 2024 — remarked that the Democratic Party is “beyond redemption,” during an interview Tuesday with The Hill’s “Rising.” The Green Party candidate added that Sanders’ recent argument that Biden represents progressives’ best hope to stave off authoritarianism wasn’t persuasive.

“I think that Brother Bernie’s being consistent. He has said that all along, and I can understand the argument. I think it’s a plausible argument. I just don’t think it’s a persuasive one,” West said. “I think that the argument he’s making means that there’s never any possibility for breaking from the corporate duopoly, there’s never any possibility of trying to speak to the needs of poor working people.”

“I think deep down in his heart he knows that the Democratic Party has no fundamental intention of speaking to the needs of poor people and working people,” he continued. “They are dominated by their corporate wing, they’re dominated by the militarists when it comes to foreign policy. He and [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and the others are going to be, in a certain sense, window dressing.”

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West further argued that the Democratic Party cannot be saved from certain forces within and that voters should be given an alternative to established parties.

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“The Democratic Party is beyond redemption at this point when it comes to seriously speaking to the needs of poor and working people,” West stated. “The neofascism that’s escalating is predicated on the rottenness of a system in which the Democratic Party facilitates frustration and desperation because it can’t present an alternative. If America is not able to present an alternative to the Democratic Party, then we’re going fascism.

“Now, Brother Bernie understands that, don’t get me wrong, he’s on my side in that sense. But at this particular historical moment, he’s on the side of the Democratic establishment rather than the critics of that establishment trying to generate an alternative.”

West’s comments come as national polling continues to show him taking a key share of the vote from Biden. 

According to a poll conducted last week by the Emerson College Polling Center, in a head-to-head matchup between former President Donald Trump and Biden, Trump would receive 44%, Biden would receive 39% and West would receive 4% of the vote. The margin is significantly smaller without West in the race, the survey showed.

West first announced his candidacy in June, running originally for the People’s Party before switching to the Green Party.

Since then, as West has gained support, Democrats like Sanders and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Jim McGovern, D-Mass., have expressed concern about his ability to potentially hurt Biden’s re-election chances.