Cornel West: We're Going to Fight for "Brother Bernie" Until the Last Moment

By Ben Norton, Salon

26 May 16

Cornel West says "Sanders has been the candidate of integrity." He will "go down fighting until the" end

ust to tell the truth, Trump is a narcissistic neo-fascist in the making, and you just have to say that. That’s what it is,” said renowned scholar and activist Cornel West.

“Hillary Clinton is a milquetoast neoliberal” who is pushing for “hawkish policies around the world; you just have to say that,” he added.

West sat down with Salon last week for an interview. The prominent philosopher and dissident condemned the capitalist system and the “big money” that rules society for leaving Americans with the miserable choice between the two leading presidential candidates.

He also blasted the corporate media for fueling the rise of GOP front-runner Donald Trump, describing him as the out-of-control Frankenstein’s monster who is “coming back to haunt you.”

West, who endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president, and endearingly refers to him as “Brother Bernie,” said he will continue backing the self-proclaimed democratic socialist candidate until the end.

“Bernie Sanders has been the candidate of integrity and vision when it comes to poor working people,” West stressed.

“Those of us who are blessed to work with Brother Bernie are going to go down fighting until the last moment, because we’re tied to a cause, not just a candidate,” he added.

The longtime professor and theologian, who has taught at Harvard, Princeton, the Sorbonne and more, was joined in the interview by jazz composer Arturo O’Farrill, whose “Cornel West Concerto” premiered Saturday at New York City’s legendary Apollo Theater.

West and O’Farrill, a socially engaged Grammy Award-winning musician whose new work highlights West’s impassioned political speeches, discussed the commodification of art and the degeneration of the corporate-controlled music industry. Salon covered this conservation in another article.

Activism, the corporate media and Trump

Prof. West also addressed the dismal state of U.S. electoral politics and the tempestuous 2016 presidential election.

“This is the age of Ferguson, and some people are affected by some of the larger social movements that are taking place in different parts of the country, and much of the world,” West said, stressing the importance of activism.

Progressives should be “letting people know why it is that we have such limited options in terms of the ballot box and what forms of activism can we engage in to be thermostats and shape the climate of opinion, rather than just be thermometers and register and reflect that climate of opinion,” West said.

When asked why he thinks the political options are so limited, West blamed the capitalist system, emphasizing, “We’re ruled by big money.”

He slammed the corporate media that has enthusiastically profited from Trump’s meteoric rise.

“Trump is a Frankenstein of corporate media and there is no way he would have the status that he did if they didn’t cover every word, every tweet,” West explained.

“Of course the CEO of CBS made it very clear, very, very clear, that Donald Trump is bad for America but he is very good for us,” he added.

Les Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, has spoken favorably Donald Trump’s campaign, calling it “good for us economically.” He applauded the profitability of the “circus” of the 2016 presidential campaign, noting it “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS, that’s all I got to say.”