‘Beyond Redemption:’ Cornel West Says the Democrat Party is Unable to Meet the Needs of the Poor

Third party presidential candidate Cornel West claims that  the Democrat party is “beyond redemption,” accusing the party of being unable to “speak to the needs of poor and working people.”

The explosive commentary from West during an interview with the Hill TV’s Rising comes after Bernie Sanders endorsed President Joe Biden for a second term at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics. According to Sanders, President Biden is America’s only hope for preserving democracy against the Republican party’s front-runner, former President Donald Trump. 

“I think it’s a plausible argument,” West said. “I just don’t think it’s a persuasive one. I think that the argument he’s making means that there’s never any possibility for breaking the corporate duopoly, that there’s never any possibility of trying to speak to the needs of the poor working people.” 

West mentioned that while on the campaign trail in Mississippi, he saw that officials are dealing with issues like police brutality and poverty that the Democrat party won’t address. 

“They are dominated by the corporate wing, they’re dominated by the militarists when it comes to foreign policy, and that [Sanders] and AOC and the others are going to be, in a certain sense, window dressing at worst, and at best, people to appeal to every four years,” West said. “But the Democratic Party is beyond redemption at this point, when it comes to seriously speaking to the needs of poor and working people.”

In earlier comments, West claimed that Sanders’ support for Biden was only in reaction to his “fear of … neo-fascism of Trump.” 

Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union” the threat of America losing democracy was the most prevailing issue, the Hill reported. 

“You know, Donald Trump is not somebody who believes in democracy,” Sanders said. “Whether women are going to be able to continue to control their own bodies, whether we have social justice in America, we end bigotry — around that, I think, we have got to bring the entire progressive community to defeat Trump or whoever the Republican nominee will be.”