I realize that Kanye West is to to many people of his generation what The Beatles were to mine. His revolutionary genre-busting music has arguably changed the face of hip-hop in the same way The Beatles changed the face of rock. And his influence on modern popular culture is profound.
Like the rest of their generation, the Beatles were political, although their general message was mostly anti-war and the anodyne “all you need is love” rather than explicit endorsement of particular issues. Kanye, on the other hand, wants to be president of the United States.
But as much as West’s contribution to music and popular culture are legitimately great, his politics and political style are depressingly akin to Donald Trump. He also has mental health issues and an extremely limited understanding of history and politics and virtually everything else. And like his fellow rich narcissist he doesn’t seem to know that and believes his “gut” and “talent” to be so superior that he needs nothing else.
Unlike Trump, Kanye is truly successful on his own merit, something that Trump, the heir to a fortune, cannot say. And there isn’t any evidence that West is a fraud and a conman. But they are more alike than different: famous, arrogant, wealthy, spoiled, childlike, mentally unstable, grandiose and megalomaniacal. I hope we’ve learned that this is a very scary combination in someone with political ambitions, a vast amount of money and a large fan base.
Before Trump, I might have said that Kanye West as president was a joke. But I said the same thing about Trump, so …
Anyway, he’s “running” this time, probably in the midst of a manic episode and manipulated by Trump people who think he will siphon off younger voters in the Black community the way Jill Stein siphoned off younger voters in the white community in places where it ended up making the difference between winning and losing. I think that’s kind of silly but they are stupid and desperate so they’re doing anything and everything to shake up the election.
There are people who think Kanye actually siphons off votes from Trump and for good reason. For one thing, Kanye appeals to young white people too. And there are plenty of young white potential Trump voters who would like what they hear from Kanye. He’s not a liberal. He’s like Trump, an amalgam of philosophies that doesn’t have any intellectual consistency but appeals in a sort of contrarian non-political, “pox on both their houses” Chinese menu sort of way.
Frankly, I don’t think he’ll have much effect at all, but you never know. What I do wonder is if he might emerge as something more formidable in a few years. American political culture is very confused. Anything can happen.
Anyway, this article in the Atlantic about Kanye’s campaign is quite interesting if you’re of a mind to look into this:
[W]hatever West’s emotional or mental status is from moment to moment, his campaign must, on some level, be thought of as real. He’s been talking about running in 2020 since 2015. Even despite a rash of missed deadlines and accusations of forged signatures, canvassing efforts have resulted in him getting onto the ballot in at least four states thus far, with more potentially to come. He’s currently polling at 2 percent nationally, and although he may have little chance of victory, he could have an impact on which major-party candidate is elected in November, given how slim the margins can be in crucial swing states. The vote differential between Trump and Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin in 2016, for example, was slightly smaller than the number of write-in ballots cast there, and much smaller than the total number of votes for third-party candidates.
Indeed, West’s constituency so far appears to largely consist of people rooting for him to cause chaos in November. Jared Kushner met with West in private last weekend, and veteran GOP operatives have been helping him organize and petition. The Billings Gazette reported that one of West’s signature gatherers was yelling out to passersby in Montana, “You want to help Trump? … We’re trying to take votes away from creepy Uncle Joe.” The assumption that West will help Trump appears to rest on the idea that Black people will vote for a Black celebrity with his own take on Black political advancement, but thus far West is polling at only 2 percent among Black voters. One survey suggests that Trump, more than Biden, stands to lose votes with West in the race.
The question of which candidate a West run “hurts” is in fact at the core of West’s bid—not because of the electoral math, but because of West’s stated ideology. If he has had a consistent message in the past four years, it’s that Black people should not vote for Democrats in the overwhelming numbers that they have historically. The party of Biden and Barack Obama, he’s said over and over, has a “plantation” mentality and hasn’t delivered on promises of racial justice. Yet to assume that Black people will flock to West is to assume that Black people are as unthinking as West claims Black Democrats to be. In 2018, he said that 400 years of slavery sounded like a “choice.” At his South Carolina rally last month, he yelled that Harriet Tubman did not actually free slaves so much as hand them off to different white masters. Such comments have received fierce condemnation as ahistorical and offensive. They demonstrate a fundamentally conservative outlook that implies defeating racism is a matter of individual mindset.
In fact, a quick scan of West’s campaign site gives a rather Republican impression. His 10-point policy agenda is listed under the headline “Creating a Culture of Life,” and it features a Bible verse for each item. The No. 1 priority is restoring school prayer, and other ideas include supporting faith-based groups, a strong national defense, and “America First” diplomacy. Also mentioned, however, are seemingly progressive goals: equitable policing, funding the arts, protecting the environment. To put much stock into any of these thinly sketched bullet points would be naive, especially given that West recently told Forbes he’s ignorant on issues such as taxes and foreign policy. But the list does feel in line with his creative sensibility and teacherly aspirations over the years. He wants to “break the simulation” and help the people see the world anew. Or maybe not anew, exactly. He wants to help people see the world the way Kanye sees it.
There is, of course, a group of people already accustomed to seeing the world how Kanye sees it—his fans. But even with them, it’s not clear how much political clout he has. When West put on a make america great again hat in 2018, it was natural to wonder what would happen to his supporters, many of whom are young, extremely online men, a demographic especially prone to right-wing radicalization. At one point, West shouted out the so-called “alt-right” pundit Candace Owens, a Black woman who argues that the Black Lives Matter movement is filled with “losers.” She then saw a sudden influx of followers on social media. As I wrote back then, “it’s not unreasonable to think that [West’s] tweet may well have a measurable effect on this country’s politics.”
If Trump can do it, I see no reason that Kanye West couldn’t become a real candidate in the future if he wants to. Obviously, there are no barriers to winning the White House if you’re rich and famous and believe you are a god.