On Trump's latest indictment, and Cornel West's praise for Ron DeSantis

Get the Point!

Twice, once more...

Yesterday, former President Donald Trump, the only twice impeached Commander-in-Chief in U.S. history, became the only twice indicted president in U.S. history following his own revelation that the Justice Department has informed his lawyers that he must surrender next Tuesday in Miami on a seven count indictment in federal court.

While it is too early to take a deep dive into the charges and evidence that will be presented in this latest indictment alleging that he kept classified documents in violation of the Espionage Act after leaving the White House, it is not too early to criticize the bizarre state of affairs which finds the Republican front-runner for president facing a state prison sentence for fraud in New York; a federal prison sentence for mishandling classified documents in Florida; and still facing pending indictments for inciting the January 6th MAGA riot in Washington, and for election tampering in Atlanta, Georgia. 

The part of me that has a strong sense of irony and humor is wondering how Trump, should he become a convicted felon, could potentially serve a prison sentence if he is reelected to be the so-called leader of the free world? Would he actually be locked into a federal correctional facility? Would Secret Service Agents have to be locked up with him? Even in partial jest, these are serious questions that have yet to be answered, but must be answered if Trump is, in fact, found guilty of one or more criminal offenses. 

But in the interim, Trump's indictments are, no pun intended, a sad indictment on the modern day Republican Party. The very party that for the past 50 years has claimed to believe in "law and order" and in more recent years, made huge spectacles in support of law enforcement and "backing the blue," now overwhelmingly backs a man who has turned on law enforcement and the judicial system now that he finds himself in hot water. 

I could live another 51 years and I may never understand the political attraction to a man who not only refuses to follow the law, but one who refuses to take responsibility for any of his wrongful acts!

As to the former, there are a number of 2024 candidates that have longer conservative political histories running for the Republican nomination, including former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and former South Carolina Gov. Nimrata "Nikki" Haley, to name a few.

While I may disagree with most of the politics of the potential Republican candidates, none brings the criminal baggage and racial, religious, and sexual orientation bigotry that Trump carries, or the mean spirited racial and sexual orientation bigotry that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis brings to the forum. And yet, just about every major poll in America shows that Trump and DeSantis are holding down the top two slots among likely Republican Primary voters—which is quite telling!

As to the latter, in every single criminal case that's pending, all that Trump had to do was comply with really basic laws such as reporting where campaign funds were being distributed, what classified documents were taken (and turning them over upon request), and by allowing the lawful and peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden in 2021. 

Even worse, in the two pending indictments and the two potential ones involving the 2020 election, had Trump just shut his mouth and stayed off of social media, he might not find himself in the predicament that he is currently facing. A predicament, mind you, that has nothing to do with the Biden administration, any "Democratic witch hunt," or anything other than the fact that Trump's worst enemy is Trump because he is too dim to understand that the right to remain silent helps him far more than it hurts in any potential criminal case. 

Dr. Cornel West for President?

Earlier this week, Dr. Cornel West announced that he will run for President as a candidate for the People's Party next year. 

West will lose—just as third party/independent candidates like Jill Stein, Ralph Nader, and Ross Perot famously lost over the past 30 years. 

Now, I understand the wishes that many Americans have that the two party stranglehold on national politics gets broken, but wishing and getting are horses of a different color altogether. When I was a kid, I desperately wished to fly like Superman, but I was wise enough to know that if I jumped off the roof of our house, that my head would crack like an egg when I hit the concrete. The same holds true for those who are attracted to Dr. West as a viable alternative, trust, he isn't!

I have read Dr. West's words with great interest through the years, and I have agreed with him on many subjects, and disagreed on others. My most recent disagreement stems from an Op/Ed that he published in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks back where West, the same man who has called Gov. DeSantis a "Fascist" and worse in the past, reversed course by heaping glowing praise on the tempestuous governor's push to allow Florida high school students to qualify for scholarships by using scores from the Classic Learning Test. 

Now, a man of Dr. West's intelligence surely knows that DeSantis has only supported metrics like the Classical Learning Test while pushing for Christian based accrediting to replace Advanced Placement Tests and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accrediting because he believes that the latter are guiding forces for left wing "woke" teaching. West is too well read to not know that DeSantis has had a running war on “woke" and authors like, well, himself, those whose works loosely fall into the "Critical Race Theory" category that Republicans are using to shut down the accurate teaching of Black history while further limiting free speech in Florida's public schools.

But that didn't stop Dr. West from endorsing DeSantis's pitch on the Classical Learning Test because...wait for it...West is a member of the board that oversees the Classical Learning Test. Meaning, West is getting paid for writing laudatory editorials that surely will be pinned on DeSantis campaign literature in due season!

Again, Dr. West has a snowball's chance in Hell of being elected president, but I share the sentiments of those who fear that by running, he will siphon votes from the same rather large percentage of Black males who won't vote for President Biden or the Republican nominee, but will vote for West and by so doing, make the general election race easier for a Trump or a DeSantis to stay competitive—if not win outright.

Should it be the latter, here's hoping that Dr. West finds his own financial gain and push for notoriety worth the struggle that a second Trump administration, or a first DeSantis administration, would rain down on the very Black people that he has passionately advocated on behalf of throughout his public intellectual career.