West’s entry should be music to Biden
Rapper’s bid a good thing for Democrat.
When Kanye West said he’d run for president this weekend, the reaction was mixed.
Mostly, there were guffaws and eye-rolling. Over the years, Kanye has teased a takeover bid for the White House more times than North Korea has threatened the West. He can’t be serious now, right?
But in a wide-ranging interview published by Forbes on Wednesday, the rapper, designer and mumbling mogul claimed his political ambitions were real.
Among the bullets: 1. He no longer supports Donald Trump 2. His campaign banner is, ahem, “the Birthday Party.” 3. Slogan: “YES!” 4. He’s getting guidance from Elon Musk and wife Kim Kardashian. 5. He “envisions a White House organizational model based on the secret country of Wakanda in ‘Black Panther.’ ” And somewhere a woozy George Washington fumbled for the smelling salts.
U.S. presidential elections are like the Olympics. They happen every four years and competitors train long and hard. You don’t just hit up Walmart for a bow and arrow and expect to win the gold in archery after about 120 days of amateur prep.
But in the Forbes story, Kanye is oblivious to statistical odds and practical considerations, including the fact he’s already missed the deadline to get on the ballot in several states and has neither a campaign team nor a war chest. It’s like he’s trying to become a chess champ with a box of Tiddlywinks.
Kanye has no detailed platform. His philosophy: “I don’t know if I would use the word policy for the way I would approach things. I don’t have a policy when I went to Nike and designed Yeezy and went to Louis and designed a Louis Vuitton at the same time.”
Yes, because health care, trade or immigration are the same as running shoes.
So, basically, a Kanye presidency would be all gut and instinct. He’d show up for briefings in a black T-shirt and cut off experts with impromptu raps about Jesus. He’d rebrand the White House as the People’s Church of Yeezy and give sermons to baffled visiting dignitaries in the Oval Office as the First Lady posts bikini snaps to Instagram from the Rose Garden. Fist-bumps would replace handshakes and executive orders would rhyme and presidential tweeting would somehow increase in volume.
Fair enough. It couldn’t be any more disastrous than the last four years.
But if Kanye 2020 really happens, what does this mean for Joe Biden and Donald Trump?
Beyond the guffaws and eye-rolling, another reaction from Hollywood liberals this week was fear and loathing. Their concern? Kanye could morph into a hip-hop Ralph Nader, siphoning votes from Biden and handing Trump a second term, which would be the end of America.
I had the same sinking feeling — until I read the Forbes story. Now I think Team Biden should help Kanye enter the race.
Consider: The rapper says he got the coronavirus in February. Did this first-hand experience of fevers and shakes galvanize his appreciation of science and medicine? Nope. Here’s Kanye on vaccines: “It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralyzed … So when they say the way we’re going to fix COVID is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious. That’s the mark of the beast.”
Wow. You know who else is anti-vaxxer? Trump and many of his supporters.
Here’s Kanye on foreign policy: “I’m focused on protecting America, first, with our great military.”
Gosh, where have I heard that before?
Kanye is “pro-life” because he’s “following the word of the
Bible.” On taxes, he plans to “research that with the strongest experts that serve God and come back with the best solution.” On defeating COVID-19: “It’s all about God. We need to stop doing things that make God mad.” And somewhere God sighed and rubbed his forehead.
Though Kanye has disdain for the Democratic party and nominee — “Joe Biden’s not special” — what he also has is zero appeal to those supporters.
Sure, Kanye may snag a few younger voters who are fans. But his word salad of antiscience, pro-Christianity, antiexpertise, pro-wing-it, antiestablishment, pro-superstition will appeal way more to the Trump Cult that can no longer stomach how their Supreme Leader botched this global outbreak, plunging the country into an abyss with no obvious exit strategy.
If you’re headed for bust after gambling on a reality TV host, why not put your remaining chips on a rapper? Kanye used to wear that same red MAGA cap until he decided to take it off this week.
He’s one of them. He wants to move in a new direction, but from the same starting point.
Meanwhile, for evangelicals who are disillusioned with Trump — but wrongly convinced liberalism is anathema to their faith — Kanye is a no-brainer.
He’s saying America needs to be a Christian fundamentalist state. And for the voters who went with Trump because they believed he’d drain the swamp — how did that work out? — Kanye promises to be even more of a disrupter-in-chief since he knows even less about politics or how the world works.
The conventional wisdom is Kanye 2020 would be a bludgeon to Biden.
I seriously doubt that. If Kanye does manage to enter this race, his banner should not be the Birthday Party — it should be the Funeral. He’s not going to help Trump because he is Trump 2.0.
With Joe Biden’s help, Kanye West could be the final nail in the MAGA coffin.
If Kanye West does manage to enter this race, his banner should not be the Birthday Party — it should be the Funeral