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We are entering a period of change in the U.S. The standard of living has been in decline for a generation with no sign of slowing. In fact, our decline seem to be escalating, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, during which millions died while the conglomerates in charge raked in the profits. It was the largest upward transfer of wealth from regular working-class Americans to the oligarchic billionaires in U.S. history. We're putting the Gilded Age to shame.
As a result, people have lost faith in the government, the media, and our leadership in general. The vast majority of Americans spend most of their lives struggling paycheck to paycheck, exhausting themselves for eight hours a day to make somebody else rich. We drudge through a world we feel increasingly alienated from, unable to afford health care, recreation, or any emergency that may come up.
It's a far cry from a country that was founded on the fundamental right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
What right to life is there while mega-conglomerates hold medical care ransom? What right to liberty when a handful of obscenely wealthy oligarchs hold every ounce of political power and wield it on behalf of their own interests? It's all about the Benjamins for them, as I was embarrassingly fond of saying in my early 20's. But what would Benjamin Franklin say if he could see the lawmakers who carry out these interests today? Nothing good, I think.
Perhaps worst of all, our problems aren't localized in one or the other political party. The Democrats may blame everything on the Republicans while Republicans blame everything on the Democrats, yet to so many regular Americans, whichever side ends up getting elected seems to govern in almost exactly the same: They allow giant financial institutions to rob us blind while we the people get more and more destitute by the year.
Media outlets, once a powerful tool for holding power to account, has become an apologetics machine for whichever "side" funds them. It's no surprise that the media has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of the people. How could it not? It is entirely on the side of the haves vs. the have nots—whether you're watching Fox News or MSNBC.
The sides aren't Right or Left but the powerful vs. the powerless, and only something new will give the people back their power. And we know it. It's why Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump each gained such a following. Their followers perceived them as outsiders who would shake things up and fight for the American people against the establishment.
Now there is a candidate who not only says he will stand up for the many against the few, but has a long history of doing so. Professor, philosopher, and political activist Dr. Cornel West announced this week he would be running for president of the United States, and I could not be more supportive.
West has been on the side of the people longer than many of us have been alive. He's spent decades doing activism on behalf of working people, especially the most marginalized among us. Unlike his opponents, West owes allegiance to no corporations, no conglomerates, and no financial institutions. They are not only not funding him, but actively attacking him. And he has committed his campaign to fighting for those same causes that he's devoted his life to: dignity for all, including the downtrodden.
Is he perfect? No. Of course not. Do I disagree with him on certain things? You bet I do. But does that matter? Nope. Not even slightly. Because his candidacy represents something bigger than any individual policy. Expecting everyone to agree on everything before the fight begins is not just an error, but a fetish for purity that disregards the real world and prevents us ever fighting at all.
West's campaign is the step forward we need right now, a left hook at just the right moment. West running makes a statement loud and clear: "We don't need your institutions. We don't need your hand-chosen, elite politicos that do nothing but make things worse for regular working people. We can have our own leaders. And we can win."
West jumping into the race is a sign to all of us regular folks that our voices can be heard.
The establishment will fight this every step of the way. Already, there are well-funded faux-progressive campaigns trying to turn the Left against him. But win or lose, this is only the beginning—a turning point in an ongoing struggle. All of us are being thrust into this struggle, whether we want to be or not. There are the people, and there are the monopoly corporations. West stands on the people's side of the line—unlike every Democrat and Republican.
West is only the beginning. His campaign is a call to action to regular Americans who aren't part of the establishment or backed by multi-million corporations to stand up and have their voices heard. I, for one, will answer that call.
Noah Khrachvik is a co-director and theorist for the Midwestern Marx Institute for Marxist Theory and Political Analysis.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
