Cornel West: ‘I’m Not Convinced That the Democratic Party Can Be Reformed’

Earlier this week on the syndicated progressive public affairs program “Democracy Now!” Cornel West weighed in on the current state of the Democratic Party in the wake of last month’s presidential election loss.

West argued that unlike Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who ran to the left of the party’s eventual nominee Hillary Clinton, he did not see the party being reformed.

Partial transcript as follows:

CORNEL WEST: Well, I think there’s going to be a lot of different responses. I have a deep love and respect for brother Bernie Sanders. I always will. I don’t always agree with him. I’m not convinced that the Democratic Party can be reformed. I think it still has a kind of allegiance to a neoliberal orientation. It still has allegiance to Wall Street, the very victory of Nancy Pelosi is a sign that neoliberalism is still hegemonic in the party. I hope that Keith Ellison is able to present a challenge to it. But, my hunch is —

AMY GOODMAN: — as head of — if he makes it is head of the Democratic National Committee.

CORNEL WEST: If he’s head of the DNC. But my hunch is the Democratic Party has simply run out of gas. I mean, this is a party that couldn’t even publicly oppose TPP when we debated that in the Platform Committee. And that’s just one small example. Couldn’t stop — couldn’t vote to stop Fracking, and so on. So, it’s still so tied to big money.

(h/t RCP Video)

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