As West climbed on to the back of a pick-up truck to address the hundreds of people feeling the Bern, demonstrators unraveled a huge banner in front of him asking, “Will you feel the Bern for Palestine?”
West warmly welcomed the statement, responding, “Brother Bernie Sanders, he realizes that a precious Palestinian baby has the same value as a precious Israeli baby,” and hugged the protesters, who seemed content with the response and took a seat to listen to what he had to say.— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) November 14, 2015
— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) November 14, 2015
The charismatic scholar went on to defend democratic socialism, noting great minds who shared Sanders’ — as well as his own — political philosophy. He announced to the excited crowd, “I want the world to know Martin Luther King Jr. was a democratic socialist! Albert Einstein was a democratic socialist! Helen Keller was a democratic socialist!"
Unlike Sanders, West did not hold back on calling Hillary Clinton out for what many criticize as flip-flopping on issues like gay marriage and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, calling the former secretary of state an opportunist who changes her mind with the polls.
“Then I hear sister Hillary and the others talking about… now I want to be pragmatic. No, one of the founders of American pragmatism, John Dewey, was a democratic socialist! Don’t confuse opportunism with pragmatism.”
“Neoliberal politicians are too opportunistic, and they’re involved in ‘evolving.’ I can’t believe in same sex marriage today, but I evolved and I changed my mind — no you checked the polls, that’s what you did!” West stated.
The well-established intellectual was all love for Sanders, however, singing his praises in the highest form.
“Don’t give evolve a bad reputation. We want somebody with integrity, we want somebody with vision! We want somebody who is going to be themselves, because they are themselves, and they have such a wonderful self to be!” West said, to huge applause from the crowd.
Following the debate, Sputnik caught up with West at the viewing party, at which Sanders himself made an appearance following the debate. We asked him what he thought of the candidate’s performance.
“There was some truth-telling right there,” West effused.
