freelansing in Seattle

Interesting developments on the margins of the presidential race: Cornel West has left the Green Party to run as an independent, and RFK, Jr. has exited the Democratic primaries to also run an independent campaign.

West’s decision seems disappointing. He had the chance to help build a real progressive party with the Greens. An independent campaign builds nothing. Also, it seems strategically confounding, since running with the Greens would have given him a lot of existing infrastructure, and most importantly, a lot of ballot access. Running as an independent means creating everything from scratch and needing to run petition campaigns in every state of the country just to get on the ballot. So not sure what West is thinking here. But all this is probably good news for Biden; West seems likely to be even less a factor than before.

Kennedy decision also seems quixotic. Maybe he genuinely feels he is moving away from the Democratic Party, but his choice to run as an independent looks more driven by ego. He knows he’s not going to win the Democratic nomination and wants to be in the Big Game in November 2024. His independent run will have a much bigger impact than West’s; pundits are calling it the biggest independent bid since Ross Perot.

Curiously, pundits also seem split about whether Kennedy’s campaign will help Republicans or Democrats more. Right-wing figures like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon have been promoting RFK’s campaign, but are likely to change their tune with RFK in a position to take votes from Trump. Expect to see a lot of attacks on RFK coming from the right; Democrats, likewise, will emphasize his pro-gun and anti-vax positions to keep him from eating into the Democratic base.

Interesting times.