In an interview with Time for 10 Questions in the October 13 edition, Time’s Belinda Luscombe asked Marxist professor (and Tavis Smiley’s public radio co-host) Cornel West whether he voted for Obama in 2012.
Did you vote for Obama in ‘12?
I didn’t vote for anybody. I couldn’t vote for a war criminal. He’s tied to war crimes and drones dropping bombs on innocent people. But no way I’d vote for Romney.
In a video aired at Time.com, you get more than the published magazine offers. He suggested Obama’s assassination of Americans with “no due process” amounts to a “police state.”
CORNEL WEST: He takes over this system, and he cannot change it by himself. That’s why it’s not so much a personal attack. It’s a critique of the priorities that he had. a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national surveillance presidency that violates rights and liberties vis a vis those dissenting voices – four Americans assassinated, no due process, no accountability. You see, for me, that’s movements toward a police state, toward a neo-fascist state. It has to be said.
It has to be said...but Time doesn’t have to print it all. Only the bolded part was published. Time and Luscombe never really explained where Cornel West lands on the ideological spectrum (another academic Marxist). But they suggested he's a prophet, based on his book's title Black Prophetic Fire.
Luscombe asked "Is a prophet always marginalized?" West said yes. She followed up: "Have you been marginalized?" He said "I've been very blessed, but you know, you've got character assassination. You got different lies told on you. That's a kind of marginalization."
In his "four assassinations" allegation, West is referring (in part) to Anwar al-Awlaki, who inspired several homegrown terror attacks like the first Fort Hood attack that killed 13. Others, including al-Awlaki’s teenage son, were unintentionally killed in drone strikes. It’s not a surprise that West’s “assassination” talk echoes fringy LaRouche candidates for office.
