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Did NYT Call for a Revolution This Week?
Like King, we need to put on our cemetery clothes and be coffin-ready for the next great democratic battle.
Swept somewhat aside by Hurricane Irene was Thursday’s fiery guest essay in the NYTimes by scholar and activist Cornel West, who called for “a revolution” in tribute to the memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Why isn’t this argument seen as politically loaded as what the Tea Party is putting out there on a daily basis? What does it mean when the NYT gives space to such an opinion? Are the editors so sure that the “revolution” will not happen that it is not a risk to their security to publish it? Is it possible that they agree with the call to radical action?
Read Cornel West’s opinion here, and get the NYT if you want more.
I don’t see any problems here. Quoting more at length, West says,
“King’s response to our crisis can be put in one word: revolution. A revolution in our priorities, a re-evaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes a transfer of power from oligarchs and plutocrats to everyday people and ordinary citizens. ”
That to me seems a far cry from the “Second Amendment remedies” talk occasionally bandied about by some of the more unhinged members of the Tea Party faction.
More importantly, West is right about Obama coming up woefully short of enacting any sort of meaningful change that will undo the effects of the thirty-year war that’s been waged on the middle class.
Mike: Not saying there’s a problem with West’s agenda. What’s curious to me is that commentary like this from West doesn’t stick the way the Tea Party members’ anger has been amplified by media outlets and as a result has stuck.