Does Kanye's candidacy for the US presidential election really make sense? nss asked Francesco Costa, vide-director IlPost and expert on American politics
On July 4, 2020, during the American Independence Day - a holiday that much of the African-American community does not recognize, preferring Juneteenth instead, the day the end of slavery is celebrated - Kanye again announced his candidacy for the White House, also for 2020, while also receiving the support of Elon Musk. It was August 31, 2015 when Kanye West announced - for the first but not last time - his candidacy for the White House for the 2020 election. Things have happened to Kanye and the White House since that announcement: Ye was first hospitalized for a mental breakdown, then came back announcing an unexpected support for Donald Trump, who had since become the President of the United States.
Despite being instantly picked up by the media around the world, the news of Kanye's candidacy for the presidency is, most likely, non-news.
Kanye's would be the most striking example of a celebrity's candidacy. In recent days, Reagan and Schwarzenegger's candidacies have been talked about as other examples of nominations for people without political backgrounds. But the two weren't exactly Kanye when they applied...
Even Trump if we want to is a celebrity lent to politics. Fame is a very powerful weapon because it allows a person, in a country that is bigger than China and where 320 million people live, to be recognized, not to have to present themselves to Americans as novice politicians. The point is, are you known for what? Reagan and Schwarzenegger were two actors, two successful people, and the roles they had played had given them a certain image that they then exploited in the election, even if that was a fictitious, fake image. This is very good for Trump: Trump is an entrepreneur who is not particularly wealthy by American standards, especially not at all successful. Trump has bankrolled bankrupts, bankrupts casinos, he's not a successful entrepreneur by any standards today. He is a real estate developer like so many others. Having done "The Apprentice" for 10 years, the hit reality show where he taught others how to do business, for 10 years he was able to enjoy a television broadcast that gave him an image of the ruthless, unscrupulous, efficient businessman who was not his, but which he used a lot, because Trump in the election campaign presented himself as the Trump of The Apprentice. Celebrity is therefore a big vehicle of political popularity, but what has Kanye built in recent years, an image that can bring him advantages from a political point of view? An image of efficiency? Creative ideas to solve complicated problems? Celebrity may be important, but it depends on what you're famous for.
Kanye has never shown real political activism, except when I go against George W Bush for the handling of Hurricane Katrina and recently for the proximity to Trump, from which he then broke away. When the game of guessing who Kanye might steal votes from began, on the one hand there were those who said that he would undoubtedly take them away from Trump, why the Candace Owens of this world would vote for him and support him, and those who said that he would certainly take them away from Biden, taking away all the votes of African Americans.
How fair is it, to date, to represent black voters as a single monolithic bloc?
If so, the Democratic Party nominee would always be black, because African Americans largely vote for the Democratic Party - not because they're all center-left but because it's the only party that listens to them. Yet the Dem party candidate has only been black once. Then, that a piece of that electorate might be attracted to a different candidacy than Biden's, because demographics, by themes, by age, can be there. Just as there may be that Kanye West - because he expressed words of support for Trump, as well as supporting him in a reform of American prisons with his wife - could take votes away from there. The point is that voting for a character like Kanye would somehow be a protest vote, as it was for Trump. This election does not seem to me to be a protest vote, with the pandemic, the worst economic crisis in a hundred years. Those who vote are motivated by more "earthly" demands than the protest vote. So, Kanye or not Kanye, I don't think this election round will feature a protest vote.
