Kanye West has been dropping hints since a long time about running for president in 2020, and on July 4th he finally made it official. He promulgated on twitter that he would be running for president as an independent, making ‘#2020VISION’ go viral.
Soon after his announcement, he was vilified not only not the account of his probity but also his mental state. His first campaign in South Carolina turned out to be extremely incendiary, attracting legions of people who commented ‘#PrayForYe’. So what exactly happened?
Though mettlesome in the beginning with 2020 shaved onto his head, Kanye made some women from the audience speak about their issues some of which were gender inequality, education, and police brutality. However, this turned out to be ephemeral, as soon after he forayed into a long speech talking about his battle with drugs, his business dealings and some really sensitive topics like almost aborting his first child which threw his family in an imbroglio. At this point he was in tears advocating that everyone who bears a child should get a million dollars.
Even though his erratic behaviour can be attributed to his bipolar disorder, people were extremely quick to lampoon his mental state calling him ‘loose headed’ and ‘retarded’. Now this caught my attention because I didn’t know that the concept of mental health was different when it came to men. The fact that people were so eager to defame and laugh at his mercurial behaviour is something I will never be able to wrap my head around. A manic episode isn’t a joke right? And it is disturbing to see that people didn’t even make a slight effort to offer sympathy. If you cannot understand, just be silent.
But this doesn’t give him a free pass, and there are concrete reasons as to why he might not be the right candidate to run for the president. Yes, it is unimpeachable that he is a musical genius. He has consistently delivered great work and has be lauded time and again, but this does not hide the fact that he has said some really problematic things. He suggested that slavery was choice, and is whole heartedly against abortion and joined an anti-LGBTQ+ pastor on a massive prayer rally. Also not to forget, but on November 17th 2016 he told his fans that although he didn’t vote in the 2016 elections, he would have chosen Trump if he did otherwise. The only conclusion one can draw out of this is that he and the media are playing a very dangerous game.
So what now? This sure isn’t a time for distractions and Kanye for sure isn’t being much of a help. One must understand that he is fully aware that he wouldn’t succeed, and a vote in his favour would be tantamount to voting for Trump as it will split the votes for Joe Biden. Considering that he has no political background and has no idea on how to run a country, it becomes pretty self explanatory that voting for him, even as a joke, might have indelible consequences on millions of people.
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