IDK. I asked one of the Cornel West boosters for why they supported him, and they linked me to a speech that was a mixture of incoherence, empty self-boosterism, and random things that pretty much everyone agrees with (“it’s a problem that there’s no much money in politics, the whole thing is corrupt” like yes dude I think we figured that out at this point).

Out of curiosity, I read some of “Race Matters” which I guess was part of what put him on the map originally, and I thought it was genius. The parts of it I happened to read just sampling it were honestly some of the best stuff on the issue I’ve ever read. One random example, he talked about the spread of cynicism and nihilism in the black community as a huge impact of these systemic problems, and then how it can compound a lot of the problems that they face and make it difficult to ever navigate their way out of it on an individual level. I have never heard anyone with a public voice talk about it the way he did, without then turning it around as a reason to blame the black community for their own problems (by pretending that it arose from nowhere, or because of racial reasons, as opposed to being an incredibly logical and natural reaction to the way they’re being treated by social and governmental systems). And, he basically said that it’s the black community’s problem to overcome that challenge, since it’s there and present, and there’s no one else who can come in from outside and solve it for them. Even though it’s not their fault.

So I do respect him intellectually (at least as of the point when he wrote that book). I don’t feel like the people who were boosting him as a spoiler candidate are even aware of any of that, though, and I think the reason they were promoting him are potentially pretty much the exact same reasons why some people might start promoting Smith.